Changing the Optics: Comparing Traditional and Retrieval-Augmented GenAI E-Tutorials in Interdisciplinary Learning

2026-02-24

AI Summary

This study investigates how traditional versus generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)-enhanced e-tutorials influence learners’ information-seeking behaviors in interdisciplinary learning contexts. Grounded in the theory of directed search—applied here for the first time to GenAI-enabled educational settings—the research employs a comparative analysis of learner behaviors across the two tutorial types, integrating query-driven retrieval-augmented generation techniques, behavioral experiments, and cognitive load assessments. Findings reveal that, compared to users of traditional tutorials, GenAI users adopt more proactive and exploratory information-seeking strategies and experience significantly lower cognitive load, yet demonstrate a weaker grasp of the overall information space. This work provides both theoretical and empirical foundations for understanding how GenAI reshapes learners’ cognitive processes and exploratory behaviors.

Technology Category

• Search and Optimization: Learning to Search
• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Conversational Systems for Recommendation & Retrieval

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Search Tool Learning with LLM: Teaching LLMs to invoke search and make use of retrieved information
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions

Abstract

Understanding information-seeking behaviors in e-learning is critical, as learners must often make sense of complex and fragmented information, a challenge compounded in interdisciplinary fields with diverse prior knowledge. Compared to traditional e-tutorials, GenAI e-tutorials offer new ways to navigate information spaces, yet how they shape learners information-seeking behaviors remains unclear. To address this gap, we characterized behavioral differences between traditional and GenAI-mediated e-tutorial learning using the three search modes of orienteering. We conducted a between-subject study in which learners engaged with either a traditional e-tutorial or a GenAI e-tutorial accessing the same underlying information content. We found that the traditional users maintained greater awareness and focus of the information space, whereas GenAI users exhibited more proactive and exploratory behaviors with lower cognitive load due to the querying-driven interaction. These findings offer guidance for designing tutorials in e-learning.

Problem

• information-seeking behavior
• e-learning
• interdisciplinary learning
• GenAI e-tutorials
• traditional e-tutorials

Innovation

• Retrieval-Augmented Generation
• GenAI e-tutorials
• information-seeking behavior
• orienteering
• interdisciplinary learning