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The Making Artificial Intelligence Generative for Higher Education (MAIGHE) Research Project
ECU was one of 19 institutions in North America selected to participate in a two-year research project led by Ithaka S+R. The research project assessed the immediate and emerging generative artificial intelligence applications most likely to impact teaching, learning, and research. The project also explored the long-term needs of institutions, instructors, and scholars as they sought to overcome the challenges, and capitalize on the opportunities, of generative AI.
About the Research Project
The MAIGHE research team conducted focus groups and semi-structured interviews with faculty across a variety of disciplines and with a variety of experience with generative AI tools. We thank all of the faculty who volunteered to participate in the focus groups and interviews.
The team presented locally on their findings and shared anonymized transcripts with Ithaka S+R, which combined transcripts from all the participating institutions to create a qualitative dataset on AI issues and opportunities related to teaching, learning, and research.
Findings were published on May 1, 2025, see Baytas, Claire, and Dylan Ruediger. “Making AI Generative for Higher Education: Adoption and Challenges Among Instructors and Researchers.” Ithaka S+R. I1 May 2025.
Key Findings from the Ithaka S+R Report
- Instructors and researchers have widely varied degrees of familiarity with AI, but even those at the lower end of the scale recognize the importance of improving their AI literacy levels.
- Instructors are integrating basic AI skills into student activities while still determining how generative AI can help them meet course learning objectives and how/if to reimagine those learning objectives.
- Instructors desire further top-down guidance related to student academic integrity and the formal integration of AI literacy into student general education.
- Most researchers have already experimented with AI, but far fewer have settled on productive ways of integrating the tools for the longer term.
- Researchers seek further clarity around ethical standards and best practices to ensure research quality and integrity are maintained.
- Instructors and researchers see a gap in discipline-specific support resources at their institutions and are concerned about having secure, affordable access to generative AI tools. Many are concerned about staying current on tools, applications, and best practices in a rapidly changing environment.
Recommendations for Universities from the Ithaka S+R Report
- Articulate a strategic vision for generative AI in collaboration with campus communities and clearly communicate the vision to faculty, students, and staff.
- Foster cross-institutional conversation and programing about generative AI, in particular to coordinate initiatives to boost AI literacy and data security awareness among students, faculty, and staff.
- Incentivize support related to AI on the levels of individual schools or departments, in addition to initiatives on an institutional level.
- Coordinate at an institutional level to build consensus on baseline standards for student use of AI that would apply across courses and majors.
- Provide secure AI environments for use by faculty and students and designate relevant staff to monitor changes in terms and conditions of licensed AI software.
Follow-Up Actions at ECU
During the 2024-2025 academic year, ECU’s MAIGHE research team offered workshops through the Office for Faculty Excellence (OFE) on AI literacy, use cases for generative AI in teaching and research, and discipline-specific AI apps. Recordings are available on the OFE website.
Participation in the Ithaka S+R research project helped raise awareness about the use of generative AI at ECU, but even as we entered the final stage of the project, there was no central voice on campus. With that in mind, the MAIGHE research team began offering quarterly meetings focused on promoting collaboration across the university. The open meetings included representatives from staff and faculty, as well as the Director of Academic Library Services, the Director of the Office of Faculty Excellence, the Chief Research Officer, and the Chief Information Officer.
Initially, these meetings focused on sharing current and planned activities, identifying partners, and reducing duplicated efforts. Other goals were to identify an appropriate entity willing to take on the role of AI coordination for ECU and to develop and deploy a centralized AI website. In May, the library director, OFE director, and Chief Information Officer met with the Provost to discuss these matters and propose a plan. With the Provost’s support, a small team began working on a centralized AI website that will be released during the fall semester. The site will act as a hub, focusing on four main areas: Teaching, Learning, Research, and Work. Each section will focus on how AI is being integrated at ECU and provide links to valuable resources. The site will also provide information about recent policy developments regarding generative AI use with institutional data, the generative AI programs approved for use, and information on how to request a security review of not yet approved generative AI software tools.
The website will include a section where faculty, staff, and students can share their own use cases. We look forward to learning from the campus community about their use of generative AI applications, how generative AI is changing assignments and assessment, and how researchers are incorporating it in their work. We also want to know what specific support services or resources would be of the most value to you. We look forward to continuing this journey together.
Research Team Members
- Jan Lewis, Director of Academic Library Services
- Ken Luterbach, Professor, Department of Mathematics, Science & Instructional Technology Education
- John Southworth, Technology Support Specialist, Supervisor in ITCS