Talking To Other Specialists: Edward Wan on What Universities Should Assess in the AI Era

When I went back to university as a mature-age student, writing was one of the hardest parts. I often knew what I wanted to say, but getting it onto paper took forever. Looking at what artificial intelligence (AI) can do now, I wanted to know: would university be easier, or would the hard part simply move somewhere else?

I caught up with Edward Wan, one of my former university tutors, for Talking To Other Specialists. We discussed what educators are assessing when students can generate essays and presentations, why understanding still matters, and what students can do to prepare for work.

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Introduction

Jeremy: I talk about my three years at university a lot because I came from a completely different career. I was there as a mature-age student, and you were one of my first- and second-year tutors. How did you get into teaching?

Edward: I was halfway through my PhD, specialising in leadership, when I got into the academic pathway. I was interested in teaching and did it alongside working full-time. Teaching was more of a passion.

Edward: I also run my own business in the property space now.

Jeremy: That’s how we reconnected, through business networking. It was fortunate because I’d been thinking about education and what university would look like if I went back today.

What does a polished essay actually tell an educator?

Jeremy: At university, I struggled with the writing. The ideas were there, but putting them on paper took a long time. With AI now, I feel like I could get through that part much faster, so has the quality of students’ work gone up?

Edward: Ten or fifteen years ago, when I asked a student to write an essay, I was largely looking at their research, understanding of the subject, how they structured their argument and how well they communicated it. Today, AI can help students do many of those things quickly. The question for educators becomes: what are we actually trying to assess?

Edward: We’re looking at how students think, how they judge information, analyse it and synthesise it. Some students rely heavily on AI and don’t check the accuracy. I’ve come across assessments where students haven’t even checked the names or incidents they’re discussing.

Jeremy: Does that make teaching feel more like policing what’s AI and what isn’t, rather than facilitating creativity?

Edward: I wouldn’t say it’s discouraging. It’s about differentiating between someone who uses AI effectively to help draft their work and someone who copies and pastes without checking or exercising judgement. Many assessments also require students to reflect on how theories and frameworks apply to real situations.

Jeremy: I’d forgotten about that part. We used to write reflections on our teamwork, the problems that came up and how we solved them.

If AI can answer the question, why learn the subject?

Jeremy: Do students ask why they need to learn something when AI can do it for them? How do you answer that?

Edward: I would turn the question around: if AI gives you an answer, do you know whether that answer is accurate? Having a calculator doesn’t mean you stop learning mathematics. You still need to understand the calculation and what the numbers mean.

Edward: The same applies to AI. Students need to decide whether an answer makes sense, whether the information is reliable, whether there’s bias and whether it applies to the particular situation they’re facing.

The problem with skipping straight to the finished work

Jeremy: I see a similar problem in digital marketing. You can skip a lot of steps with AI and end up with something that looks pretty good. But if the solution doesn’t work, how do you go back and figure out what needs to change?

Jeremy: I had to learn those steps manually. My concern is that someone coming in now might skip to the end without developing the ability to troubleshoot how they got there.

For me, that connects with a question I’ve written about before: how much weight should an AI recommendation carry against a specialist’s experience? Producing an answer and judging whether it fits the situation are different tasks.

A presentation needs more than good slides

Jeremy: How are universities responding when AI keeps moving faster than institutions can update their courses?

Edward: I would say the emphasis is moving towards testing students’ capability rather than just delivering information for them to memorise. AI can help produce slides, scripts and draft ideas, but students still need the skills to present and communicate in front of people.

Jeremy: Are we talking about understanding the research and explaining it clearly, or showmanship? Someone can have very little content and still be a good presenter.

Edward: Students need to analyse the information, challenge it, apply it and explain it to someone else. If they can’t explain it to their fellow students, how well they’ve written the assessment doesn’t mean much. Judgement and decision-making matter too.

Edward: There’s also dealing with uncertainty. If someone in a group doesn’t show up for the presentation, you have to respond to that. Reflection matters because you need to explain what you personally learned from different situations.

What an educator brings beyond information

Jeremy: What does the educator’s role look like now? Does AI free you up to do more of the work that helps students?

Edward: Educators can provide firsthand experience. That’s a difference between using AI on its own and learning in a classroom. We can bring experiences of dealing with customers, colleagues and different situations.

Jeremy: It sounds like educators have to lift their game too. If they’re just delivering information without sharing experience or engaging students, that becomes harder to justify.

Edward: Engagement is more important these days. You need to engage students throughout the class and use contemporary examples. We might discuss something that happened last week or two weeks ago, rather than relying only on a case study from five or ten years ago.

Jeremy: Do you think AI could eventually replace educators?

Edward: I don’t think so. AI can describe what other people have experienced, but it hasn’t lived an educator’s life. It hasn’t faced an angry customer, felt nervous walking into a job interview or gone home after a mistake thinking about what it could have done differently.

Edward: Human beings learn through experience, reflection and emotion. That’s what educators can bring to the next generation.

I’ve explored a similar distinction in my conversation with Rachel Minion about using AI in a marketing business. The useful question is which parts of the work a tool can support, and where a person’s judgement still matters.

How students can prepare for work

Jeremy: If I were in my second year now, I think I’d feel discouraged about job prospects. Even when I finished university with a 4.0 grade point average, I struggled to get a job. From your personal perspective, what would you suggest students do?

Edward: AI can help with scripts and slides, but students still need to develop their interpersonal skills. Group presentations involve dealing with different personalities, managing relationships and making time to practise.

Edward: I would encourage students to communicate more in person, join networks and interact with other students and people in the community. Academic performance is one part of it. Being able to present and communicate well can help set someone apart.

Jeremy: I’ve suggested that students try helping a business finish something practical, perhaps through a small pro bono project. Take a task off someone’s hands and show that you can do it. Perhaps pairing that with the human interaction you’re describing could help get a foot in the door.

Edward: Yes, maybe something like that.

Key Takeaways

• Generating an answer doesn’t remove the need to understand the subject or check the information.
• Explaining an idea to another person can reveal whether a student understands the work behind a polished submission.
• Group work gives students practice in communication, relationships and responding to unexpected problems.
• Edward’s advice to students is to spend more time interacting with people and building their ability to communicate in person.

Learn more at LENZ Property Buyers Agency, or connect with Edward Wan on LinkedIn.

This conversation was recorded for Talking To Other Specialists with Jeremy Yang. You can watch the full episode on YouTube.