Exploring continued usage of an AI teaching assistant among university students: A temporal distance perspective

Abstract

Although technological developments have made AI chatbot teaching assistants a lived reality, limited insights exist indicating how students perceive and use these new technologies. Recognizing that technology usage research adopts a static view that overlooks the role of temporal distance, we draw on temporal construal theory to examine user intentions and actual usage behavior over time by re-approaching the same set of participants after developing and deploying an AI chatbot in the educational setting. Our results highlight the significance of temporal distance in shaping user perceptions of the technology, with the need for interaction level to play a moderating role.