Dr. Regina Giraldo-Garcia
<b>Department: </b>Educational Studies<br><b>Research Area: </b>Ethical use of AI in academic work, critical thinking development, and basic thematic data analysis.
Department: Educational Studies
Research Focus: Ethical use of AI in academic work, critical thinking development, and basic thematic data analysis.
Potential Student Project(s):
The student will collect and summarize articles on the ethical use of AI in academic work, the development of AI and critical thinking, and basic thematic data analysis.
Attributes/skills/background sought in undergraduate:
Interest in learning about the research process; interest in AI literature and ethical use.
Writing skills to summarize text and draw conclusions about the topic.
Mentoring Plan:
Spring semester:
I will mentor a student on a manageable research project exploring college students' perceptions of responsible and ethical use of generative AI in higher education. With approximately five hours of work per week, the student will progress through structured research stages: learning basic research ethics and AI concepts; identifying relevant literature; developing a focused research question; assisting with a short survey or interview protocol; collectcing and/or organizing data; conducting introductory qualitative or descriptive analysis; and interpreting findings.
Weekly mentoring meetings will connect each research task to skill development and provide opportunities for reflection and feedback.
The student will maintain a research journal documenting decisions, challenges, and learning. By the end of the semester, the student will help prepare a research poster or a brief presentation. The experience will develop skills in information literacy, ethical research, data collection, critical analysis, academic writing, AI literacy, and scholarly communication.
Contact: 765-285-8578, TC 829