When does the use of AI add value, and when does it come at the expense of something valuable? In conversation with Ot van Daalen, a lecturer in Information Law and attorney, the TLC-FdR discusses the value of AI. A little sneak peek: experiment! Sometimes with success, sometimes with the conclusion that it isn’t the right path after all.

Syllabus, exams & assignments

Van Daalen uses AI in several areas of his lesson planning. He has built a script that formats his syllabus: making it clearer and more visually appealing than he could do himself. Together with AI, he thinks through the structure: which elements fit into which week, how do you develop a case study spanning multiple weeks? He has AI critique the design of his exams by asking: imagine you’re a master’s student; you’ve seen these syllabus slides; does this exam meet the assessment matrix? That yielded valid criticism, including regarding the balance between learning objectives and assessment content.

“I noticed that AI makes me a bit lazy. So I always try to figure out what I want first on my own, and then use AI to fine-tune it.”

That reflection is characteristic. When he had assignments generated by AI, he noticed that students were going in directions he hadn’t envisioned himself. The lesson: if you don’t write it yourself, you might lose your grip on the content.

Giving Feedback: An Experiment That Never Took Place

Van Daalen also experimented with AI to generate feedback on student assignments, using a local model and deliberately avoiding American cloud platforms. He never actually put it into use.

“I thought: what am I doing? This isn’t fun at all. Part of the joy comes from interacting with students. AI undermines that.”

Advice for colleagues

According to Van Daalen, it’s hard to understand why colleagues categorically reject AI, especially when that opinion is based on outdated and unpaid models with poor prompts. At the same time, his advice on AI is nuanced:

“It’s not blissful. It forces you to think about why we, as a university, exist on this earth, and what you, as a human being, enjoy doing.”

The bottom line: engage with AI, try it yourself, and form your own opinion. Because if you’ve only tried it with a free account, outdated AI, and poor prompts? You haven’t really tried it.