Impacts of Human–AI Collaboration Types on Students’ Creativity and Agency in Artefact Design

Studies have suggested that there are diverse types of human-AI collaboration categorized by varying degrees of contribution from each entity (e.g., high AI contribution and low human contribution, low AI contribution and high human contribution; Liu & Bridgeman, 2023; Ouyang & Jiao, 2021; Sowa et al., 2021). However, this has rarely been empirically validated in education settings. This project will embark on a large-scale empirical study involving undergraduates to address these research gaps. Specifically, we will examine the participants’ collaborative patterns with generative AI during artifact design. We choose artifact design tasks because they present major challenges for human-AI collaboration and are common contexts for studying such collaboration (Memmert & Bittner, 2022). We will leverage our 3D Maze platform, a web-based tool with an integrated ChatGPT, to gather diverse student data, such as 3D Maze logs, design reports, and surveys. The 3D Maze platform provides a context for students to apply their computational thinking skills to design mazes, while the integrated ChatGPT enables seamless collaboration with the ChatGPT as students work on the tasks. The logs and interaction discourse with ChatGPT can be used to analyze collaboration types, and design outputs can be analyzed to gauge creativity. A subsequent comparison of students’ creativity and agency across the distinct collaboration styles will highlight effective human-AI collaboration patterns.

Important Note

We welcome you to have a conversation with Assistant Professor Zhu Gaoxia to discuss this PhD project further. You are strongly encouraged to reach out to her at least 3 months in advance of application deadline (i.e. 31 January 2025) as the process of confirming the supervision and preparing your proposal for application may take longer than you anticipate. 

Minimum Entry Requirement

A Bachelor’s degree with honours at least at Second Class Upper level, Master’s degree in the relevant areas and the ability to pursue research in the candidate’s proposed field of advanced study.

Shortlisted applicants will undergo an interview session as part of the selection process.

A valid GRE score is required for applicants who are not graduates of the Autonomous Universities in Singapore. See detailed requirements for English language on competency and GRE requirements  here.