NSF IUSE Project: Focus Group Interview on SMART learning experience in PHYS 1112K 🔗
April 4, 2025
Our research team conducted a focus group interview with 15 students from the Spring 2025 PHYS 1112K course at Georgia State University on April 4th. This session was part of our NSF-IUSE project, “AI-Scaffolded Pre-Classroom Learning for Undergraduate Physics Courses.”
The purpose of the session was to better understand how SMART, an AI-supported formative feedback system, impacted students’ learning and well-being over the course of the semester. In this context, well-being refers to students’ physical, mental, emotional, and social experiences within the learning environment.
Graduate research assistants Hyunkyu Han and Seora Kim facilitated the session. Students were invited to share their perspectives on the positive effects of SMART on learning and well-being, challenges or negative experiences, and barriers to using SMART effectively.
NSF IUSE Project: Spring 2025 SMART Deployment in PHYS 1112K 🔗
April 3, 2025
In Spring 2025, our research team implemented the SMART system in PHYS 1112K, an introductory physics course at Georgia State University. This work is part of the NSF-IUSE project, “AI-Scaffolded Pre-Classroom Learning for Undergraduate Physics Courses.”
This full-semester deployment builds on a pilot study we conducted in 2024. During the pilot phase, we focused on three key goals: redesigning two introductory physics courses to include AI-supported pre-classroom learning activities, testing the revised curriculum in PHYS 1111K and PHYS 1112K with Co-PI Dr. M. Shammer Abdeen, and improving SMART’s formative feedback features. As part of this work, we developed a generative AI-based expert modeling tool to help instructors create high-quality summaries.
In the Spring 2025 deployment, SMART was integrated into 8 modules. Students followed a structured pre-class routine: textbook reading, SMART summary writing (with AI-generated feedback and revision), pre-lecture quizzes, and in-class problem-solving. A control group completed similar activities using traditional methods.
In this phase, we aim to address three main research questions: 1) To what extent does AI-augmented feedback help engage students in building mental models of STEM content during pre-classroom learning? 2) How does AI-scaffolded student knowledge attainment influence their achievement levels for cognitively demanding tasks (e.g., problem-solving) in classrooms, self-efficacy, motivation, and interest in STEM (i.e., Physics)? 3) What are the positive or negative effects of the AI-augmented learning environments on students’ well-being (e.g., physical, mental, and social flourishing of individuals influenced by the intervention)?
We are collecting quantitative data (e.g., SMART usage logs, quiz/homework/exam scores, survey results) and qualitative data (e.g., student reflections, focus group interviews).
This summer, we plan to offer SMART mentoring sessions to faculty and graduate instructors at Georgia State University and share the platform with educators at other institutions to expand its reach.
Award received by Lia Haddadian 🔗
April 1, 2025
Our graduate associates, Lia Haddadian won the Outstanding Ph.D. Student in Learning Technologies Award from the Department of Learning Sciences at the College of Education & Human Development at Georgia State University (GSU).
The Outstanding Ph.D. Student in Learning Technologies Award is given to a student who has demonstrated potential for excellence in research, teaching, and service in instructional technology.
Congratulations!
Dr. Min Kyu Kim Honored at CEHD Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony 🔗
March 27, 2025
We are proud to share that our director, Dr. Min Kyu Kim, was recognized at the College of Education & Human Development’s annual Faculty and Staff Celebration. Dr. Kim received the Outstanding Faculty Research Mentoring Award, which recognizes a full-time faculty member who fulfills in an exemplary way the college’s commitment to providing mentoring in the conduct of research to faculty colleagues and doctoral students.
Outstanding Faculty Research Mentoring Award - Dr. Min Kyu Kim
Dr. Min Kyu Kim is the 2025 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Research Mentoring Award, which recognizes a full-time faculty member who fulfills in an exemplary way the college’s commitment to providing mentoring in the conduct of research to faculty colleagues and doctoral students.
Dr. Kim is an associate professor in the Department of Learning Sciences. As a leading researcher in educational artificial intelligence (AI), Dr. Kim has dedicated his work to designing AI technologies that offer personalized learning support while helping educators adopt problem-centered teaching practices. He has advised 17 doctoral students, serving as dissertation chair for eight of them and as a committee member for others, including one at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His successful funding endeavors have supported 12 full-time graduate research assistants, and he has supervised internships for two doctoral students.
In 2022, he established the AI2 Research Laboratory, an interdisciplinary and cross-institutional collaboration uniting experts in learning sciences, computer science, STEM education and literacy. The lab has engaged 24 undergraduate interns in AI-powered application projects and structured lab meetings to discuss research progress and development. Thanks to his mentorship, they have co-authored 13 journal articles, 13 prestigious conference proceedings and 25 presentations at national and international conferences.
Read more about the Faculty and Staff Awards: