Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1474892
This article is part of the Research Topic Chatgpt and Other Generative AI Tools View all 13 articles

Exploring Generative AI in Higher Education: A RAG System to Enhance Student Engagement with Scientific Literature

Provisionally accepted
Dominik Thüs Dominik Thüs *Sarah Malone Sarah Malone *Roland Brünken Roland Brünken
  • Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study explores the implementation and evaluation of OwlMentor, an AI-powered learning environment designed to assist university students in comprehending scientific texts. OwlMentor was developed participatorily and then integrated into a course, with development and evaluation taking place over two semesters. It offers features like document-based chats, automatic question generation, and quiz creation. We used the Technology Acceptance Model to assess system acceptance, examined learning outcomes, and explored the influence of general self-efficacy on system acceptance and OwlMentor use. The results indicated complex relationships between perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and actual use, suggesting the need for more dynamic models of system acceptance. Although no direct correlation between OwlMentor use and learning gains was found, descriptive results indicated higher gains among users compared to non-users. Additionally, general self-efficacy was strongly related to perceived usefulness, intention to use, and actual use of the system. These findings highlight the importance of aligning AI tools with students' needs and existing learning strategies to maximize their educational benefits.

    Keywords: AI in Education, Technology acceptance model, Scientific text comprehension, higher education, AI-powered Learning Environment, self-efficacy, ChatGPT

    Received: 02 Aug 2024; Accepted: 27 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Thüs, Malone and Brünken. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Dominik Thüs, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
    Sarah Malone, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.