Augmenting teachers’ performance with generative AI.

 

The past several years have seen tremendous changes in the educational scene, mostly as a result of technological improvements. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a fascinating subject that is attracting the interest of stakeholders and educators alike. Of all the AI types, generative AI, or GAI, is particularly noteworthy because of its capacity to create new content based on certain prompt. The new and unique content can be either text, images, videos, music, or speech. This process involves three key components: (1) the model: this is the AI system itself, (2) user input (prompt): the questions or commands provided by users, and (3) iterative refinement: the AI continuously improves its output until it meets the user’s expectations. These advanced neural network models utilize vast amounts of data and billions of learning parameters, enabling them to produce credible and high-quality content. The widespread availability, low costs, and userfriendly interfaces of GAI tools have made them increasingly popular in educational settings. The journey of AI in education began as early as the 1960s, with the development of intelligent tutoring systems designed to personalize learning for individual students (Ross, 2008). This evolution continued into the early 2000s when computer scientists began creating adaptive learning systems and chatbots that focused on natural language processing and machine translation. Fast forward to the 2020s, and we are witnessing rapid advancements in GAI, particularly with initiatives from organizations like OpenAI. For instance, ChatGPT—a popular GAI tool for content creation— gained over one million users within just a week of its launch in November 2022. This success has sparked global interest in educational applications of GAI. Today, GAI tools like ChatGPT are commonplace among students, teachers, and administrative staff. Students use these tools for research and assignments, while educators leverage them to streamline lesson planning and material development. Administrative staff find GAI helpful for tasks like report writing and data analysis. It’s essential for educational institutions to embrace GAI not just as a passing trend but as a valuable resource for enhancing teaching and learning. Many researches have investigated the impact of GAI in education. Results of previous studies indicate that GAI tools can facilitate the provision of immediate and tailored feedback thus streamlining the feedback process, which not only promotes student engagement but also enhances learning outcomes. Similarly, Coursera’s demonstrated that AI-powered learning assistants can effectively guide students through complex concepts, thereby reducing feelings of isolation and enhancing motivation. Recognizing the potential of GAI, Indonesia Open University or Universitas Terbuka (UT) has initiated an experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of GAI-guided tutoring compared to traditional human tutoring. As mentioned eralier, this experiment is particularly relevant for distance education institutions, which face challenges in providing meaningful learning experiences. Founded in 1984, UT was established as an open university to enhance Indonesia’s higher education capacity through distance learning. With over 550,000 students enrolled in around 1,000 courses across various levels, UT primarily relies on text-based learning materials, supplemented by audio, video, and computer-based resources. The university has adapted its tutorial services from faceto-face meetings to predominantly online interactions. This version aims to make the information more relatable and engaging while maintaining the core ideas and details from the original text. One of the learning supports provided to students is online tutorials, which are delivered using Moodle-based Learning Management System. These tutorials are designed to be asynchronous, allowing students to access them at their convenience. Each semester, UT sets up online tutorials for all its courses, creating over 50,000 virtual tutorial classes. For each course, UT develops a master tutorial class that is then duplicated into multiple parallel classes, depending on the number of registered students. Some courses may have more than 1,000 parallel classes, resulting in a total of over 2.3 million student-course interactions. With this large number of activities, UT can definitely benefit from the use of GAI as assistant tutors. Based on the above background, this study aims to examine the effects of Generative AI (GAI)-based tutoring on student engagement and achievement in a large-scale distance educationsetting. The main research question guiding this study is: How does the use of GAI-based tutorassistants impact student engagement and academic achievement compared to traditionalhuman tutors in online tutorial classes at Indonesia Open University?