Abstract
Dialogue between students from different cultural backgrounds is useful for learning about global issues and their solutions. The role of the facilitator is important in ensuring that group discussions run smoothly, encouraging all participants to actively participate in the discussion. It is also necessary to remove linguistic barriers to discussion between students with different mother tongues. To support and stimulate online communication among students, we have developed a web application called HiGPT, which allows students to enter multilingual text messages and image files, query generative AI (chatGPT) about their input, and share AI responses and suggestions. In HiGPT all text messages are displayed in the selected language. In 2024, a group discussion using HiGPT was conducted within an online data science class for first-year university students at Hiroshima University and a virtual international class of students from Hiroshima University and the University of Texas. We evaluated the effectiveness of HiGPT based on the results of a self-assessment questionnaire administered after the class. Although there were significant differences in the use of HiGPT among the groups, more than 70% of students were satisfied with HiGPT and many felt that HiGPT helped facilitate discussions, with the indirect intervention by the generative AI providing a sense of security and creating an online environment that facilitated lively discussions, even with first-time partners. In this practice, the generative AI played part of the role of facilitator and was found to be effective in stimulating communication among students.
Author Information
Tomohiro Inagaki, Hiroshima University, Japan
Yuko Murakami, Hiroshima University, Japan
Tohru Takahashi, Hiroshima University, Japan
Yuji Tsuchimoto, Eikai Intelligent Systems Co., Ltd., Japan
Paper Information
Conference: IICE2025
Stream: Design
This paper is part of the IICE2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Inagaki T., Murakami Y., Takahashi T., & Tsuchimoto Y. (2025) Virtual International Education Facilitated by Generative AI ISSN: 2189-1036 – The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii 2025 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 329-335) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-1036.2025.28
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-1036.2025.28
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