Conversational Learning
Conversational Learning homepage
Conversational Learning was a two-year collaborative innovation project based in TORCH, which ran from November 2022 to October 2024. It resulted in an interactive digital learning resource prototype situating English Language GCSE skills in a range of career contexts. The resource will be piloted in schools across the country throughout 2025.
Funded by the University of Oxford’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) and led by Professor Abigail Williams, Conversational Learning explored the potential of interactive digital learning experiences for the teaching of English in UK schools. It grew out of a small suite of AI-driven message-based learning prototypes developed by the university in partnership with local tech company Charisma.ai. These included WillPlay – a retelling of Romeo and Juliet using the language and imagery of social media – and Virtual Canterbury Tales – a multimedia introduction to Chaucer with video content from Oxford’s Creation Theatre.
Through consultations with teachers and other educational stakeholders, Conversational Learning sought to build on these early prototypes, to create a pedagogically effective interactive resource with a clear route into schools. The stakeholder consultation process took the project in an unexpected and exciting new direction, away from the canonical English Literature of the prototypes, towards the intersection of English Language and vocational skills.
We heard from teachers that, although English Language – rather than Literature – is the compulsory GCSE subject, it is under-resourced digitally. At the same time, we learned of the requirement for schools to link all curriculum subjects to careers pathways, and the difficulties many face in delivering this. The increasing presence of text-based generative AI tools means it is now more challenging to persuade young learners of the importance of language skills, and yet more vital than ever that we do so. The post-ChatGPT workplace needs strong readers, writers and editors to interact with, interrogate and improve generated outputs.
Screenshots from WillPlay and Virtual Canterbury Tales
Our Conversational Learning interactive prototype situates English Language writing and editing tasks in a broad range of careers context, giving learners practical, interactive examples of how persuasive writing might matter if you’re a builder, or how summarising skills might be important to a career in the police. We are partnering with MYPATH UK, an organisation that provides careers in the curriculum support for schools, and continuing to work with Charisma.ai, to deliver a one-year pilot of our new resource in a limited number of state secondary schools. The findings from this pilot will determine our next steps for the resource – so watch this space!
As well as seeking to develop a specific learning resource, Conversational Learning set out, more broadly, to explore and model forms of industry collaboration for the humanities that are currently more typical of the sciences. We hope that our experience might pave the way for future commercial innovation projects in the university’s humanities faculties.
If you have any questions or would like to know more about the pilot, please contact Professor Abigail Williams (abigail.williams@ell.ox.ac.uk), Rachael Hodge (rachael@charisma.ai), or the TORCH inbox (torch@humanities.ox.ac.uk).
