Postqualitative inquiries into digital study practices in higher education.

Research on higher education students’s digital study practices and generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is lacking. GAI is envisioned to positively influence students’ learning by providing tailored and diverse feedback on texts. However, research also suggests that students use GAI unethically or uncritically, possibly leading to issues with deep learning, cognitive growth, and problem-solving skills. This paper further discusses digital study practices by employing two theoretical views on education, Bildung and sociomaterialism. Thinking with theory is a postqualitative approach that situates the researcher, materials, and theories within a study as active participants. The study investigated human and nonhuman (GAI, course literature) involvements in two PowerPoint presentations in a Finnish higher education bachelor course. It points to speculative and hesitant human and nonhuman interplays troubling the Bildung (i.e., epistemic and ethical) processes.