National Science Foundation A.I. Institute for Engaged Learning (EngageAI)

• In Event: Research Themes Across the Three National Science Foundation–Funded National Artificial Intelligence Institutes on Education

Abstract

Objectives or purposes

The mission of the NSF AI Institute for Engaged Learning (EngageAI) is to produce transformative advances in STEM learning and teaching with AI-driven narrative-centered learning environments. The EngageAI Institute is guided by a vision of learning that supports and extends the capabilities of students and teachers with AI. The Institute conducts research on narrative-centered learning technologies, embodied conversational agents, and multimodal learning analytics to create deeply engaging collaborative story-based learning experiences. Driven by a learner-centered vision of AI-augmented learning, the Institute will create narrative-centered learning experiences designed to promote student engagement in both formal and informal learning settings. Our research is informed by a nexus of stakeholders to ensure that AI-empowered learning technologies are ethically designed and prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Our formulation of narrative-centered learning is guided by problem-based learning, anchored instruction, cognitive apprenticeship, learning-by-teaching and other approaches to collaborative inquiry that ground learning in meaningful tasks.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

We take a design-based approach to research that involves theory-based conjectures, participatory design, research in real-world educational settings, and iterative evidence-based refinement of both theory and design. In particular, we test conjectures about how AI can augment narrative-centered learning environments and its impact on learning and engagement. A central component of our research is involving learners and educators in participatory design to create narratives that are interesting, meaningful, provide opportunities to address relevant STEM standards, and are relevant in different cultural contexts.

Our research employs qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate how to most productively embed problem-based and other forms of collaborative inquiry in narratives. The narratives will provide a story with a problem to solve (e.g., how to eliminate invasive plants) or a meaningful task to complete (e.g., teaching an agent disciplinary content). Narrative-centered learning environments will also help create shared goals that support learner interest and engagement, which are important for ensuring the active participation that promotes learning.

Our research to uncover how learners use context for collaborative inquiry will inform the design of narrative-centered learning environments to generate narratives that support learners at the individual, small group, and whole class level, as well as identifying how to best support teachers. Providing appropriate scaffolding that is conditioned on learner needs is also an important element of our research. By using qualitative methods to understand how students participate in science practices such as argumentation and explanation and using quantitative methods to investigate narrative-centered learning, we can understand the effects of narrative-embedded scaffolds.

Our research has a specific emphasis on examining the relationship between learning and engagement. Engagement has traditionally been conceptualized as being multidimensional (e.g., behavioral, cognitive, and affective) and assessed at an individual level. We will adopt a multidimensional conceptualization of engagement and broaden it to investigate engagement in collaborative narrative-centered learning environments via explorations of disciplinary engagement, collaborative engagement, and socioemotional engagement, as well as their relationship to learning processes and outcomes.

Author

• James C. Lester, North Carolina State University
  Presenting Author