At UCLA, academic technology teams partnered with the Teaching and Learning Center to analyze instructor user stories on media use within the Canvas LMS. With awarded OpenAI licenses, the teams leveraged AI to organize and code interview data, uncovering key insights into how media enhances lectures, assessments, student projects, and active learning. Through strategic prompt engineering, raw interviews were transformed into actionable themes. After AI efficiently sorted and organized the data, human insight was used to analyze patterns and trends, understand key points, and help shape a strategic vision for campus-wide use of streaming media. Beyond this initiative, the AI-driven approach developed for this initiative can be used to code and interpret qualitative data, and will serve as a model for refining strategies across other academic technology tools.
Speaker/Host
Alan Roper is the Supervisor of Educational Technology Tools (Media & Collaboration) at UCLA’s Bruin Learn Center of Excellence. In this role, he leads a team of dedicated academic technologists who offer support and services for the Bruin Learn ecosystem. Dr. Roper is a three-time recipient of the UC President’s Star Award for innovation in pedagogy and online learning. He also teaches doctoral research and writing at Golden Gate University earning the Outstanding Adjunct Faculty of the Year Award in 2019, and Distinguished Adjunct Professor award 2021, and 2023.
Co-speaker(s)
Casey Shapiro is the Senior Associate Director for Survey Research and Program Assessment & Interim Director of ASIE at the UCLA Teaching and Learning Center. She primarily works on evaluation of programs, curricula, and teaching strategies designed to enhance student learning and higher education participation, most notably for women and minoritized students in STEM fields. Casey earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education and Organizational Change at UCLA. Her research focuses on the college student experience and its impact on student learning and retention for historically underrepresented students.