Developing a Cloud-Based Generative AI System for Automated Assessment of Course Flexibility

This talk will focus on how the UBC Cloud Innovation Centre (CIC) developed a cloud-based solution to systematically evaluate how flexible a course is for a student given its syllabus content. The solution employs Natural Language Processing (NLP), Generative AI, and AWS technologies to understand how different determinants of course flexibility are written in a syllabus file. These tools are then used to power a dashboard that ingests, stores, and analyzes large amounts of syllabus text. Hence, the solution provides a comprehensive understanding of course flexibility across faculties and even across campuses.

We will first delve into the fundamental Generative-AI concepts that are relevant to this solution and then discuss the challenges that we faced, addressing which led to the final solution. With this talk, we aim to illustrate the potential of Generative AI in educational settings that go beyond those that only deal with conversational responses, thereby showcasing how Generative AI can be effectively utilized for curriculum evaluation and improvement, potentially benefiting both educators and students.