Integration of AI-Avatars in Higher Education: Investigating the Impact on Learning Outcomes
Due to the widespread and rapid adoption and growing availability of online education sources and artificial intelligence tools (like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Bloomy.ai), this project proposes the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) avatars in Law, Economics and Governance (LEG) higher education to create engaging video content and interactive chatbots that explains course manuals and key concepts from course material. This initiative aims to enhance student engagement, improve knowledge distribution, and reduce educator preparation time. The project encapsulates the integration of generative-AI based avatars in key courses and to conduct research that will investigate the impact on student learning outcomes, engagement levels, staff perception, workload, and overall satisfaction.
Background information
In an era where personalized learning trajectories are becoming the norm, and where digital technologies are reshaping educational methodologies, traditional teaching approaches are increasingly insufficient. The advent of Generative AI, with its content creation and manipulation capabilities, offers a transformative opportunity for educational processes-especially through the opportunity of asynchronous instruction and adaptive (visual and interactive) learning. Empirical evidence on the effectiveness of AI applications in education is scarce due to its nascency, particularly regarding their impact on student and staff experiences. This project seeks to address a relatively straight-forward implementation of AI avatars in educational courses of the LEG faculty, and testing its impact on student engagement, knowledge dissemination, and staff workload implications.
Project description
Following a three-phase process (development, implementation, testing), AI avatars will be created to elucidate the course manual (key information) and key concepts from course material in two (or more) courses. Two courses at USE are candidate to implement the AI avatars (ECB3BRM and ECB3IM). During the course, student engagement and knowledge distribution will be closely monitored and evaluated to gauge the effectiveness of the AI avatars – and a report with the findings will be constructed to report on this. Scalability to other courses would be incorporated in the evaluation and discussion of the findings.
- Needs assessment: conduct a thorough analysis of educational goals and student requirements to identify areas where AI avatars can enhance the learning experience.
- The main program for creation of the AI-avatars is Synthesia. This is a paid software service that enables multi-lingual integrations in content (Dutch is one of the available languages). The software would enable the use of simulated humans (genAI created) or having artificial representations of the course lecturers (ourselves) addressing students in their native languages. An alternative program would be Elai.io. However they would rather not use the free software programs available as they are often lacking in data security.
- Furthermore, they will look into the option of using fictional avatars (such as the adaptable fox ‘Maximilian Leger’ for economics, the resourceful Beaver ‘Governor Brixton’ for Governance, or the judicious eagle ‘Justice Talon’ for Law – these were created by ChatGPT). Potentially making use of other software such as: AdobeFirely for image generation, Elevenlabs for speech synthesis.
- Course content ECB3BRM> audiovideo content in the blackboard environment relating to basic research steps (e.g., what are the steps for data cleaning/ conducting a lit review) being made available in 3 languages (English, Dutch and a third option to be determined based on student enrollment) ECB3IM> audiovideo content in class introducing the central case study of the course where students need to interact once per week (for a total duration of eight weeks) with the content of an extensive case. An online communication of case content and questions could be highly effective and efficient for student’s case preparation.
- Testing the impact on student engagement, knowledge dissemination, and staff workload implications.
EMP hours could be relevant here for documentation of student’s experience, progress and satisfaction and the potential of AI-avatars for attaining learning objectives.
- Feedback Mechanisms: Establish channels for continuous feedback from educators and students, incorporating their insights to refine and improve the integration process over time. For example by facilitating Educator/ Student Workshops and hosting a debate regarding the ethical considerations.
Results envisioned
This project is intended to support the preparation, implementation and evaluation of AI-avatars.
After implementation: knowledge dissemination of findings will follow as we can disseminate learnings from the new teaching format to targeted relevant audiences at USE, REBO, the Centre of Academic Teaching at UU. The findings can be added for instance to the teaching and learning collection (formerly known as educational database) (https://teaching-and-learning-collection.sites.uu.nl/project/), as well as to external academic or educational audiences (education innovation conference at the EFMD (https://events.efmdglobal.org/). This could also entail collaboration with other colleagues to facilitate potential scaling if the outcomes are positive.
If successful and scalable, practical workshops can be given to transmit the opportunities, challenges and do’s and don’ts of applying the teaching format when designing courses in educational programs such as BKO or SKO. Furthermore, these workshops would also allow for time to discuss the ethical considerations of technological implementation in a group setting. Hopefully, the recently established AI taskforce could also provide input regarding that aspect. Again when successful, the underpinnings of the teaching format can be used to apply the teaching format in more variations in function of other courses provided by REBO (or at University level). As the governance of AI in teaching is currently being discussed at various levels within the University, any information provided would of course align with future governance documents (provided by REBO or at the University level).
Academic references
Vallis, C., Wilson, S., Gozman, D., & Buchanan, J. (2023). Student Perceptions of AI Generated Avatars in Teaching Business Ethics: We Might not be Impressed. Postdigital Science and Education, 1-19.
Bond, M., Khosravi, H., De Laat, M., Bergdahl, N., Negrea, V., Oxley, E., … & Siemens, G. (2024). A meta systematic review of artificial intelligence in higher education: a call for increased ethics, collaboration, and rigour. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 21(1), 4.
Hu, Y. H., Yu, H. Y., Tzeng, J. W., & Zhong, K. C. (2023). Using an avatar-based digital collaboration platform to foster ethical education for university students. Computers & Education, 196, 104728.
Weisman, W. D., & Peña, J. F. (2021). Face the uncanny: the effects of doppelganger talking head avatars on affect-based trust toward artificial intelligence technology are mediated by uncanny valley perceptions. Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 24(3), 182-187.
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