Can AI Really Save You Time in Learning Central? I Put It to the Test

This blog is written by Gemma Hackman, a member of the Digital Education Team in the Learning and Teaching Academy.

If we haven’t crossed paths before, hello! One of the best parts of my role is finding smart, practical ways to make life easier for both students and staff. And with summer in full swing, I’ve been on the lookout for time-saving tricks to help us all get ahead for the new academic year.

This week, I set myself a challenge: a friendly face-off between two versions of me, Gemma vs. Gemma with AI. The goal? To see whether the built-in AI tools in Learning Central (Blackboard Ultra) could help speed up the process of setting up a new course.

Challenge Rules

I need to create 10 Learning Modules in a Learning Central course, each with a title, a description, and a suitable image. For the ‘just me’ version, I will use stock images from Unsplash. For the AI-assisted version, I will use the images the platform suggests, only swapping them out if they don’t quite hit the mark.

To keep things fair, I will work from a Word document with all the content ready to copy and paste (so no blaming my typing speed!). I allowed myself one 10-minute break between rounds, but no extra caffeine or sugar boosts, tempting as they will be.

The Results

On my own: 7 minutes, 59 seconds
With AI: 4 minutes, 25 seconds

AI takes the win, being 45% faster than going it alone.

One unexpected bonus? The AI-generated descriptions were actually pretty accurate, surprisingly so! I did edit them to accurately match the original brief, but if I’d accepted them as-is, I could’ve saved even more time, potentially shaving off an additional 3 minutes and 19 seconds per course, giving an overall time saving of 86%.

Give it a go

Here’s how you can follow my process and start saving time too!

If you have any helpful tricks or tips when using Learning Central, please do get in touch with the Learning and Teaching Academy: ltacademy@cardiff.ac.uk