My Teacher Is a Machine: Understanding Students’ Perceptions of AI Teaching Assistants in Online Education

Abstract

An increase in demand for online education has led to the creation of a new technology, machine teachers, or artificial intelligence (AI) teaching assistants. In fact, AI teaching assistants have already been implemented in a small number of courses in the United States. However, little is known about how students will perceive AI teaching assistants. Thus, the present study investigated students' perceptions about AI teaching assistants in higher education by use of an online survey. Primary findings indicate that perceived usefulness of an AI teaching assistant and perceived ease of communication with an AI teaching assistant are key to understanding an eventual adoption of AI teaching assistant-based education. These findings provide support for AI teaching assistant adoption. Based on the present study's findings, more research is needed to better understand the nuances associated with the learning experience one may have from an AI teaching assistant.

Interaction with a machine teacher improves student learning outcomes and teaching effectiveness. Results with Wiley Daila from Indonesia

“…While some studies have focused on identifying factors that influence teaching and learning effectiveness in an online environment (e.g., Al Ghamdi, Samarji, & Watt, 2016;Kaufmann, Sellnow, & Frisby, 2016;Sellnow-Richmond, Strawser, & Sellnow, 2019), research on the effectiveness of machine teachers (as opposed to course management systems such as Moodle or Blackboard) is rare (for an exception see Kim et al, 2020). Thus, here we aim to understand how the use of a machine teacher affects perceived teaching effectiveness as well as student learning outcomes (SLO).…”

“…Thus, here we aim to understand how the use of a machine teacher affects perceived teaching effectiveness as well as student learning outcomes (SLO). Our contribution is twofold: First, while recent efforts have, for example, examined how students would perceive the idea of using a machine teacher in higher education (e.g., Kim et al, 2020), here we focus on users' perceptions after they had the opportunity to interact with the technology during the semester. Hence, our study shifts the level of examination from intentions to behaviour.…”

“…Machine teachers are defined as nonhuman, technological agents supporting both human teachers and students as tutors, assistants, advisors, and/or instructors. Although 'machine teacher' is an umbrella term, the technologies have in common that they help or enable the human teachers and students to engage in affective, cognitive, and behavioural learning (Kim et al, 2020).…”

“…Machine teachers can vary in their degree of embodiment and physicality, ranging from physical robots such as Nadia Thalmanns Nadine, or virtual, anthropomorphic agents such as Microsoft's Clippy, to virtual chatbots or software/interface agents such as IBM's Jill Watson, and augmented reality agents such as the augmented piano tutor (Hantono, Nugroho, & Santosa, 2016;Kim et al, 2020). Figure 1 illustrates these five clusters of machine teachers.…”

“…Hence, one possible key role of machine teachers is to provide interactiveness, facilitating instructor-student and/or student-student interactions. Rather than replacing instructors, machine teachers support instructors and students alike (Kim et al, 2020). The instructor's role then shifts towards overseeing the aid from the machine, monitoring student progress, and providing additional (e.g., pastoral) support (Edwards, Edwards, Spence, & Li, 2018).…”