Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, the role of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education has sparked both excitement and concern. While many are worried about cheating and academic misconduct, others see the immense potential for AI to revolutionize learning.
But what’s been largely absent from the discourse is the student voice and perspective on generative AI use—until now.
D2L’s Academic Affairs team partnered with researchers from the Online Learning Consortium on the new report: Student Engagement and AI: Research Overview and Findings. The study delves into how students in higher education perceive and use generative AI technologies, revealing a landscape filled with both opportunities and challenges.
The mixed-methods research involved a survey completed by 87 students and one-hour interviews with 18 students, ranging from first-year undergraduates to doctoral candidates. The team focused on two main research questions:
- How does student use and perceptions of AI in higher education impact student engagement?
- How can students be better supported by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in their learning and use of AI?
The findings reveal rich insights into the current student experience with AI.
“As our understanding of the complex conversation around AI in education continues to evolve, the learner’s voice is paramount,” shared Dr. Emma Zone, senior director of Academic Affairs at D2L. “This study represents an important foundation in understanding the student perspective of and engagement with AI, offering critical insights for institutions, faculty, and policymakers.”
Dr. Zone and Dr. Cristi Ford, chief learning officer at D2L, shared more of their thoughts on the findings below.
“The Good Spark”: AI as a Brainstorming Buddy
One of the most common ways students use AI is for brainstorming. Emma, a participant in the study, shared that “AI gives me new ideas that I haven’t seen… it helps me think more about what I’m writing or the assignment I’m doing.”
This sentiment was echoed by Giorgio, who found AI helpful in overcoming procrastination by providing a framework to start his assignments. “When I get stuck [figuring out what] ideas to write about, AI helps me.”
Using AI to generate ideas for assignments—particularly writing assignments—was a common theme found in the data. The brainstorming function of AI is seen as a valuable tool by many students, helping them to think more creatively and overcome mental blocks.
Key Takeaway: This finding highlights how AI can serve as a “good spark,” igniting new ideas and perspectives that students might not have considered otherwise.
“Kinda Like a Tutor”: Personalized Learning with AI
The study found that AI offered personalized learning and teaching options for many students.
Sharon described AI as “kind of like a tutor.” Sharon has ADHD and she found that AI helps her focus on her coursework and manage her ideas more effectively.
Solomon, another student, noted that AI helps him break down complex problems in his physics and engineering classes. “I try to use it more as a tool than as a way to cheat,” he explained.
Another student surveyed, Taylor, uses AI to create practice tests. “I’ll copy the information, and I’ll put it into ChatGPT and ask it to give me a multiple choice 50 question test,” she shared.
Helen uses AI for her most challenging class: math. “You’re able to take pictures of your math homework…and I don’t know how it reads it, but it fully reads it and knows what to do from there,” she explained. Helen shared that she appreciated AI’s ability to teach her step by step, allowing her to ask as many questions as needed.
Many participants thought that using AI was like asking professors for help, but they noted that faculty members were not always available when they needed them.
Key Takeaway: AI can act as a valuable tutor outside of classroom hours, helping students stay focused and engaged by providing immediate answers and explanations. Lectures and study sessions with faculty members can be augmented with AI when educators are not available.
Time Saver: Efficiency in Learning
For many students, AI is a significant time-saver.
Eli uses AI to double-check his math equations. “It’s redundant to balance those equations; it takes up the most time. AI gets the first step out of the way and gets the ball rolling.”
Similarly, Sandy uses AI to check her papers for grammatical errors, ensuring she submits polished assignments. “[By using AI], I’m able to submit an assignment and know that I did my best,” she said.
Emma offered an example of an online class with required weekly quizzes. “I will put the questions into ChatGPT [to make sure I understand it]. Once I understand the question, I can go back to our book and read exactly where that question was from. And that’s interesting because it leads me back to things that I missed previously.” Emma also shared that she uploads study guides and asks ChatGPT to write tests based on each one. She then takes the tests and asks ChatGPT to grade them.
Key Takeaway: Students surveyed pointed to saving time as one of the primary motivators for using AI. They frequently use AI to complete tasks they consider ‘busy work’, such as grammar and punctuation checks, summarizing books or articles, fact-checking, solving equations and writing code.
Tinkering: AI as a Creative Partner
Some students use AI to fuel their creativity and innovation.
Eli, who had an entrepreneurial idea involving helium, used AI to generate equations for the buoyancy of materials. He shared that using AI helped him ‘tinker’ with ideas about calculus, chemistry and the environment. This is just one example of how AI can keep the internal dialogue going and help students develop their thinking.
Other examples include a music student who used AI to help her pick progressive song chords, a business student who used AI to develop a risk analysis and a mechanical engineering student who used AI to debug code. In each of these cases, generative AI offered knowledge that the student did not have, and the student what they learned to further their own creative work.
Key Takeaway: Students can use AI as a springboard for deeper creative thinking and as a guide for entrepreneurial and innovative projects.
The Ethical Dilemma: Navigating AI’s Double-Edged Sword
As we’ve shared above, AI offers numerous benefits to students. But it also raises ethical concerns, something that students are aware of.
