Grant Recipients
Pia Zeni, Centre for Extended Learning
Kristin Wilson, Psychology
Daniel Opperwall, Centre for Extended Learning
(Project timeline: November 2023 - December 2024)
Description
- This grant proposes a two-phase research study with undergraduates enrolled in a Psychology course, taken by students from a variety of faculties, that explores how they encounter GenAI.
- Built off the fact that 52% of Canadians over the age of 18 use GenAI in their learning, and 60% of them believe that use of GenAI is cheating (KPMG, 2023).
- Understanding learner perspectives/experiences is critical to developing institution-level guidelines at UW and supports for this emerging technology.
Project Goals
-
Address to what extent a sample of undergraduate learners may be using GenAI in their coursework, assignments, and/or co-op (reported behaviour);
-
What motivates (or dissuades) the use of Gen AI for coursework, assessments, and/or co-op in this population;
-
What beliefs, attitudes, and expectations learners have about GenAI (e.g., how useful is the tool, do they expect that they need to develop GenAI skills for academic work and beyond, what do they expect from UW in terms of academic support or policing).
-
-
Direct observation of how learners interact with ChatGPT when attempting different types of assignments (actual behaviour).
-
Disseminate the results of this study within the university, to inform policy/departmental response to GenAI, and the development of an AI literacy course that is grounded in UW learners’ needs.
-
Results will inform a larger-scale study with a broader sample of UW learners (across Faculties and years of study) as a follow-up to this preliminary study; we plan to submit a proposal to the Teaching Innovation Incubator (TII).