Australian universities roll out AI chatbots and avatars for teaching tasks

Australian universities are introducing artificial intelligence (AI) tools into teaching roles once handled by human educators, including tutoring, lecturing, feedback and marking. At Macquarie University, an AI chatbot called "Virtual Peer" has been introduced in two psychology units, where it now delivers some material previously taught through Zoom tutorials alongside other online activities.

At the University of Sydney, educators have used the AI platform Cogniti to give students 24/7 feedback on their assessments before submission. The rollout comes as hundreds of University of Sydney staff walked off the job last week, calling for greater job security as AI teaching tools become more common. This year, the University of Wollongong began trialing AI "study buddies" across 15 large first-year subjects, aimed at supporting new students and answering common questions as they transition into university.

La Trobe University has built an AI system called "Fletch" that plays a disgruntled parent, changing its responses as trainee teachers work through a difficult conversation. The University of Newcastle has announced that an AI avatar will deliver lectures in a computing subject; the academic writes the script, while software generates the presenter's voice and moving face.

Some students have raised concerns that replacing teaching interactions with AI could devalue their degrees. A researcher who studies this shift uses the term "recognition" for an educator's acknowledgement of a student's ideas and progress, distinct from praise or connection, and argues that this risks being lost when a human educator is replaced by AI, even if the AI produces similarly clear feedback.

Research cited found that around half of Australian university students use AI on their own initiative to get feedback on their work, and around half use AI to help read academic texts, particularly when translating ideas into their native language or into a more familiar disciplinary context.