From Event to Artefact: In-Class and Live-Streamed Guest Lectures with AI-supported Review

7th Pedagogy for Higher Education Large Classes International Symposium
Author

James Byrne, Colum Foley, Brian Cleere, Damien Dupré, and Paul Liston

Published

June 12, 2026

Abstract

Large classes make guest lectures simultaneously attractive and fragile: they can add authenticity and professional visibility, yet access, interaction, and post-lecture consolidation are difficult to sustain at scale. This paper reports a guest lecture design embedded in a 12-week postgraduate project management module enrolling 284 business school students. Four practitioner sessions (2 hours, including moderated Q&A) were delivered as Zoom-enabled events: one speaker joined remotely; three were delivered on campus while live-streamed and recorded. Recordings were posted to the virtual learning environment with AI-generated transcripts and summary notes, lightly edited to correct obvious errors, and students completed a low- stakes end-of-module reflection where guest-lecture insights could be integrated. A post-series survey indicates strong uptake of recordings and substantial perceived value of AI artefacts for review and reflection, alongside a consistent social presence trade-off for remote delivery. Design implications are offered for inclusive, sustainable guest-lecture pedagogy in large classes.