Athabasca University science professors are exploring artificial intelligence research applications like no other with the support of AU students and research assistants
Artificial intelligence is a rapidly growing field, with new research and applications regularly being shared with the public to improve our lives and make our work efficient like no other.
Behind every discovery, application, and policy, there are countless academics leading the way with innovative research, promoting access, opportunity, and community. This includes many at Athabasca University, which seeks to improve the lives of students through teaching, research, and impact.
Many of these researchers at the School of Computing and Information Systems in the Faculty of Science and Technology create opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to get involved in this work. This provides practical hands-on experience developing these innovative technologies, contributing to AU’s highest contribution: making the world better and more equitable.
“This innovative research from our professors, along with the hands-on, practical research opportunities we provide to our students at both the undergraduate and graduate level, make our online degree programs stand out,” said science dean Dr. Shauna Zenteno.
Using AI to personalize learning
Dr. Oscar Lin’s work explores using AI to personalize learning paths, so that each individual student would be able to achieve the same learning outcomes in a course, but in a way that works for their unique learning style.
This work exploring adaptive learning includes developing an AI tool that could help teachers by making high-quality predictions about what sequence of learning would work best for an individual, helping teachers to better support their students.
What works for one student at one time, doesn’t always work for another student at another time,” he said. “It’s always changing."
Discover Lin’s adaptive learning research
Will AI change what it means to be human?
Dr. Jon Dron focuses bigger-picture questions about AI: specifically, the benefits and risks of using this kind of technology to help us to teach and learn.
New technologies have been changing the ways we live our lives since the earliest days of humanity, but the shift toward generative AI is profoundly different. A pen and paper, for example, still need a human directly involved to generate text. With generative AI, the technology itself is now actively participating in creating meaning in how it responds to different prompts.
"The trouble is this is very much not human, but it plays a very human role in the kinds of things we do,” Dron said. “And I am in equal parts enthralled and terrified by the possibilities of this.
Explore Dron's research into AI's impact
Improving learning outcomes with AI
One of the challenges for teachers in an online learning environment is understanding how well students are engaging with and understanding course materials.
Dr. Ali Dewan is developing an AI-based application that could provide that feedback to students or their instructors instantly using facial recognition technology and analyzing the physical cues that students provide—much like a lecturer in person can gauge student interest based on body language.
This is at the preliminary stage where we are just trying to detect it,” he said. After detecting what types of challenge the student is facing, identifying those challenges and providing adequate feedback to students is the next step.
Learn about Dewan's work to improve learning outcomes
Explore AI with a master’s degree
Athabasca University’s Master of Science in Information Systems (MScIS) is a graduate program like no other, with many routes and options to meet your unique educational goals.