SoTL @ GMU

AI + SoTL

Participate in a mega-SoTL research project investigating the impacts of AI/ChatGPT on teaching & learning!

What is the proposed project?

This research study exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education will bring together faculty, graduate students, and staff across institutions to join research teams investigating a variety of sub-topics.

The project will be led by three co-principal investigators: Breana Bayraktar (George Mason University), Dayna Henry (James Madison University), and Jessica Taggart (University of Virginia). We anticipate leading three subprojects focusing on different areas of investigation in the first year.

What are the possible subtopics for investigation?

  • AI in student support services/academic advising
  • AI and personalized learning experiences/adaptive instruction
  • AI automated scoring and/or providing feedback to students
  • AI and online course design and delivery
  • AI and ethical considerations
  • Investigate students’ perceptions, attitudes, and acceptance of AI technologies (comfort levels, concerns, and potential benefits).
  • Designing “AI-proof” assignments
  • Concerns with plagiarism/policies
  • AI in the disciplines (e.g., STEM, world languages, writing-intensive courses)
  • Other?

How to get involved

We are looking for research partners/collaborators to join a multi-institutional research project exploring artificial intelligence (AI) and teaching in higher education.

Potential roles for research collaborators include

  • Participate in the design of the research, including: research questions being investigated, data collection instruments, and/or data analysis plan
  • Contribute to data collection in your courses (this may involve disseminating surveys, collecting student artifacts, coordinating interviews or focus groups with students, coordinating with class observations, and other data collection activities)
  • Contribute to data collection in colleagues’ courses (this may involve conducting interviews or focus groups with students, conducting class observations, and other data collection activities)
  • Contribute to analysis of the data collected by the research team
  • Contribute to publication/presentation of findings

Interested? Click here

What is SoTL?

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the systematic study of teaching and learning in higher education with the goal of improving student learning. This includes examining classroom practice in a scholarly way, researching teaching and learning across programs or student populations, and sharing work through publication.

What is AI?

Artificial intelligence is a machine’s ability to perform the cognitive functions we usually associate with human minds: learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and language understanding. AI systems are designed to analyze vast amounts of data, recognize patterns, and make decisions or predictions based on the information they have processed. These systems can be trained using various techniques, including machine learning, deep learning, and neural networks, to acquire knowledge and improve their performance over time.

For more reading . . .