{"id":325,"date":"2024-04-14T13:27:28","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T20:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/?p=325"},"modified":"2024-04-14T19:02:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T02:02:30","slug":"accessibility-and-inclusivity-questions-surrounding-ai-enabled-tutor-and-chatbots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/accessibility-and-inclusivity-questions-surrounding-ai-enabled-tutor-and-chatbots\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessibility and Inclusivity Questions Surrounding AI-Enabled Tutors and Chatbots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I remember being at the Institute for Performance and Learning\u2019s 2018 conference and attending a session with Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd from Contact North when I first heard about AI-enabled tutoring bots. Dr. Murgatroyd described using IBM\u2019s technology to enhance the support provided to students in undergraduate programs, where schools like Queens University and University of California San Diego would have \u201cJill Watson\u201d (the IBM tutor bot) support students in chat alongside actual Teaching Assistants. The AI-enabled tutoring technology would learn from the TAs\u2019 answers over time and be able to mimic their performance, providing university students with access to answers around-the-clock without increasing the number of TAs available. Murgatroyd reported that course evaluation answers for Jill Watson were near identical to those of the TAs and – as of 2018 – they reported students did not \u201ccatch on\u201d to the fact they were being supported by AI (Murgatroyd, 2018). Dr. Ashok Goel also presented at a Tedx talk on this topic in 2016 (Goel, 2016<\/a>) if you\u2019d like to learn more.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

IBM’s Watson AI technology competing in (and winning) a game of Jeopardy! against the show’s now-host in 2011 (Image attributed to: CBC, 2016<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Murgatroyd further explained that data diversity is key to AI decisions being accurate. If underrepresented populations are not being included in the data set, their experiences and views will not be equally included in the AI’s output. For IBM\u2019s model, if the TA population it observed did not have a diversity of experiences, perspectives, or opinions, those would not be represented in the AI-generated answers (Murgatroyd, 2018). More recently I\u2019ve seen several instagram posts, tiktok videos, or news articles like<\/a> this asking iterative AI tools to produce images of an \u201caverage\u201d Canadian and almost all of them display white, heteronormative, typically-abled, non-indigenous people (except the Territories which appear to feature indigenous people in this article\u2019s example) (Bradley, 2023<\/a>). If the sample source AI technologies draw from lacks diversity, its results will lack diversity as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a similar vein, if the source material referenced by AI technologies lacks diversity it\u2019s likely that it also lacks accessibility for people with disabilities. This could fundamentally mean some learners or educators miss out on the potential benefits of AI tutors or chatbots because the technology is inaccessible by a screen reader, generated videos are un-captioned, or the language used is inaccessible to a person with autism who can not decode. Dr. Anne Gagn\u00e9 from Brock University writes about the frustration she experiences in Academic conferences on her blog, in the form of a poem:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

When so many of us are out here raising awareness<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With our invisible labour<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because it is important and it matters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because we are losing students to lack of accessibility<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because we are losing opportunities for new colleagues<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of lack of accessibility<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because we are losing incredible scholars for lack of accessibility<\/p>\n(Gagn\u00e9, 2021)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Dr. Gagn\u00e9 feels this frustration at the lack of accessibility accommodations within academic circles, how would students feel if they are promised a technology like AI tutor or chatbots meant to enhance their learning experience, only to encounter similar barriers? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diversity and Accessibility are common topics in the DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) spaces, and as I\u2019ve demonstrated above there are still unresolved conflicts and opportunity for improvement in how AI tutor and chatbots are applied so as to not unintentionally (I hope?) exclude learners from being represented. I look forward to investigating this topic more in my individual project for this course and welcome your feedback on my proposal above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bradley, J. (2023, July 9). AI determines what the typical person looks like in each Canadian province<\/em>. Western Standard. https:\/\/www.westernstandard.news\/news\/ai-determines-what-the-typical-person-looks-like-in-each-canadian-province\/article_f58a48e0-1b46-11ee-8add-2f5ad65410aa.html<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gagn\u00e9, A. (2021, May 30). Instructional Technology and Active Learning: Possibilities for Inclusive English Classrooms. Instructional Technology and Active Learning<\/em>. https:\/\/allthingspedagogical.blogspot.com\/2021\/05\/instructional-technology-and-active.html<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goel, A. (2016, November 1). A teaching assistant named Jill Watson<\/em>. TEDxSanFrancisco. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WbCguICyfTA<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murgatroyd, Stephen. (2018, October 18). Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Online Learning – Challenge and Opportunity<\/em> [Conference session]. Institute for Performance and Learning Annual Conference, Toronto, ON, Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember being at the Institute for Performance and Learning\u2019s 2018 conference and attending a session with Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd from Contact North when I first heard about AI-enabled tutoring bots. Dr. Murgatroyd described using IBM\u2019s technology to enhance the support provided to students in undergraduate programs, where schools like Queens University and University of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt526"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions\/327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0277\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}