AI In the Classroom and Corporate Social Responsibility
Graduate School of Business Deliver Presentations at Business School Conference
How do we define corporate social responsibility? Can AI teach students to talk in front of a crowd? These were the topics that Dr. Gavin Goldstein and Professor Charles Priolo, faculty members of Touro’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), spoke about during the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) 2024 Conference in Puerto Rico, held in February.
In his talk, "The Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility to Business Education," Dr. Goldstein, an expert in corporate social responsibility (CSR), discussed a challenging problem in the field. “Even though businesses have entire departments devoted to CSR, we, as academics, don’t have a specific definition of it,” explained Dr. Goldstein about his presentation. “It makes it incredibly difficult to study, teach, and push the field forward. We have this term, but no one really knows what it is."
In his speech, “A.I. Presentation Training Software’s Impact Upon Students,” Professor Priolo spoke about his experiments using AI in his public speaking class. “The software program PitchVantage enables students to practice their public speaking skills in the privacy of their own homes,” explained Priolo who used the program in combination with in-class presentations.
“The program gives students feedback about their tonality, pace, and eye contact by means of a virtual audience.”
Priolo’s presentation was based on his recent paper that measured the results between a control group that worked exclusively with in-class presentations and an experimental group that used in-class presentations in combination with the software. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant improvement in the experimental group.
“When I poll my students about what teaching method to use, 85% prefer the combination approach of using PitchVantage and doing an oral presentation in front of the class, instead of just having in-class presentations,” he said.
Both presentations were well-attended.
“It was a great experience to discuss CSR and throw out ideas to other people that are dedicated to the same issue,” stated Dr. Goldstein. “We get a more precise definition of the topic and how we can institute it in the business world. The conference highlighted our work as academics: you have experts in a room to talk about an idea and come up with a solution.”
Professor Priolo said that meeting other experts was beneficial for both the professors and the university.
“I think it’s very important that we should be aware of what’s going on out in the business world,” he said. “And it’s a nice opportunity to show what we in GSB are capable of. Sharing knowledge with each other in an academic forum is a win-win situation all around.”
