Data sources
My data sources were the publicly available internet blog postings of graduate
students (masters and doctoral levels) in an educational administration program at a
large Midwestern United States research extensive university. The unit of analysis was
comprised of 47 students, 35 female and 12 male, from four classes taught over three
consecutive quarters. Nine students were African-American, two were African
[Kenyan], and 36 were Caucasian.
During each quarter, students in the perspective classes were required to contribute
asychronistically to class blogs. A total of 229 blog posts were made in response to
AI-driven posts. I posted class blogs three times during the quarter for each of the four
classes grouped in this study. Each post referenced an AI topic related to personal
strengths and successful leadership experiences. In several cases, posts were
illustrated with a real-world example.
I followed the post with a series of AI-driven questions. Students were asked to post:
.
one substantive response – a substantive response was defined as students
specifically addressing the questions listed in the blog with a minimum response
of 200 words to each blog entry; and
.
two additional responses – an additional response was defined by a minimum of
25 words affirmatively reflecting on a contribution of another classmate to each
blog entry.