From knowledge gaps to learning opportunities: Leveraging student questions and dual use of generative AI to support student learning at scale

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University courses with hundreds of students have become common, particularly during early years of university studies. The sheer scale of these courses limits traditional instruction, shifting it towards a one-to-many mode of delivery. This shift reduces student–instructor interaction and tailored instructor feedback which are crucial for student success. Automated feedback systems allow scaling feedback, but they often reduce instructor contributions to student learning. This paper investigates how emerging technologies can support, rather than replace, instructors in tailoring their teaching and feedback to identify and correct student knowledge gaps at scale. To address this challenge, the paper introduces a novel technological solution: the Knowledge Gaps to Mastery (KG2M) approach. KG2M combines discussion forum data with course-specific content and leverages large language models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for the dual purpose of identifying prevalent class-level knowledge gaps and transforming them into targeted learning activities and formative assessments. The approach was deployed across three computer science courses with a combined enrollment of 1,355 students and evaluated through semi-structured interviews with five instructors. Results indicate that instructors found the tool intuitive and pedagogically valuable, particularly for surfacing knowledge gaps and generating actionable teaching insights. The paper reports on the tool, the evaluation, and the current limitations of the approach that emerged during instructor evaluation.

Highlights:

• Large classrooms are prevalent at universities, but they hinder instructors’ ability to provide feedback tailored to students’ needs.
• The rise of GenAI shows promise in providing automated feedback at scale; however, it often lacks the nuanced guidance of instructor-led feedback.
• Leveraging discussion forums with appropriate design and tech innovation could minimize instructor workload and address students’ learning needs.
• We introduce an approach (KG2M) using LLMs and RAG to spot class-wide knowledge gaps and generate learning activities.
• Evaluation via case studies in 3 CS courses (1355 students and 2878 unique posts) and with 5 instructors emphasizes pedagogical value.