Chron TV Host Aiden Fijal sits down in the studio to talk about the switch to the online tool Glean, which the Chronicle reported about last week.

For the first time, the Services for Students with Disabilities is using a web-based AI tool that records, transcribes and summarizes notes free of charge for students who need it.

The tool, which the college pays a licensing fee to use, replaces peer notetakers who used to volunteer to provide copies of their notes that were then accessed through the MySSD web page. At the end of the semester, the volunteers received a stipend of $100 per class. The system was anonymous.

TRANSCRIPT

0:05

Hello everybody and welcome back to Chron TV.

0:09

So today we will be covering the replacement of our student note takers with an online A I system.

0:15

So quick overview for those of you who don’t know that SSD’s note taking program is an accommodation it’s available to students.

0:22

What it looks like typically or what it looked like before was that an announcement would go out to the entire class asking if anybody is willing and able to be a note taker for class with a stipend of $100 going alongside it, online AI tool would instead take that over, basically replace that.

0:39

It would allow you to record during class.

0:42

It would provide live captions as well as a transcript that is available afterwards.

0:47

Now, I know a lot of you may be wondering about why the college is making this decision.

0:51

The reason for that is because the pure note taker system in the past has had some issues, some of which include students not volunteering to do it, which then possibly leaves the student that is in need of the accommodations in a precarious position where they’re not able to get all the notes that they need in order to succeed in the class, the SSD also can’t monitor the quality of the notes that the student note takers are submitting.

1:15

So there’s no way to tell how good the notes are if they’re actually covering everything that’s covered in class and other such issues that the college has had with this peer note taker program so far, which has influenced their decision to try out this new AI program, which is called Glean from the student reviews.

1:30

We have so far, they have admittedly been on the more negative side of things.

1:35

However, we have spoken with the SSD and they have informed us that Glean is going through a bit of troubleshooting phase.

1:41

Right.

1:41

Now.

1:42

The SSD has also said that they’re going to review how well the program is doing at the end of term taking in student feedback as well as just their own assessments of how well the program is transcribing everything and how accurately it is doing.

1:56

So, if they need to take any steps to re-evaluate or reassess the program at that point, they will do so.

2:02

But they are remaining hopeful about Glean being a good program for Colombia.

2:06

All right.

2:07

That has been everything today on Chron TV.

2:10

Now, if you do want to keep up with the Chronicle, you can go ahead and follow us on Instagram and TikTok and that will be all for today.

2:16

I am your host Aiden signing off.

Copy edited by Doreen Abril Albuerne-Rodriguez