AI Research Assistant for Higher Education
Amara teaches second-year undergraduates writing a first 15-page seminar paper on post-colonial land reform. Her students have read four articles and have folders of browser tabs they do not know how to organize. The AI Research Assistant gives a plan that helps students write down a central question, break it into smaller questions, try search terms in JSTOR and Google Scholar, and see which questions their current sources answer, and which are still unanswered.
This page fills in a draft from a template. Copy prompt gives you the prompt for any AI chat.
How higher education instructors use it
Research workflows for your own class.
Literature review structure and gap identification
A literature review is not a summary of everything written on a topic, it is an argument about what the existing literature does and does not explain. The AI helps students plan how to articulate the conversation in the field: what has been established, what is contested, and where the gap is that their paper will address.
Scholarly database search strategies for JSTOR, PubMed, and ProQuest
Undergraduates searching scholarly databases often use the same approach as Google (typing a question in natural language) which produces poor results. You can teach Boolean search strings with quotation marks for exact phrases, AND/OR operators, NOT operators, and field codes to search within titles or abstracts, and students add them to the plan's search term slots.
Graduate seminar paper thesis development and argument mapping
Graduate seminar papers require a thesis that makes an original scholarly contribution. The AI helps graduate students move from a topic to an argumentative position.
- No student accounts.
- No ads.
- Data-processing agreement on request.
What this page does here
This page builds a draft from a template on this device. Copy prompt gives you the prompt for any AI chat.
Questions teachers ask
Can this help with a dissertation research proposal?
The plan can help with literature review scoping, research question articulation, and source identification, all central to a dissertation proposal. It helps students arrive at committee conversations with a clearer articulation of their research question and the gap they are addressing.
How does it handle interdisciplinary research?
Students identify the relevant disciplinary databases and try separate search strings for each database's vocabulary and indexing conventions. Watch for a term used in one discipline that means something different in another.
Does it support qualitative and quantitative research designs?
Yes. For quantitative research, the AI generates sub-questions framed around measurable variables. For qualitative research, it generates sub-questions framed around interpretation and experience. For mixed-methods designs, it structures the literature review to address both traditions.
What citation styles are supported for university-level research?
The form has no citation style option; you set APA 7th edition, Chicago 17th edition, MLA 9th edition, or AMA. The notes guide asks for the full citation, and students format it in that style.
Can it help identify open-access sources when library access is limited?
Yes. For students without library subscription access, try open-access databases: PubMed Central, SSRN, arXiv, DOAJ, and Google Scholar links to freely available PDFs. Author-posted preprints can also help.
Related tools
AI with your school's own student and course data is part of OpenEduCat.
Book a demoCounted per page. Report a problem for bugs.