Western is announcing its first-ever Generative AI Teaching Fellows, a new program to cultivate innovative projects and enhance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching and learning across campus.
Ivey professor Guneet Kaur Nagpal, history professor William Turkel and health sciences professor Andrews Tawiah begin their two-year fellowships through Western’s Centre for Teaching and Learning on July 1.
“AI is a general purpose technology. Alone, it doesn’t do much. But paired with human creativity and determination, it is a powerful enabler of change,” said Western’s chief AI officer Mark Daley, who was part of the committee that screened applicants and ultimately selected the fellows.
“I can’t wait to see what these brilliant fellows develop,” he added.
They’ll undertake specific projects to expand the use of AI in the classroom while providing workshops and professional development opportunities across campus.
The new Generative AI Teaching Fellowship is a way to respond to the wide-ranging impact of AI in higher education. The Centre for Teaching and Learning is also in the midst of running its first GenAI Challenge, open to students, staff, faculty and community members, to drive conversations and incorporate diverse viewpoints on AI.
“The projects proposed by our GenAI Teaching Fellows help prepare our students for a world where AI is not just a tool, it’s a collaborator,” said Cortney Hanna-Benson, associate director of digital learning at the Centre for Teaching and Learning.
“Western is recognizing the value and place of generative AI in education. Instead of seeing it as a threat to learning, it’s a tool that, when used intentionally and appropriately, can promote learning. Let’s take this as an opportunity to fuel innovation in higher education.”
MEET THE GENERATIVE AI TEACHING FELLOWS
Guneet Kaur Nagpal, Ivey Business School
Nagpal will build an agentic AI platform for simulated crowdfunding presentations, where students pitch their businesses in hopes of landing investors.
Agentic AI is considered the “next level” of the technology. AI agents can make decisions and work autonomously to meet goals without any sort of human intervention. Nagpal has done ongoing research on AI agents, laying the groundwork for her fellowship project.
The goal is to demystify agentic AI for students and create a tool that could eventually be used across disciplines, Nagpal said.
“I wanted students to engage with the real-world impact of AI on consumer behavior and marketing strategy. The simulation tool we were using felt outdated, so I saw an opportunity to create something more relevant – one that integrates AI in a way managers experience today,” she said.
She wants to empower students with knowledge on the technical side of AI, but also develop insight into how they can be used strategically and most effectively.
“Business students are entering a world where AI is not optional; it’s a core competency,” Nagpal said.
“I hope they’ll walk away with the confidence to question AI outputs, the curiosity to experiment with AI in creative ways and the skills to evaluate its impact on businesses and society at large.” – Guneet Kaur Nagpal, Ivey Business School marketing professor
Andrews Tawiah, Faculty of Health Sciences
A generative AI-powered learning platform is the heart of Tawiah’s project. He’ll build a tool for clinical physical therapy case simulations, which will adjust as students interact with it.
“The potential for AI to create rich, realistic scenarios and simulations with immersive and dynamic learning experiences has driven my interest in this fellowship. I am excited about using AI to generate cases, including rare and complex scenarios that students might not encounter through traditional approaches. This kind of innovation excites our team,” Tawiah said.
He’s working with Daley, physical therapy professor Dave Walton, PhD student Oyindolapo Komolafe and master’s student David Adeleye, to help colleagues “seamlessly integrate” AI into their classes.
Physical therapy is just the start. Tawiah hopes to later expand to the wider health education sector, where students need opportunities to learn through a diverse range of real-life scenarios.
Tawiah’s tool also targets a range of skill levels, as it adapts to students’ strengths, challenges and learning approaches.
“With AI as a collaborative partner, students can get real-time feedback, tackle complex problems together and feel empowered to take charge of their own learning journey. I aim to support both faculty and students with the skills and confidence to use AI thoughtfully and ethically in teaching and learning.” – Andrews Tawiah, professor in the School of Physical Therapy
William Turkel, Faculty of Social Science
Turkel plans to create five open-access, customizable teaching modules to prepare students for future work alongside AI.
“For me, much of the interest lies in figuring out how hybrid teams of humans and AIs will be able to solve problems that would be more difficult – or impossible – for either to solve by themselves.” – William Turkel, history professor
“I hope instructors and students will gain ideas and techniques for approaching ‘wicked problems’ in qualitative domains: problems where there is a lot of ambiguity, where causes are interconnected in non-obvious ways and where partial solutions may be spread across a vast, interdisciplinary literature.”
Though learning AI can seem daunting to some, Turkel’s project will allow any faculty member at Western – or beyond – to use his modules to improve AI literacy and ethical engagement among their students.
“The main challenge in learning anything is figuring out how not to quit. By tailoring its responses at whatever level you need (e.g. “Explain it to me like I am five”), and by reframing and rephrasing and repeating as many times as necessary without getting impatient, Gen AI can help you get unstuck.”
Shifting culture on AI
Nagpal, Tawiah and Turkel will develop their AI projects in the first year of the fellowship before implementing them in year two.
They’ll publish on their work and provide mentorship to researchers and instructors across campus who want to use AI in their classes.
“Infusing AI into teaching and learning is still new and constantly evolving. The projects from the AI Teaching Fellows will add to the growing body of research in this area and help shape the future of what learning looks like in higher education,” Hanna-Benson said.
“We’re hoping that the AI Teaching Fellows can be catalysts for innovation across the university. It can be inspiring for colleagues to see what their peers are doing, their work might encourage staff to engage with these tools and ultimately having faculty champions in this area helps to build institutional capacity to embrace and lead digital change.”
