arXiv AI

Reducing Barriers to Academic Support: Evaluating a Course-Specific RAG System for Addressing Help-Seeking Disparities in Higher Education

The paper introduces Beacon, a course‑specific Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) system that offers private, module‑aligned academic support to students. By grounding responses in approved teaching materials, Beacon aims to lower barriers to help‑seeking and encourage independent learning, especially in computing education where tasks are cumulative and demanding. Evaluation through questionnaires and interviews showed students found Beacon’s responses trustworthy and closely aligned with course content, viewing it as a useful first point of support before consulting lecturers or official resources.

arXiv AI
Sep 25

Guardrails or Roadblocks? Effects of Pedagogical Style and Context Awareness in AI Teaching Assistants for Programming

The study examined how different designs of AI teaching assistants (AI TAs) affect students in an introductory programming course. Four AI TAs were compared based on pedagogical style (Socratic vs. Direct instruction) and context awareness (no context vs. full context). Results showed that the Socratic AI TA with full context received the lowest favorability ratings, had the highest interaction stress, the most external LLM use, and the lowest comprehension outcomes, though differences were not statistically significant.

By Madeleine Eastwood, Harshith Narne, Joseph Hilby, Paul Denny, Ashish Aggarwal, Amanpreet Kapoor
arXiv AI
Jun 9

AI-Integrated Learning Management System for Middle School: A Longitudinal Study of Learning Outcomes Through High School and Beyond

arXiv:2606. 07544v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Middle school is a key window for building core academic skills and the learning routines students carry into later grades, yet many students still fall behind because help is often limited and comes too late, after they have already been stuck for a while.

By Misan Paul Etchie, Taiwo Olutosin
arXiv AI
3d ago

Examining Variation in How Guided AI Tutors Resolve Student Impasses

The study analyzes 20,462 student turns from 1,260 sessions with a guided LLM chemistry tutor, identifying 6,630 impasse turns categorized as conceptual errors, expressed uncertainty, or help‑seeking. Three tutoring conditions—baseline, no‑direct‑answer, and guided—were simulated, revealing that the baseline tutor often gave direct answers, the no‑direct‑answer tutor always asked follow‑up questions, and the guided tutor varied its responses based on context. Impasse trajectories showed that each additional impasse turn reduced the likelihood of recovery, while addressing errors became increasingly beneficial compared to repeated scripted questioning.

By Bakhtawar Ahtisham, Kirk Vanacore, Alessandra Napoli, Josh Arens, Ksenia Ionova, Clayton Cohn, Shima Salehi, Rene Kizilcec
arXiv AI
Jul 16

Learning Engagement Assistant (LEA): Cross-Course Scalability and Classroom Evaluation of an Agentic AI Tutoring System

arXiv:2607. 13370v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: This paper is an extension of a paper presented at the ICAART 2026 conference, which introduced LEA (Learning Engagement Assistant), an adaptive AI tutoring agent combining course-specific Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with structured Knowledge Component (KC) models across integrated Chat, Tutor, and Quiz modes.

By Teri Rumble, Javad Zarrin, P. George Lovell, Ruth Falconer
arXiv AI
Sep 17

The Uneven Impact of Generative AI on Student Learning: Examining the Roles of Reliance, Evaluation Literacy, and Course Policy in AI-related Courses

The study investigates how generative AI (GenAI) affects student learning in AI-related courses, using survey data from 118 students across 12 courses. Four distinct user clusters were identified—high-use, light-use, and two moderate-use groups—each showing varying benefits and reliance patterns. The research highlights that early reliance, evaluation literacy, and instructor policies significantly influence perceived academic benefits and negative impacts, underscoring the need for institutional policies to address inequities in AI use.

By Lydia Manikonda, Mei Si, Sirajam Munira, Oshani Seneviratne, Kristin Bennett
arXiv AI
Jul 15

A Comparative Analysis of Institutional and Course Generative AI Policies within Higher Education: Implications for Instruction in Computing Education

arXiv:2607. 12296v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: With the increased use of generative AI (GenAI) applications such as ChatGPT, higher education institutions (HEIs) have released a range of guidelines and policies to direct adoption within their institutions.

By Amrita Ganguly, Aditya Johri, Nora McDonald, Areej Ali, Umama Dewan, Aayushi Hingle Collier
arXiv AI
Sep 7

Who Should Grade My Work? Student Perspectives on Transparent AI-Assisted Writing Assessment in Higher Education

The study explores how undergraduate computing students in Saudi Arabia perceive AI‑generated writing feedback when they are explicitly told that ChatGPT, not a human instructor, produced the score and comments. Through qualitative reflections, four themes emerged: students found the feedback useful for surface‑level revisions, recognized AI’s contextual and pedagogical limits, trusted the feedback conditionally—separating its utility from its authority—and reaffirmed the human instructor’s role as the ultimate grading authority. The findings highlight a clear distinction students make between feedback usefulness and evaluative authority, treating them as separate judgments rather than opposing ends of a single approval scale.

By Rayed AlGhamdi
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jul 15

Learning Engagement Assistant (LEA): Cross-Course Scalability and Classroom Evaluation of an Agentic AI Tutoring System

This paper is an extension of a paper presented at the ICAART 2026 conference, which introduced LEA (Learning Engagement Assistant), an adaptive AI tutoring agent combining course-specific Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with structured Knowledge Component (KC) models across integrated Chat, Tutor, and Quiz modes. That prior work validated LEA on a single STEM course (CMP511) exclusively through simulation, using synthetic learner agents.