AI and human generation of classroom content: adult learners’ perceptions

When it comes to controversial topics in higher education, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the spotlight lately. Discourse among faculty and students can be found in no shortage, but rarely is anyone focused on how it may impact how we perceive those who employ it rather than how it will change the system as we know it. This study examined adult learners’ perceptions of class instructors who incorporate AI-generated content within lectures. We sought to explore this from the adult learner perspective, utilizing expectancy violation within the Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) paradigm. Findings indicate that instructors who utilize generative AI to create content used in a classroom setting are seen as less credible than instructors who do not employ these tools but more credible than the AI itself. Results are discussed considering CASA and future directions.