Omar Shafiy Contributes to International AI Education Study
Omar Shafiy, a student of Artificial Intelligence at the Faculty of Computing and Information Sciences, has contributed as the AI/R&D researcher to an international research collaboration resulting in a newly published paper examining how generative AI and large language models can be integrated into English language and literature education.
The paper, titled "AI-Mediated English Language and Literature Education: Digital Literacy, Cultural Identity, Student Engagement and the Moderating Role of Architectural Learning Environments," appears in the International Journal of Special Education, Volume 41, Issue 21s (2026), pp. 612–638, a Scopus Q3-indexed journal.
The multidisciplinary team brought together expertise in artificial intelligence, education, English language and literature, digital literacy, cultural identity, and learning-environment design.
The research employed a 16-week quasi-experimental design conducted across four public-sector universities in Punjab, Pakistan, involving 597 undergraduate students. The study compared AI-mediated instruction against conventional teaching methods, while also examining how different architectural learning environments moderated outcomes.
The AI-mediated instruction component included:
Structured prompting techniques for student-AI interaction
Guided interrogation and critique of LLM-generated outputs
Explicit instruction on AI bias and hallucination
Mandatory documentation of AI use by students
The study assessed the effects of these interventions on digital literacy, cultural identity development, student engagement, and overall learning outcomes in English literature education.
Reflecting on the collaboration, Shafiy noted that the project offered an opportunity to apply an AI research and development background to a problem space outside conventional computer science — working alongside researchers in language, literature, education, and business technology to explore how AI can be deployed in a genuinely human-centered educational context.
The full paper is openly accessible via the journal's website:
🔗 https://internationalsped.com/index.php/ijse/article/view/6287