Date
Publisher
arXiv
Contribution: This Full paper in the Research Category track describes a practical, scalable platform that seamlessly integrates Generative AI (GenAI) with online educational forums, offering a novel approach to augment the instructional capabilities of staff. The platform empowers instructional staff to efficiently manage, refine, and approve responses by facilitating interaction between student posts and a Large Language Model (LLM). This contribution enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of instructional support and significantly improves the quality and speed of responses provided to students, thereby enriching the overall learning experience.
Background: Grounded in Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory and the concept of the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO), the study examines how GenAI can act as an auxiliary MKO to enrich educational dialogue between students and instructors.
Research Question: How effective is GenAI in reducing the workload of instructional staff when used to pre-answer student questions posted on educational discussion forums?
Methodology: Using a mixed-methods approach in large introductory programming courses, human Teaching Assistants (AI-TAs) employed an AI-assisted platform to pre-answer student queries. We analyzed efficiency indicators like the frequency of modifications to AI-generated responses and gathered qualitative feedback from AI-TAs.
Findings: The findings indicate no significant difference in student reception to responses generated by AI-TAs compared to those provided by human instructors. This suggests that GenAI can effectively meet educational needs when adequately managed. Moreover, AI-TAs experienced a reduction in the cognitive load required for responding to queries, pointing to GenAI's potential to enhance instructional efficiency without compromising the quality of education.
Study at a glance
- Question: Can generative AI reduce teaching staff workload by drafting answers to student questions on discussion forums?
- Setting and data: Large introductory programming courses, student forum queries, and human teaching assistants.
- Method: Mixed-methods study analyzing modifications made to AI responses and gathering qualitative feedback from teaching assistants.
Why it matters
Responding to student questions on educational discussion forums creates a workload for instructional staff. Evaluating whether Generative AI can pre-answer these questions addresses how it might reduce staff workload while enriching educational dialogue between students and instructors.
Key findings
- In large introductory programming courses, students received forum responses created with AI assistance similarly to those provided solely by human instructors.
- Teaching assistants experienced reduced mental effort when responding to student forum queries using the AI-assisted tool.
- Generative AI showed potential to meet student needs and improve instructional efficiency without reducing educational quality when staff actively managed and approved responses.
Summary drafted with AI from the paper’s abstract and may contain errors. See the full paper for details.
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