New Books Network Sam Illingworth and Rachel Forsyth, "GenAI in Higher Education: Redefining Teaching and Learning" (Bloomsbury, 2026)
Mar 17, 2026
Rachel Forsyth, senior educational developer focused on classroom trust. Sam Illingworth, professor researching critical AI literacy in higher education. They define generative AI and its limits. They discuss first steps for teachers adopting tools and institutional governance. They explore why AI-detection tools fail and how to rethink assessment and teach students responsible AI use.
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Generative AI Is Pattern Matching Not Creation
- Generative AI primarily pattern-matches training data and guesses what comes next rather than inventing truly new content.
- Sam Illingworth highlighted LLMs train on huge digitized internet corpora, so outputs reflect existing biases in that data.
Begin With Student Dialogue About AI Use
- Start using AI by opening a dialogue with students about benefits, limitations, and expected uses across the module.
- Sam Illingworth recommends ongoing conversations and requiring students to report how they used AI when submitting work.
Three Practical Institutional AI Rules
- Adopt clear, flexible institutional rules: no personal data uploads, no confidential or unpublished research in public models, and don't use AI for final decision-making.
- Sam gives examples: avoid AI for marking, hiring decisions, or uploading IP-containing files.
