AI Play in Higher Education: Students’ perceptions of play and co-creation of knowledge with generative AI
Authors: Kangas Marjaana , Heljakka Katriina 
Published: November 2024

Playful learning approaches are expected to take a leading role in digital transformation in higher education (HE) (Tonkin, 2019; Whitton, 2022). Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the world impacting education, necessitating the development of new skills (Einola & Khoreva, 2023) meaning that aspects of teaching, learning, and knowledge building are set to radically change, and there is a need to strengthen the capacity of learners to engage with the world around them, especially through imagining and envisioning the future in the digital age (e.g., UNESCO, 2020). It is believed that through play individuals can learn to manage the unforeseen (Pors & Andersen, 2015). Therefore, in order to harness the power of play and digitalization for creativity and innovations, learners and employees need new playfulness-based and creative digital literacies. While generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT) is being widely explored, it has been mainly investigated through the functionality of the technology, and not the possibilities for engendering playful learning. Consequently, research on AI-human interaction as playful knowledge co-creation is entirely lacking.This study addresses this challenge by tapping the research on playful learning in the context of HE and educational sciences. Playful Learning (PL) refers to learning activities embedded with playful engagement and exploration, seeking learners to be active participants in their learning process. It recognizes creativity, emotions, narrativity, collaboration, and embodiment as essential elements of learning, complemented by appropriate tools and pedagogical strategies (Kangas et al., 2017). Here, the use of playful tools refer to co-creation with generative AI. During their playful learning process, 17 HE students co-created educational play-based activities and used generative AI in their designs. This knowledge co-creation was conducted as part of a Playful and game-based learning course in collaboration between two Finnish universities. One aim of the course was to increase HE students’ awareness of the potential of playfulness and AI in future pedagogies through playful learning activities. We asked: How do students understand play and non-play, and how do they see generative AI in their playful learning process? Data consists of students’ writings in which they reflected their ideas about play and non-play and the use of AI in the task. Our study contributes to the areas of playful learning, educational sciences, and emerging research on the applications of generative AI used as part of higher education. The findings indicate that the students' perspectives on play could be divided into five different dimensions: 1) openness and freedom, 2) well-being and joy through play, 3) enjoyment of the use of imagination 4) potential for skill development, and 5) playful social interaction. As the opposite of play, the students see a lack of imagination, bleakness, and a kind of greyness. The findings also indicate that generative AI provides a useful tool for playful learning in the HE context due to its potential for 1) Challenges and learning, 2) Ideation and creativity, 3) Opportunities and critical use, and 4) Enrichment and inspiration. Based on our findings, the AI Play framework was constructed, including facets of playful exploration and co-creation combined with critical thinking, which illustrates the dimensions of AI Play as part of HE students’ playful learning.