This research project received funding through the 2023 Institute for Diversity Science Seed Grant Program
Principal Investigator: Ran Liu, Assistant Professor, Educational Policy Studies, UW–Madison
Abstract: The rapid development and widespread adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools, such as ChatGPT, necessitate an urgent examination of their implications for education and inequality. GAI may provide personalized, low-expense, accessible, and culturally diverse academic support to historically marginalized and underrepresented students, potentially improving diversity and inclusion in higher education. However, concerns have been raised regarding access disparities, academic integrity, and potential bias in GAI-generated content that may perpetuate inequality.
Adopting a constructively critical perspective, this study examines the role of GAI in shaping college students’ learning experiences in STEM fields and its potential impact on gender, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic inequalities. It aims to answer: (1) How do college students utilize GAI to facilitate STEM learning? What are the barriers, facilitators, and other influencing factors that shape their experiences with GAI across socio-demographic groups? (2) How does GAI perpetuate or alleviate existing inequalities? Are there variations in GAI acceptance, attitudes, usage patterns, and concerns among students from different socio-demographic backgrounds? How may historically underrepresented students leverage GAI to overcome challenges in STEM learning? (3) What institutional support and policies are necessary to guarantee an inclusive learning environment with GAI? Employing a student-centered, transformative sequential mixed methods approach, this study leverages the strengths of large-scale quantitative data from a campus-wide survey, fine-grained qualitative insights from targeted in-depth interviews, and innovative textual data from real student-AI conversations. Findings will inform the development of inclusive AI-enhanced learning strategies and policies to support diverse student populations.