As part of our ongoing research into the role of generative AI in teaching, learning, and assessment, I recently developed a set of reflective questions for students in my language and literacy course. These questions aim to better understand how students are using tools like NotebookLM and ChatGPT, what concerns they have, and how their perspectives evolve over time.
This effort builds on our broader study, detailed in this recent post, to examine the educational impact of generative AI across higher education. One of our primary goals is to surface students’ actual experiences with AI tools in the classroom. How often do they use them? For what tasks? Do they view these tools as helpful, harmful, or somewhere in between? And, perhaps most importantly, how can we as educators provide the right kind of support and guidance?
Why These Questions?
While there’s no shortage of debate about the risks and rewards of AI in education, we still know surprisingly little about what students themselves are doing with these tools day to day. Are they using them to brainstorm ideas, generate summaries, or clarify difficult readings? Are they relying on them for writing help? Or are they ignoring them altogether?
These questions are designed to prompt students to reflect not just on how they use generative AI, but also how it shapes their learning. Some prompts focus on usage patterns and initial impressions, while others explore deeper questions of critical thinking, ethical concerns, and future implications for literacy development.
A Glimpse at the Questions
The reflection set includes 21 short-response prompts across four themes:
1. Usage Patterns and Initial Reflections
These questions ask students to describe when and how they’ve used AI tools both in our course and in others. We’re interested in the frequency of use, the types of tasks they apply AI to, and how valuable they find these tools in their learning process.
Example:
“How frequently did you use generative AI tools (like NotebookLM) during this course? What specific tasks or assignments did you most commonly use them for?”
2. Critical Thinking & AI Integration
Here, students consider how AI tools help, or fail to help, with complex concepts, comparing their use to traditional study methods and analyzing the strengths and limitations of both.
Example:
“Describe a specific instance where you used NotebookLM or another generative AI tool to enhance your understanding of a complex literacy concept from our readings.”
3. Application & Analysis
These questions push students to examine how AI tools affect the very nature of literacy itself, and how they respond when tools give misleading or incomplete information.
Example:
“Analyze how AI tools might influence literacy development itself. How might widespread use of generative AI in education change what we consider ‘literacy’ in the future?”
4. Reflective Practice and Creative Application
Finally, students are invited to reflect on how their relationship with AI has evolved and consider how they might apply what they’ve learned, either as future educators or as learners working with others.
Example:
“If you were teaching this course, how might you integrate generative AI to teach complex concepts? Include specific prompts you would use, anticipated challenges, and how you would assess effectiveness.”
What We Hope to Learn
These reflections will give us rich, qualitative data to better understand students’ evolving attitudes toward AI in learning environments. We want to know what excites them, what concerns them, and where they feel lost or unsupported. These insights will help us adjust our teaching, develop more meaningful policies around AI use, and share practical guidance with faculty and future students.
Most importantly, we’re trying to move past the hype and fear to meet students where they are, exploring how they’re navigating these new tools, and how we can walk alongside them as educators in a rapidly shifting landscape.
If you’re an educator curious about using AI tools in your classroom, or just want to hear how students are engaging with this technology, stay tuned. I’ll be sharing anonymized insights from their responses in a future post.