Award

Faculty Research Grant

Department

Leadership, Learning Design, and Inquiry

Why did you apply?

"I applied for this grant to explore an emerging question at the intersection of artificial intelligence, teacher education, and ethics: how pre-service teachers make ethical judgments when AI is used in educational assessment. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into teaching and assessment, I saw an important need to better understand how future educators navigate issues such as fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability. The grant provided an opportunity to develop and pilot this line of research and establish a foundation for future work.

Provide a brief background

"I am an associate professor of Learning Design and Technologies at the University of South Carolina. My research interests address the intersection of self-regulated learning, multimodal data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) in education. Specifically, I apply multimodal data analytics to understand how learners regulate their learning and their collaborative problem solving in technology-enhanced learning environments and thereby creating AI-driven scaffolds to facilitate learners' disposition, knowledge, skills, and action outcomes toward STEM careers."

What did you do with your grant?

With support from the grant, I developed a research project examining pre-service teachers’ ethical judgment in AI-driven assessment. The project explored how future educators perceive and respond to ethical dilemmas involving AI and how their ethical perspectives may shape those decisions. The work incorporated survey measures, case-based AI ethics scenarios, and qualitative inquiry to develop a richer understanding of ethical decision-making in AI-supported educational contexts.

How did this scholarship or grant help you?

“This grant was particularly valuable because it allowed me to develop and refine a new line of research at the intersection of AI, ethics, and education. More importantly, it provided a strong foundation for subsequent projects and external funding efforts.

The work helped establish the conceptual and methodological foundation for a 2026 ASPIRE Grant focused on AI and pre-service teacher education at the University of South Carolina. It also contributed to the development of a subsequently funded National Science Foundation project (2600337) focused on ethical AI literacy among college students.

In this sense, the impact of the grant extended well beyond the original project. It provided the seed support needed to test ideas, strengthen collaborations, and build a coherent research agenda that has continued to grow through both internal and external funding."

Do you have any advice for future applicants?

My advice is to consider this grant as an opportunity to build the foundation for what comes next. Start with a focused and meaningful question, use the funding to test and refine your ideas, and think intentionally about how the work can develop into a larger research agenda. Small opportunities can have a much larger impact when they are used strategically to generate evidence, build collaborations, and prepare for future funding.