Meet Angela Ignatius: a game that helps students discuss their use of AI
There is something strange about that new student Angela Ignatius. She is brilliant, helpful and always available. She summarizes teaching materials, helps with assignments and is even willing to write your thesis for you. But to what extent do you let her? It’s the big question in this – sometimes pleasantly uncomfortable – new game, designed by Leiden researchers.
Hi Caroline, what inspired you to design this game?
‘A few years ago, David Ehrhardt and I started the Learning Mindset Project. Our mission is to develop educational tools that help students become more autonomous learners. Of course, AI is clearly a big threat to autonomous learning. But it’s also an exciting opportunity for learning. Each day, our students have to navigate enormous amounts of information at their fingertips, and AI is poised to play a mediating role, almost as a substitute teacher. We wanted to come up with a way to have students think about this relationship to AI, and thought the best way to start these – sometimes uncomfortable or difficult – conversations would be through the power of play.’
Your game is called Meet Angela Ignatius. How does it work?
‘It’s an in-class storytelling game where Angela, this amazing new student, creeps into the university and is suddenly everywhere, and always willing to help. The idea is to work in teams of four, with each student taking on one of four personalities: an ethicist, an AI enthusiast, a reflector and a strategist. During the game, everyone has to make decisions about their friendship with Angela, which they’ll have to discuss from their given personality. It’s always a fun moment when students realize that the game is about AI. This usually happens quite quickly and by the end it’s explicit, because they have to create an AI agreement as a team – what tasks will they use AI for, what tasks will they refuse to give to AI, and how will they be transparent and honest about their AI use? Before writing their agreements, students need to review a list of concerns about AI use, like environmental impact, privacy, bias, etcetera. This last step in the game is key because students are waiting for university policy to tell them the rules about AI. We want them to take responsibility and control over their own learning, reflect critically and honestly, and make their own policy.’
How has the response to the game been so far?
‘It’s a real hit with both students and lecturers. Recently, 180 second-year Biology students enjoyed playing it in their course On Being a Scientist. The game has also been played outside of the Netherlands; at the University of Ghana and at three universities in Kenya. I have heard students say it's confronting, but also good to be able to talk about AI in their university lives. And we often see that the talk continues after the game, so it really stirs up the conversation.’
Do lecturers need to have any particular AI knowledge to use this game?
‘Not at all, anyone can play it with their students tomorrow if they wanted to. Everything is free to download under the Creative Commons license and print-and-play, so it’s really designed for easy classroom use. And if people want to do more with this topic afterwards, they can. As part of our Learning Mindset Project, we have developed several free follow-up tools, including an AI agreement tool and an AI literacy tool. Students can log in to www.mylearningmindset.com to use these additional tools.
Caroline Archambault is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University College.
Do you want to bring Angela Ignatius into your classroom? You are most welcome to do so! And feel free to reach out to Caroline if you have any questions: c.archambault@luc.leidenuniv.nl or www.carolinesarchambault.com.
Text: Evelien Flink