Using AI as an Administrative Assistant and Critical Friend in Education Research

My work for the AI in Education Oxford University (AIEOU) Research Hub and Department of Education explores pedagogy, policy and technology. 

In practice, I have found AI useful both as an administrative assistant and as a critical friend. In its administrative capacity, ChatGPT has assisted with drafting newsletters, refining communications and producing copy for materials. It has also been valuable in helping me reshape research outputs for policymakers and practitioners. In its critical friend role, AI functions as a kind of peer reviewer for my drafts. I often ask it to read my work as a critical reviewer, highlighting weaknesses, gaps or structural issues. I then critically evaluate its observations and decide what revisions are worth pursuing. 

The benefits have been significant. The workload has been reduced, outputs improved, and communications scaled in ways that would not otherwise have been possible. Regular newsletters, timely updates and well-presented conference materials now reach thousands of collaborators around the world. 

For colleagues beginning to use ChatGPT Edu at Oxford, I would recommend taking time to train the system in the context of your work. Providing it with examples of high-quality work helps it approximate the style and standards you wish to achieve. Supplying it with context about your audience and aims is equally important. I have found it helpful to assign it a role, such as that of a critical reviewer, and to give clear instructions on what kind of output I require, whether a policy summary, newsletter or peer review commentary. The most productive exchanges arise when one treats the AI as a colleague to be debated. 

Nevertheless, it is essential to remember that the responsibility for quality and ethics rests with the researcher. AI can produce rapid and sometimes insightful work, but it is the human scholar who must take responsibility for accuracy, interpretation and the final form of the work.