Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED)

Higher education is going through a significant shift as federal funding is steadily declining and demographic forces are changing student characteristics. A shift to online and remote classes allows universities to reach a new international student body, a vital step to staying competitive. However, with larger virtual courses, technology, particularly AI and adaptive learning systems, is presenting a risk to supplant teachers, relegating them to a merely supporting role. Over this past year, when I had to redesign my courses for online delivery, it occurred to me that we don't nearly have enough relevant data to evaluate students holistically. This prompted me to apply to the University of British Columbia to pursue my Ph.D. with the research topic Here Come the Robots: Augmenting Teachers' Effectiveness and Improving the Student Learning Experience with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

My proposed research topic aims to find opportunities for AI to allow instructors to focus on the social dimensions of teaching and learning, reallocating time away from mundane tasks, and addressing how to assess students holistically in multimodal environments.

Additionally, I'm interested in developing a framework around artificial intelligence in education (AIED) to address the ethical implications and concerns of data collection to ensure student privacy.