Partnership profile: IBM and School of Education team up to teach AI

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Led by Dr Iain Hay (fourth from right) and Dr Anne Forbes (fifth from right), staff in the School of Education have successfully collaborated with IBM Corporation staff – including Education Program Manager Bettina Cutler (fifth from left), to develop a global AI Curriculum framework and supporting resources.

Corporate partnership at Macquarie is much more than a business arrangement. It’s about nurturing deep, long-term connections with the best of industry and then working with them to create real-world solutions with impact.

In this new regular series, we’ll be shining a light on successful projects being driven by Macquarie staff in partnership with leading companies and organisations.  We’ll hear about what worked (and sometimes what didn’t) and get some advice for staff interested in building their own industry connections.

We kick off with a collaboration between IBM and the School of Education.

Project aim

To develop a global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Curriculum Framework (K-12) and supporting teacher and student resources to be used by various education sectors and schools to scaffold learning about AI.

The IBM Artificial Intelligence (AI) Curriculum provides a suite of global, open online resources for students with pedagogical support for teachers to develop the knowledge, skills and values needed to understand AI and its implications for society and the world and to use AI to solve authentic problems, now and in the future. 

Project budget

$350,000 funded by IBM Corporation and in-kind support from the School of Education through the Academy of Continuing Professional Development in Education.

Key people

Dr Iain Hay and Dr Anne Forbes from the School of Education collaborated with key stakeholders in the UK, including senior IBM personnel and education experts, on the design of the Curriculum Framework.

Back in Australia, a cohort of interested teachers was recruited to trial online resources through the University’s Academy of Continuing Professional Development in Education (ACPDE). In consultation with Dr Hay, Dr Forbes led a team of academics in developing the online course materials, designing the research protocol to measure impact, and creating and delivering accredited professional learning to classroom teachers. Dr Markus Powling developed key teacher learning resources while Dr Iliana Skrebneva conducted the online research surveys and participant interviews.

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How did this partnership come about?

There was an existing relationship from a 2006 project between Dr Forbes and Bettina Cutler, IBM’s Education Program Manager in Corporate Social Responsibility. The project now has partners in India, UK and US, who initially came together to develop the curriculum and related resources. However, Macquarie remains the lead organisation in developing teacher professional development, resource quality assurance and research on impact.

Who else at Macquarie helped make it happen?

Professor Mary Ryan, the Dean of the School of Education, provided the support and strategic advice on how best to engage with key business units in the University, who were responsive and supportive in progressing the project throughout its stages. Professor Ryan’s support enabled the project team to move forward from the initial IBM-funded seeding grant to the second phase of a fully funded project with global reach.

Daniel Johnston (Research Partnerships Manager), Dr Hay and Leanne Bamford Barnes (Manager of the ACPDE) were key to managing and progressing the long process of procurement which involved establishing Macquarie as a bona fide provider of services for IBM.

How did you approach project management? Any cultural or business process differences you had to navigate?

Leanne Bamford Barnes oversaw project management, supporting Dr Forbes and Dr Hay to progress project activities and to meet milestones. Weekly video conference meetings kept the immediate project team informed of progress and enabled trouble shooting when issues arose.

We learned that the following were key to a successful outcome:

  • good project governance
  • having the right people in crucial roles
  • managing project expectations
  • learning about the culture of a large international corporation
  • clearly defining how each partner would manage the various parts of the project activities.

The biggest learning has been the procurement and on-boarding processes required for a project of this nature.

And, the most important question – what were you able to achieve together?

We have successfully developed a collaboratively designed Global AI Curriculum Framework which underpins the development of teacher resources (in partnership with Macquarie University in Australia, and Learning Links Foundation in India) and student resources (in partnership with the International Society for Technology in Education in the United States and IBM India Software Lab).

In working in partnership with IBM Corporation, we were able to share resources, knowledge and connections. Each partner brought their own expertise to the project, which was mutually respected and embraced.

Where to from here?

In 2020 the project is being expanded to include a global IBM EdTech Youth Challenge with Australian student teams using AI to solve a local issue caused by climate change and other factors.

Any advice for staff that are thinking about partnering with industry?

  • There is a need to have a set of guiding principles that underpins the partnership work. For us these included trust, respect and reciprocity.
  • Be clear on what the partners will get out of the relationship, listen to each other and respond with open channels of communication.
  • Give yourself and your project partner/s TIME, TIME and TIME – this is absolutely key. Be prepared to spend time discovering each other’s ways of working and ways of communicating. In our case, we needed to bridge the gap between industry and education in the development of material, by translating corporate language into terminology used by and understandable to teachers.
  • Finally, understand that the partnership work ebbs and flows over time and this is natural – but always come back to the project’s intended outcomes as a means to keep partners focused on the main goal of the work.

Learn more about research collaboration and partnerships.

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