CENTRE FOR TEACHING
EXCELLENCE & INNOVATION

Generative AI and Assessment (GAIA) Project and the Value of SoTL

Dr. Ben Lee Taylor (McMaster University)

As part of the 2025 SoTL Speaker Series at Yorkville U + TFS, CTEI was honoured to host Dr. Ben Lee Taylor on the Generative AI and Assessment (GAIA) Project and the value of SoTL.

ChatGPT launched publicly in November 2022, Ben Lee Taylor was teaching writing-intensive courses and serving on an academic integrity committee at Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto. By December 2022, the committee was already adjudicating its first case of suspected AI misuse by a student, sparking questions about how this new technology might forever reshape the landscape of higher education. For Dr. Taylor, these questions ultimately evolved into the Generative AI and Assessment (GAIA) project, a multiphase study funded by McMaster University’s MacPherson Institute involving surveys of Canadian instructors, analysis of sample assessments, and follow-up interviews.

This session introduced some of the project’s findings and outputs (including a descriptive assessment design framework), while also detailing some key practical steps involved in SoTL research, from question formation to ethics approval, recruitment, and data management. In doing so, the session explored how SoTL research offers opportunities to investigate specific teaching contexts, contribute to broader pedagogical conversations, engage in meaningful cross- and interdisciplinary collaboration, and develop new technical and professional skills.

If you’ve ever had questions or thoughts about teaching and learning that are worth investigating systematically, this session will hopefully make the SoTL research process feel more accessible and less intimidating.

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Matthew Dunleavy wearing a pink and purple polka-dot shirt under a grey blazer with red-framed glasses and a long reddish-brown beard smiling into the camera
Matthew Dunleavy

Senior Educational Developer, Faculty Excellence and Development

[email protected] 

Matthew Dunleavy (he/him) is an educational developer and scholarly teacher with over 9+ years’ experience. He immediately joins our CTEI from York University where he was an Educational Developer with the Teaching Commons; before entering that role, he served as the Program Director of the Online Learning and Technology Consultants (OLTC) Program at the Maple League of Universities (Acadia University; Bishop’s University; Mount Allison University; and St. Francis Xavier University). In 2022, he was awarded the D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) for this work.