Transforming Teaching Learning With Chatbots in Higher Education: Quest, Opportunities and Challenges for Quality Enhancement

Abstract

Given the existing quality concerns of higher education (HE), particularly in the global South, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been seen as a panacea to improve the quality of teaching learning in HE. AI Chatbots, like ChatGPT, have created profound resonance across HE systems with both positive and negative impacts. Within HE, expectations and concerns related to the quality of HE in general, and teaching learning in particular, loom. It is yet to be investigated how university teachers use AI chatbots in their teaching inside classrooms and its potential to enhance the quality of teaching learning in HE. This chapter sheds light on these questions based on in-depth qualitative interviews with faculty members from six universities in Pakistan. Using a thematic analysis approach, the findings highlight both positive and negative aspects of ChatGPT when used for teaching in HE. Based on the findings, we developed a four-stage framework highlighting faculty members' response to integrating ChatGPT for transforming teaching learning activities. We explain that transformation of teaching learning with AI requires educators to rethink teaching and learning – navigative response – and assess its integration – evaluative response. In conclusion, we discuss how the adoption of AI chatbots provides educators with authentic assessment but will certainly require skills to properly navigate. We further discuss the findings in literature around the quality of HE making some plausible predictions regarding whether chatbots can serve as a quality enhancement tool, mainly in the global South.

Citation

Ahmad, S., Ahmed, A., Bhutta, S.M. and Ansari, A.N. (2024), "Transforming Teaching Learning With Chatbots in Higher Education: Quest, Opportunities and Challenges for Quality Enhancement", Lytras, M.D., Alkhaldi, A., Malik, S., Serban, A.C. and Aldosemani, T. (Ed.) The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education (Emerald Studies in Active and Transformative Learning in Higher Education), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 111-127. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83549-486-820241007