Abstract
In first 20 years of the 21st century, one of most significant technological systems that has emerged as a socital change agent is AI (Artificial Intelligence). Many of our daily activities as well as business activities are being affected by AI. Even our K-12 and college programs and students are starting to have to adjust to AI systems. In this issue of the journal, we start with an Op Ed essay that discusses the many examples of nascent uses of AI-enhanced instructional systems. More importantly, the essay discusses both the positive and negative impacts of the future use of AI systems in educational programs. The first research paper deals with the design and use of an AI enhanced tutoring system for mathematics education.
Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus, Harry Pence provides a very thoughtful essay about both the potential and problems of integrating AI-enhanced instructional systems.
His Op Ed piece raises many interesting questions as well as concerns about the future use AI systems in both K-12 and higher education programs. The essay cites a number of emerging applications of AI in education. The second article in this issue provides an excellent example of how AI techniques are being used in an Intelligent Tutoring System. This example was tested with students in mathematics classes.
Students who have different cultural backgrounds need to be considered in the design of new AI-enhanced systems. The third paper uses a game-based social and emotional skills assessment system to compare student performance across three cultures. In the next paper, the cultural differences are also addressed. It investigates the effects of cooperative learning and Blog instruction in a culturally mixed group of students. The fifth paper deals with programs for students with different learning styles. It explores the design of “untethered lectures” which provides alternative online instructional materials to support lectures.
The last three papers in this issue deal with how assessment of students’ reaction to online instructional systems provides information for designing and improving the systems. The sixth paper reports on a study that was conducted in discussion-based online graduate courses. Student postings and written reflections were collected to obtain student feedback. The next paper focused on a case study that was designed to understand how undergraduate students used Learning Analytics Dashboards interactions. The concluding paper provides an analysis of how social media resources are used for internalizing disorders.