Supporting Your Learning with Gen AI

Before you use AI tools for your studies, you should confirm with your instructor that you are allowed to do so. You should also understand how the technology can support your learning without offloading personal effort. 

This blog outlines how self-regulation skills improve learning outcomes and how you might use Gen AI to strengthen self-regulation.

What Is Self-Regulated Learning?

Self-regulated learning is a proactive approach to develop knowledge and skill. It is a cyclical process, involving an interactive cycle of developing strategies, setting goals, performing tasks, self-reflecting, and making adjustments.

A key component of self-regulation is personal initiative to achieve better learning outcomes (Zimmerman, 2015). This means that self-regulated learning can happen whether a student learns by themselves or learns with the help of teammates, peers, or even tools (Zimmerman, 2015), as long as the cognitive work and effort is initiated and sustained by the learner.

This underlines the importance of remaining active in your learning. When using tools or working with peers, it is especially important to stay engaged throughout the learning process. 

The Role of Gen AI

Using AI to write your assignment for you can be considered an academic misconduct, depending on your instructor’s expectations. Additionally, by delegating the effort required in your learning, you also diminish your own personal development.

You should only be using AI tools to help your learning, not replace it.

To support your learning, consider using Gen AI tools to facilitate self-regulation. Here are a few self-regulation skills that you can develop using Gen AI along with sample prompts:

• Goal setting: “Help me create a 2-week project timeline with milestones.”
• Time management: “Help me schedule my upcoming day(s) to maximize productivity.”
• Task strategies: “Help me create a robust outline for my project.”
• Self-motivation: “I received a low mark on my paper and want to find ways to do better next time. Help me stay motivated.”
• Self-regulation: “I am behind schedule on this project. Help me understand why and provide strategies to catch up.”
• Self-monitoring: “I want to see if I understand this material clearly. Quiz me about my lecture notes by asking me questions.”
• Self-evaluation: “I want to assess my paper for clarity, coherence, and structure. Help me identify strengths and weaknesses.”

Final Tips When Using Gen AI for Feedback

Generative AI uses predictive modelling to create text, which means it does not actually understand your inputs the way humans would. When AI tools provide feedback, it’s important to remember that feedback can be inaccurate. Additionally, AI chat-bots are designed to provide a positive user experience and promote continued engagement with the tool. This can also affect the feedback you receive. Depending on the prompt, AI chat tools often provide too much praise, over exaggerate the positive aspects of your input, and promote confirmation bias. So, this must be considered when using AI tools for feedback.

If AI says your writing is strong (or weak), you should ask it to point out specific instances and ask for its reasoning. You can then verify these sections yourself or consult a writing tutor, friend, family member, or peer.

References

Zimmerman, B. J. (2015). Self-regulated learning: Theories, measures, and outcomes.” International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2nd Ed., pp. 541-546).Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.26060-1