CIC has been at the forefront of our institutional and sector-wide responses to the explosive arrival of generative AI.
Our work has contributed to staff and student learning, strategic policies, enterprise AI capability, pedagogical agents for students, productivity agents for staff, research advances, and recognised thought leadership nationally and internationally.
In Nov. 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, bringing large language models (LLMs) to the mainstream public, in the specific form of a chatbot. This demonstrated the importance of the user experience — a lesson that the history of computing has repeatedly taught (think Apple Mac, Mosaic web browser, iPhone…). This is why human-centred design is at the heart of CIC’s work.
The evolution of LLMs since has been rapid, opening up intriguing new possibilities for learning, but also causing immense disruption, in particular, around how students learn (or fail to), and how we should assess them.
Systemic responses to such disruption are of course essential, and cannot be tackled by any one group or discipline. We are indebted to our UTS colleagues in the Education Portfolio, Data, Analytics & Insights Unit (internal), IT Unit and all the Faculties, for the partnerships that have enabled us to achieve so much to date.
Explore below to learn more…
GenAI Apps & Analytics tuned for learning
One of our key roles is to represent teaching and learning stakeholders in the ITU/DAIU program to develop the UTS Recast enterprise AI architecture and chatbot clients. With this secure platform in place, a range of custom pedagogical conversational assistants for students have been deployed, grounded in CIC’s research in close partnerships with academics. In addition, we are moving beyond chatbots, prototyping next generation web apps with automated workflows, sophisticated prompt chains, and custom user interfaces
Jump to GenAI Apps & Analytics to learn more.
UTS Generative AI education strategy
CIC worked as part of the team that developed the initial core principles for effective, ethical engagement with GenAI, and later, the UTS strategic response to GenAI. Since early 2023, we have contributed resources, news and updates for academics and students (open access for the international higher education community), the GenAI for Teaching & Learning portal (internal) and the GenAI Canvas modules for academics and students.
UTS hosted the expert team convened by TEQSA in August 2023, also contributing to several of TEQSA’s expert webinars and the 2023 conference.
Student Voices on AI in HE
CIC is committed to engaging with students, who are crucial partners for navigating the transition now under way in university teaching, learning and assessment. We have run a series of consultation and co-design events in which students’ views have shaped our policy and governance: EdTech Ethics Deliberative Democracy • AI Ethics Consultation • Student Voice on AI: Focus Groups & Survey. The most recent work partners with University of Queensland, Monash University and Deakin University on the Student Voices on AI in HE project, surveying >8000 students in 2024, and interviewing 80 in focus groups. The results are now being shared with the sector via executive briefings, conference panels and research papers.
GenAI briefings and keynotes
CIC is regularly invited to provide internal briefings to UTS colleagues, as well as to national and international audiences. Here are a few examples…
TEQSA/CRADLE Webinar #3: Implications of GenAI for Higher Ed — What have we learnt? (June 2023)
Learning, Analytics, AI, Trust (June 2023)
Reflections on the GenAI Rollercoaster: Glimpses into Our Future (Oct 2024)
Conversational AI as Thinking Partners in the Age of Polycrisis (Sept. 2025)