Creative Use of OpenAI in Education: Case Studies from Game Development

Abstract

Educators and students have shown significant interest in the potential for generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to support student learning outcomes, for example, by offering personalized experiences, 24 h conversational assistance, text editing and help with problem-solving. We review contemporary perspectives on the value of AI as a tool in an educational context and describe our recent research with undergraduate students, discussing why and how we integrated OpenAI tools ChatGPT and Dall-E into the curriculum during the 2022–2023 academic year. A small cohort of games programming students in the School of Computing and Digital Media at London Metropolitan University was given a research and development assignment that explicitly required them to engage with OpenAI. They were tasked with evaluating OpenAI tools in the context of game development, demonstrating a working solution and reporting on their findings. We present five case studies that showcase some of the outputs from the students and we discuss their work. This mode of assessment was both productive and popular, mapping to students’ interests and helping to refine their skills in programming, problem-solving, critical reflection and exploratory design.