3:00 p.m. Understanding Students' Use of and Ability to
Detect AI through a Class Research Project

Dr. Kristina Higgins

Live Presentation Location

Fort Worth Room 309

Session Information

Abstract

With the explosion of AI use over the past year, it is imperative that we understand how students are using AI as well as their ability to detect the use of AI by their peers. Students in a Research Methods course were asked about their familiarity with AI at the beginning of the semester and then split randomly into two groups for their research project, which requires two drafts and a final paper. Each group was asked to use traditional writing methods for one draft and AI for another, with the groups alternating which method was used. Students also peer reviewed three of each draft, including a question on whether they thought the draft was written by AI or traditional writing methods and why. They completed a presentation after the final paper discussing their experiences with AI and findings from the dataset created by this class project. Preliminary results from the fall semester course show that most students have not used AI prior to taking this course, though in their presentation at the end, students were more willing to try AI tools moving forward. Furthermore, students were more likely to state that their peers used traditional writing methods overall, regardless of whether they were rating an AI or traditionally written paper.

Presenter

Dr. Kristina Higgins joined Tarleton's faculty in 2015 and is an Associate Professor and
Division Director of Child Development and Family Studies. Her research interests
include AI in higher education, numeracy in early childhood, and parent-child
interactions.

Recording

Recording unavailable. You can access the PowerPoint to the presentation:

AI Presentation EE Week_April 2024.pptx