AI in Education: Institute WeST Researchers Receive Best Paper Award at AIET 2026

The 7th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education Technology (AIET 2026) was held in Zagreb, Croatia, in July 2026, bringing together researchers and professionals from diverse disciplines to explore the challenges and opportunities arising from the rapid development of artificial intelligence in education.

Team WeST contributed to this interdisciplinary discussion with two papers examining the evolving relationship between humans and AI in educational settings.

The paper “Overreliance Under Incorrect LLM Tutoring Feedback: Evidence from Dialogue Logs and Post-Study Surveys”, authored by Stefania Zourlidou, Shokooh Ebri, Marina Ernst, and Frank Hopfgartner, received the Best Paper Award. The study investigates how students interact with a solution-based large language model (LLM) tutor and identifies patterns of overreliance, particularly when students are presented with incorrect AI-generated feedback. By combining evidence from dialogue logs with post-study survey data, the research provides insights into student behaviour and the challenges of designing effective AI-supported learning environments.

A second WeST contribution, “Invisible Co-Reviewers: LLMs and Peer Review Quality in Higher Education”, by Marina Ernst, Stefania Zourlidou, and Frank Hopfgartner, was presented as an invited talk. The talk explored the potential role of LLMs as support tools in the peer-review process in higher education, raising questions about how AI can complement human reviewers while maintaining the quality and integrity of academic evaluation.

Together, the two contributions highlight the importance of understanding human–AI interaction in education. They shed light on emerging behavioural patterns in interactions with AI systems and explore potential approaches for making these interactions more effective, reliable, and beneficial for learners and educators.

In addition to presenting their research, members of Team WeST supported the wider AIET community by serving on the conference’s technical committee.

The Best Paper Award and invited talk recognise WeST’s contribution to ongoing discussions about the responsible and effective integration of AI into education and underline the importance of interdisciplinary research in shaping the future of AI-supported learning.