Teaching the Pause: Letting Inquiry Drive Students' AI Decisions

Abstract

AI is rapidly transforming how both instructors and students approach the research process, which, in turn, reshapes how collaborators support these skills. In this presentation, we provide a librarian perspective on working with students in the TEAL Doctoral Cohort class as they crafted a literature review based on their research agenda. Students were tasked to spend the first four weeks of the semester utilizing different AI tools to find an initial research area of interest and literature in the field on that subject. In the 5th week, students visited with the Education Liaison Team in the library to learn how to conduct a literature review without AI tools (the “traditional method”), and thus armed with both approaches, were encouraged to continue researching using whichever method made the most sense for their research. Students then completed a final reflection on the impact of AI on their literature reviews.

Preliminary results from the students suggest that AI did not make the literature review process easier. While AI helped identify sources and draft a literature review more quickly, students reflected at the end of the course that traditional methods made them more confident about understanding how their work was situated in the field. They also noticed that AI missed key elements of their research areas. Students communicated the value the library had in providing research support in ways they had not previously considered. Ultimately, all students mentioned that, moving forward, their research process would incorporate both AI and “traditional” library-based approaches.

As librarians, this is critical data. It illuminates the impact that librarians have in furthering research support in the age of AI and offers new ways to reconsider/tailor assignments to better support students who are uncertain about how to utilize the library for their research work. This presentation will feature a reflective component where we, as the Liaison Librarians for this course, identify critical entry points for the Library to become more involved in AI-based pedagogical theory and assignment design. We will also discuss other potential ways for helping students discover the limitations and effective uses of AI within the research process with authentic, scaffolded research assignments. We provide resources that will help attendees scaffold this assignment to different educational contexts, including undergraduate courses, classes with more condensed assignments, and disciplines who do not want to use AI. In doing so, we articulate an approach that centers student success in the research arena while concomitantly centering the Library as a key campus collaborator and innovator on ever-evolving AI practices.

Presenters