‘Gen-AI hardly ever used for learning purposes’

Omid Noroozi (associate professor at Education and Learning Sciences) says one reason for this hesitation is a lack of trust in the output produced by tools like ChatGPT. His research team conducted two surveys, mapping students and teachers’ GenAI literacy, use, and perception.

In total, 764 students and 302 teachers participated in the surveys. ‘Some of the survey results were quite surprising’, Noroozi says. ‘For example: many students claim to hardly ever use GenAI tools for learning purposes. This did not match my own teaching experiences. In the courses that I teach, students use AI quite a lot for tasks like essay writing or providing and analysing peer feedback, and they seem to like it very much.’ Most of the survey students say that they recognise the added value of GenAI and plan to use it more in the future.

Teachers also indicate they rarely use GenAI for learning purposes. Among surveyed teachers, 21% occasionally use it to improve teaching materials, while 70% (almost) never do. Similarly, 14% use GenAI to enhance student engagement, compared to 80% who (almost) never do, and 13% use it for designing learning activities, while 83% (almost) never do.

Low trust

ChatGPT is the most widely used AI tool among both teachers and students. However, both groups have reservations about trusting GenAI output. Among students, 83% (strongly) agree that GenAI responses should be verified against other sources; 75% of teachers agree with them.

Another similarity is that both groups indicate they are not fully aware of what is permitted when it comes to using GenAI in education. ‘In my eyes, the institutional policy of using GenAI in education is clear’, says Noroozi. ‘Ultimately, the teacher decides, within the boundaries of institutional policy.’

Continuous development

Most teachers do not feel encouraged to collaborate with colleagues on AI-related tasks. ‘It could be a good idea to introduce standardised GenAI workshops for teachers’, Noroozi says. ‘Also, launching a platform where teachers can discuss their GenAI experiences and share best case examples of how they use it, could help. GenAI is continuously developing, so we need an ongoing discussion about how to use it in education.’

Noroozi says the research team that conducted the surveys will launch a series of empirical studies at WUR to explore the ethical, responsible, and sustainable integration of GenAI in education. ‘We aim to optimise human-AI collaboration for enhanced learning outcomes in our classrooms.’ More information about the project and detailed survey results are available here.

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