Graduate supported disabled students with exam revision through AI project

Rhona Payne, who works at the University’s Disability Services, graduated this week with an MSc in Educational Assistive Technology, from Dundee’s School of Science and Engineering, having completed the course over two years around her employment.

Rhona focused her studies on how disabled students can use Generative AI as a tool to support their exam revision, then immediately put her learnings into action and led training with nearly 60 disabled students currently studying at Dundee.

She said, “Some of the students we support through Disability Services find preparing for exams challenging and are faced with barriers in a range of ways.

“They might struggle with physical issues such as chronic pain and fatigue, or organisational difficulties like breaking large tasks into manageable chunks. 

“I researched how AI could support these students with their studies in an ethical way, by training it to act as a study buddy.”

Rhona led small group training sessions with the students, covering how they could use AI technology to tackle time-management issues, create study plans, devise quizzes on course material, and engage with AI in an interactive way.

She also showed them how to increase the accuracy of the tool so it is more effective in supporting their studies.

Feeback from the students was extremely positive, with many commenting on how much it had improved their confidence in exam revision and had increased their understanding in their modules.

She added, “It was extremely challenging to complete this course around full-time employment, but it has also been so beneficial because I’ve been able to put it into practice straight away and help our students.”

More than 2,400 students crossed the Caird Hall stage this week to collect their degrees during the University’s Summer Graduation ceremonies.