Deconstructing and Reconstructing University Classroom Authority in the Age of Generative AI: Practical Reflections on a Project Based Learning Reform

Abstract

The rapid proliferation of generative artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping higher education, challenging the traditional lecture-based, knowledge-transmission model of classroom instruction. This paper offers a reflective analysis based on the author's first-hand teaching experience at a Chinese university with a finance and economics focus, where two AI-related courses are offered: a general-education AI literacy course for all undergraduates and an advanced deep learning course for computer science majors. The analysis reveals that AI, as a near-perfect knowledge transmitter, has rapidly devalued the knowledge-delivery function of traditional classrooms. Teachers find themselves caught between the narrowness of their own specialised training and the explosive, fast-moving breadth of AI, while student engagement continues to decline. In response to this crisis, the author's school officially launched a teaching reform in the spring semester of 2026, shifting its core approach from "knowledge-point instruction" to "project-based learning" (PBL). For the general-education course, which enrols a large number of students from social science and humanities backgrounds, the reform emphasises individual creation using off-the-shelf AI tools, aims at developing a perceptual understanding of AI principles, and involves minimal or no coding. For the computer science majors, in contrast, the advanced course adopts more technically intensive, code-based projects. This paper describes in detail the initial implementation and emerging challenges of this differentiated reform, and reflects on the necessity and pathways for transforming the teacher's role from "knowledge authority" to "learning environment designer."