Abstract:

Introduction:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a transformative technology impacting many aspects of modern life. For the 2023-2024 academic year, the University of Seville’s Department of Physiology launched a Teaching Innovation Project to integrate AI into Physiology education. This project aimed to explore AI’s potential as a classroom tool to enhance the teaching and understanding of Physiology concepts.

Methodology:
The 2023-2024 educational innovation project aimed to enhance learning for students in physiology-related courses within the Pharmacy (PD), Optics-Optometry (OOD), and dual Pharmacy & Optics-Optometry (POOD) degree programs. The subjects included Human Physiology I & II (HPI, HPII), Human Physiology (HP), Pathophysiology (PP), Cellular Biology and Histology (CBH), Physiology of the Visual System (PVS), and Physiology in Health Promotion (PHP). Participation was voluntary, with a 5% grade incentive for involvement. Professors introduced and supervised the project, explaining its structure and objectives. Students used the AI tool ChatGPT to generate two summaries: one with bibliographic references and one without, and then compared and verified the accuracy of these summaries against traditional academic sources. The project's effectiveness was evaluated through opinion surveys from both students and professors, focusing on the usefulness of educational innovation projects as teaching and learning tools.

Results:
In this innovative educational project, 176 students and 19 professors participated actively. Most student (70%) and professor (75%) participants were women. Among the former, 60% were enrolled in HPI and HPII courses. The project significantly motivated students in HPI (70%), HPII (60%), and PP (62%) courses toward their subjects, though it had less impact on PHP students (27%). Students in CBH (86%) felt the activity greatly promoted professor-student interactions, whereas 20% of PHP students felt it had little effect. Across all subjects, the majority of students (60-100%) believed professors were highly engaged in the project. Overall, student satisfaction with the project’s implementation was very high, although PHP students were more sceptical. In turn, all professors regarded educational innovation projects as "very useful" for both students and teachers. Specifically, professors under 50 expressed greater satisfaction with this AI-based project than those over 50.

Conclusion:
Students hold a favourable opinion of innovative teaching strategies that extend beyond traditional lectures, recognizing that these methods increase engagement for both educators and learners.

Keywords:

Artificial Intelligence, Physiology, Educational Innovation, University, Health Science.