Critical Thinking - Home Study
Effective adult distance learning higher education.
Artificial Intelligence and Learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a very effective tool that can greatly facilitate our study process and the quality of the academic papers we must submit at Bircham International University (BIU), but… beware! AI also has the ability to destroy the learning process.
At Bircham International University, we allow the use of AI to improve presentations, to better reference and structure content, or to adjust the content to the parameters of our study guide. It's a great tool!
It can also be tempting to overuse AI to generate content for reports and/or projects. Some people even generate entire publications using AI. Is this incorrect? There's no denying the impact and growing presence of AI in all fields, including academia. This isn't a trend that's going away; quite the opposite.
BIU is a university designed for adults and professionals. Young people often study out of obligation. Adults who consider further training are aware of the need to improve their careers, and that education is the best way to achieve this. An adult who decides to study, in addition to continuing to fulfill their family and professional obligations, demonstrates a level of responsibility, maturity, and motivation that already sets them apart from others. BIU offers a learning path that takes into account all the conditions and needs of the adult student. Our system has proven its effectiveness with thousands of graduates for more than a quarter of a century.
The world is changing at breakneck speed, but deep down, we are not so much. We are still human beings. We have prodigious tools at our disposal, like AI, and others to come, but the decision to learn will always be an act of our own will.
A good education should teach HOW to think, rather than WHAT to think. More info...
It is not the degree that makes a man great, it is the man that makes the degree great. More info...
Considerations
If you allow AI to do your work for you,
why are you studying?
If you're simply looking for a diploma...
Print it. It's the same thing.
However, we invite you to think through these two considerations.
1. Who does a company hire?
A person with a good command of AI can generate and submit the papers required by a university like BIU. However, knowledge isn't granted by what's written on a degree. On the contrary, a diploma is nothing more than a decorative element of the skills we've acquired, that should allow us to confront and resolve problems in different areas of knowledge: administration, technology, psychology, health, etc... If you allow AI to do the work for you, why study? If you're simply looking for a degree, print it out. It's the same thing. How long will it take for a company to realize that it's more profitable and efficient to have its work done by AI if you don't make a difference with what AI contributes? Would you trust a doctor, a pilot, or an engineer whose decisions are made by AI?
2. Critical thinking is irreplaceable.
AI's information processing capacity and speed are unsurpassed. AI compares and analyzes vast amounts of data and sometimes offers surprising conclusions, but it is difficult for it to make a decision in states of uncertainty, without sufficient references to contrast, whether it should doubt what appears to be true, or generate new and creative content. These are precisely the qualities that define critical thinking, and what clearly distinguishes humans from any computer. These are the qualities of those who actually program this AI that fascinates us so much. The key to success in this future invaded by AI is to develop our critical thinking.
A distance learning university is neither for everybody nor for all purposes. More info...
Critical Thinking
Developing critical thinking is the responsibility of each individual, and no tool can replace it. More info...
Bircham International University's learning system was designed to develop critical thinking. 33% of the grade for any assignment (report, project, or thesis) is based on the assessment of critical thinking (PQT – Personal Quality Thinking). Another 33% corresponds to the content, considering that a book summary has never been overly complicated to write. The remaining 33% corresponds to the format, how the information is structured and presented, which is a reflection of the mental maps that guide our reasoning. Read the BIU Study Guide for more information about our pedagogy and assessment criteria.
Additionally, the BIU marking process always involves an evaluator, a subject matter expert, and a supervisor, a pedagogical expert, who also reviews the quality of the first evaluator's comments. In the case of projects and theses, there is a third review by the dean of the faculty who signs the diploma.
Throughout these review processes, software is also used to detect the level of plagiarism in the original content, i.e., how much copying and pasting has occurred from other sources; and also, what percentage of the content has been generated using AI. The use of these tools indicates the proportion of original content, although these results are not entirely objective and are always subject to the supervisor's interpretation.
Obviously, given that the goal of our pedagogy is to develop critical thinking, the higher the percentage of plagiarism or AI-generated content, the more the final grade will be affected. BIU has always allowed the right to reply if a student disagrees with their grades. Students also have the right to resubmit their work, taking into account areas for improvement, if they wish to obtain a better grade. More info...
Companies of today value those who demonstrate the will power, responsibility, motivation and capacity for self-improvement required by studying at a distance learning university.
Don't you deserve this professional recognition? More info...
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