Abstract
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In asynchronous online classes, consistent engagement with the course instructor helps students connect to the course and perform better. Automated Intelligent Agent (IA) emails that can be set up in a learning management system allow faculty to send targeted communications to students in the form of personalized reminders, offers of help, words of encouragement, praise, and other tailored messages. To assess the effectiveness of IAs in supporting student success, this study analyzed the use of the technology by 10 faculty across seven humanities and social science disciplines. We examined how IAs impact grades on a specific assignment, whether IAs increase two-way communication with students, and how faculty experience using this technology. We found an association between using IAs and higher grades, potentially because faculty who used IAs communicated more often to students, sending them more reminders and messages of praise. We found that use of IAs did not increase student emails to faculty and that faculty found IAs to be a time-efficient way to track student progress and communicate with students. We provide several recommendations to faculty on how best to take advantage of this technology.
DOI
10.59620/2644-2132.1208
Recommended Citation
Raczek, Teresa P.; Bernardy, Anja; Garcia, Audrey E.; Ingram, Ulrike; McGrath, Laura; and Shirke, Snehal
(2026)
"How Intelligent? Student Success, Student Engagement, and Faculty Use of Intelligent Agents in Online Classes,"
Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence: Vol. 10:
Iss.
1, Article 7.
DOI: [https://doi.org/]10.59620/2644-2132.1208
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/jete/vol10/iss1/7
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Technology Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons
