Selected Presentations & Appearances
University students increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools has raised questions among educators and policymakers about its impact on academic integrity and student learning. While much of the discourse assumes students misuse these technologies as academic shortcuts, there is limited empirical research exploring how students perceive and engage with GenAI tools. This study investigates the perceptions utilization, motivations, and preferences of first-year graduate and postgraduate students at Duke Kunshan University (DKU) regarding GenAI tools. Using an anonymous survey and focus groups, we collected both quantitative and qualitative data from graduate students across diverse disciplines. Findings reveal nuanced perspectives on GenAI, such as its roll in writing development, workload management, and institutional policies on AI use. While some students reported using GenAI for brainstorming and revising text, others expressed concerns about dependency and ethical implications. These findings highlight the need for context-specific guidelines on responsible AI integration in higher education.
This presentation was given along with Layla Shelmerdine, Joseph Davies, and Eric Eberly.
Over the past 18 months, the introduction of GenAI has raised many discussions within higher education. This is especially true within the context of academic writing, where the students have the means (GenAI technology), the motive (higher grades), and the opportunity (through assessments) to abuse this technology and commit academic integrity violations. While many instructors and institutions have sought to outright ban the use of this technology, our graduate EAP team instead used this opportunity to discuss how to use it to supplement our students’ writing skills, rather than supplant them.
This talk showed how we have integrated these GenAI tools into our class and communicated to students about permissible and impermissible uses of this technology. Our team created a cover sheet for each assignment, and students had to declare their use of GenAI technology on this cover sheet. This allowed us to understand where and how they utilized GenAI and guided our own instruction on the ethical use of this technology. Through this integration, we found that our students have developed a more critical view towards the use of GenAI in their work, including where it would not be appropriate (or beneficial) to use it.
This two-way discussion on GenAI utilization has also spurred a research project into the students’ perceptions, utilizations, motivations, and preferences (PUMP) of GenAI technology, which will be briefly introduced in this talk.
Along with Joseph and Benjamin, members of this research team include: Minghao (Rainie) Zhang, Eric Eberly, Christopher Tebbe, and Layla Shelmerdine.
The primary goal of an EMI program for home students is to improve their second language skills while, at the very least, not inhibiting the amount of content knowledge learned (Macaro, Curle, Pun, An, and Dearden, 2018). One of the largest inhibiting factors to the success of an EMI program is the insufficient language abilities of the students and instructors involved (Ibid.). Studies conducted in Chinese higher education institutions (HEIs) have confirmed this phenomenon (e.g., Hu and Lei, 2014; Li, 2017; Gu and Lee, 2019). While some HEIs have attempted to alleviate these issues through the implementation of minimum language competencies required for students to enroll in the course, and overseas educational experience requirements for instructors to teach in these programs, participants still report issues in this area.
Recently, proposals have been made to provide additional, continuing support for students and instructors, respectively, on these programs (Galloway, Kriukow, and Numajiri, 2017; Fang, 2018; Rose and Galloway, 2019; Galloway, Numajiri, and Rees, 2020). In this presentation, the results of a multiple-case study of language needs and such support provided by three HEIs in Shanghai will be shared. The case study was conducted using student questionnaires and instructor interviews to gain a deep understanding of the current situation. Areas that will be discussed include current provisions of language and EMI pedagogical support, students and instructor's needs, and suggestions for exploiting opportunities for language support that institutions can provide.