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Investigating students' LLM usage and its effects

Leo Leppänen
University of Jyväskylä

Abstract: I present an overview of my recent works into how large language models (LLMs) are used and perceived, and how those uses align with data from studies into students' academic success and their perseverance in their studies. I also discuss some challenges in studying and using LLMs in educational settings, and outline my vision of where future study is needed to deepen our understanding of how students use LLMs, and how that usage affects them and their studies. 

Bio: Leo Leppänen is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä. He completed his PhD in computer science in 2023 at the University of Helsinki. His teaching has focused on early bachelor's level courses such as introductory programming and software engineering courses, and master's level courses on natural language generation. His research focus is on educational data mining, learning analytics and computer science education research. He is also active in studying automated generation of natural language, such as large language models (LLMs), both in the contexts of journalism and education.