Generative AI and the future of connectivist learning in higher education

The burgeoning field of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) presents a new avenue for enhancing teaching and learning practices within higher education. While existing research has predominantly focused on GenAI’s capabilities to perform specific educational tasks, its potential as an interactive agent engaging in human-like conversations and forming new connections remains underexplored. Drawing upon a connectivist lens that recognizes learning occurs within networks of interactions, we investigate how GenAI tools can contribute to connectivist learning within social entrepreneurship education. Through qualitative interviews with multiple key stakeholder groups, this study reveals three dimensions of new dialogic spaces that can be enabled by GenAI: collaborative learning, knowledge connectivity, and theory-practice integration. This study makes several contributions. First, it expands upon current discussions on AI and higher education, moving beyond tool-based acceptance to actively exploring GenAI as an active learning agent. Second, it contributes to the connectivist learning literature by demonstrating the potential of GenAI tools not only as interaction facilitators but also as interaction agents that create new learning interactions across different levels. Finally, it offers practical insights by bridging the voices and perspectives of different stakeholders to envision a future where GenAI coexists with traditional educational practices and agents. Copyright © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.