One student surveyed, Chen, likened AI to a knife. “It has a sharp side and another side,” she observed.
Chen is aware that in her case, the sharp side is using AI to solve problems within homework, while the dull side is using AI to complete entire homework assignments, which would result in her not learning anything. To that end, she uses AI for tasks like debugging coding problems but avoids relying on it for entire assignments to ensure she’s learning.
Marie also emphasized the importance of ethical and responsible AI use. “The biggest challenge for me is the over-reliance on AI where it replaces critical thinking, creativity, and innovation,” she noted. However, she also acknowledged that AI reduces time spent on repetitive tasks and improves productivity. Like Chen, Marie actively determines the sharp side of the knife versus the dull side, making decisions that are personal to her own learning.
Wang discussed using AI to fix grammar and summarize articles, seeing this as the sharp side of the knife. However, he warned against relying on AI for searching articles, as he and his roommates found that AI sometimes provided fake articles.
Key Takeaway: Students are aware of the ethical implications around AI usage and don’t necessarily want it to do everything for them. Several participants also noted the importance of checking AI responses for accuracy and authenticity.
The Role of Institutions: Supporting AI Integration
The researchers found that institutional support for AI use is crucial for student success.
Matthew, a survey participant, suggested that universities should balance education by understanding AI’s usefulness while preventing its abuse. “If we get into a habit of surveilling students, it’ll be detrimental to them in a different way.”
The participants described their faculty members as falling into two groups:
- those who viewed AI wholly negatively and
- those who were finding ways to use AI in learning.
Faculty members who viewed AI in a negative light were more common than those who viewed it positively. Some students felt their universities should take a stance and pass policies that required faculty to allow fair and ethical usage of AI.
Sharon said that faculty positions on AI are “just going to get fairer because professors are aware that people are going to use it, and they’re going to want us to use it responsibly.”
Key Takeaway: Students are going to use AI whether or not faculty approve. Many students want to use AI in an ethical manner. However, students remain unclear on what “responsible” use of AI looks like and still want guidance and clarity on this point.
Affect, Cognition and Behavior: AI’s Impact on Engagement
Using Kahu’s (2013) framework, the study explored how AI affects student engagement in terms of affect (emotional engagement), cognition (deep learning) and behavior (participation).
AI helped students like Solomon gain confidence and motivation. “I think it gives you more confidence going into a test,” he said. Using AI to study offered Solomon a sense of belonging and emotional involvement in his work, helping him overcome challenges and stay motivated.
Emma used AI to generate interest in her Old Testament class. “I’ll copy and paste them [verses] into ChatGPT and say, hey, can you rephrase this and make it more understandable?” AI helped her stay interested in her course, making difficult material more accessible.
But the study also found that AI didn’t help facilitate faculty-student relationships. As Emma shared “(AI) is really more helpful than me emailing my professor and waiting a few hours or even a few days for a response.”
In fact, many participants asked AI in lieu of asking faculty members, indicating a gap in emotional engagement with their professors.
Key Takeaway: AI can help students stay motivated and engaged with course materials but because of the lack of clarity around usage and guidelines from faculty, it’s not helping foster stronger student-faculty relationships.
Practical Tips for Faculty
One of the key findings was that students aren’t necessarily feeling that faculty are helping them when it comes to understanding AI usage.
To effectively support and train faculty in understanding and integrating AI into their teaching, higher education institutions should focus on several key areas:
Offer Professional Development
Institutions should offer comprehensive training programs that explain how AI can be used constructively in learning, making sure that materials touch on AIs limitations and potential pitfalls. These offerings should foster a space for discovery, where faculty can engage as co-creators and collaborate with peers to explore AI’s applications in their specific disciplines.
Provide Support for AI Tools
Additionally, institutions should provide support in instructional design, helping faculty to integrate AI tools into their curricula in ways that enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.
Provide Ethical Guidelines
Establishing ethical guidelines around AI usage is essential. Faculty should be motivated to create and convey clear ethical boundaries for AI usage, ensuring students develop an understanding of responsible AI practices. Moreover, it’s not solely the faculty’s responsibility to set these expectations. Higher education institutions must foster discussions at both the campus and course levels around responsible and ethical use of generative AI.
By taking a proactive approach, institutions can equip faculty with the knowledge and skills needed to leverage AI effectively, ultimately benefiting both educators and students.
Transforming Learning With AI
These findings dictate that students find AI highly beneficial. From acting as a personalized tutor to sparking creativity and saving time on repetitive tasks, the use cases are diverse and impactful. However, institutional and faculty support are crucial to guide ethical AI use and enhance student engagement.
“At a critical juncture where AI is rapidly shaping our learning ecosystems, I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to support research into student perceptions and its use,” Dr. Cristi Ford shared. “This comprehensive awareness is not just beneficial, it’s a necessity at all levels to fully grasp the impact on educators and, crucially, our learners.”
By thoughtfully embracing AI, higher education institutions can transform the learning experience, making it more engaging, efficient, and innovative. With the right support and guidelines, AI can become an integral part of education, fostering a more dynamic and responsive learning environment.
Interested in delving further into the findings? Check out our full report.
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