ABSTRACT VIEW
USE OF GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) AS A DRIVING FORCE FOR THE SUBJECT “CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES IN FOOD QUALITY AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT” IN A UNIVERSITY MASTER'S DEGREE
J. Rovira Carballido, B. Melero
Universidad de Burgos (SPAIN)
There is no doubt that quality management and food safety are very useful and important subjects for all those students who want to look for work in the food industry. However, it must be acknowledged that the subject is not easy to teach and therefore, not easy to follow by the students, who come entirely from sciences degrees. It is not easy, because quality management uses concepts more related to economics and even philosophy. The arrival and democratization of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has meant a great social revolution. In the field of education, the arrival of this new technology can also be seen as a paradigm shift. Many fellow teachers see it as a threat. However, new opportunities for teaching arises and should be experienced.

Objective:
Use generative AI to make classes more dynamic and participatory, especially in this subject, which is very theoretical in nature.

Methodology:
It was proposed to combine theoretical classes with information searching by students prior to these through a generative AI application such as: ChatgGPT, Copilot, Gemini or DeepSeek. These AI systems have the advantage of immediacy, since the result appears in a matter of seconds. The students were distributed in multidisciplinary pairs at the beginning of the subject, as they came from different backgrounds. At the beginning of each class, a list of key words or concepts were shown to students according to the topic to be discussed, which were asked in a sequential and logical manner to be searched with an appropriate prompt using any generative AI application. Once searched and analyzed, each pair was asked to explain what they had found to the rest of the class. An attempt was made to establish a brief debate, through questions from the teacher. Likewise, the Pitch presentations tool was used, which allows presentations to be made quickly and shared in order to make a presentation in the same class. This dynamic was scheduled during the first half hour of class. The following half hour, the teacher explained the topic using the usual power point presentation to establish the most relevant concepts of the topic. In order to check this methodology, a couple of questionnaires were given at the beginning of the course, one related to the use of AI by students and another related to concepts related to the quality and food safety management. At the end of the class sessions, and before taking the final evaluation test, a new questionnaire was given, with the same questions on concepts of the subject and a series of specific questions about the methodology used to teach the classes.

Results:
Show that all students have rated the use of this methodology as very (60%) or quite appropriate (40%). When they were asked to explain why, the comments have been: more entertaining and enjoyable classes, classes have not been boring despite the density of the subject, classes have been more participatory, we have learned more easily and quickly, it allows us to compare the information given to us by AI with that of the teacher, classes were easier to follow. The experience of the teachers has also been very positive, the syllabus has been fulfilled as scheduled without delays despite allocating half the class to the new methodology, the class has also been more entertaining and dynamic and has allowed us to get to know the students by name from the first day of class.

Keywords: Generative IA, Education, Máster.

Event: EDULEARN25
Session: Technology-Enhanced Learning in Engineering Education
Session time: Tuesday, 1st of July from 15:00 to 16:45
Session type: ORAL