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Category: Instrumentation

Description: As technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other forms of machine-communication become more popular and readily available, the opportunities for use in an online class increase. This replication and extension sought to understand and test the use of AI versus human communication in an online learning space – specifically the Learning Management System (LMS) discussion board. More specifically, the differences in student perceptions and outcomes between those with a human course assistant and those assigned to an AI course assistant were examined. These perceptions were studied through the presence and absence of the identity heuristic and helper heuristic as outlined in previous literature. The study employed a four-condition randomized quasi-experimental design with a total of 334 undergraduate students from a course research pool. Outcomes of interest included credibility, task attraction, social attraction, computer mediated competence, student communication satisfaction, affect towards instructor and affect towards taking classes with the instructor. Findings supported previous work regarding importance of helper heuristics and highlighted the preference for a human over AI/machine educational agent.