IJIET 2025 Vol.15(11): 2328-2334
doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2025.15.11.2428
doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2025.15.11.2428
Enhancing Scientific Literacy with an AI Powered Virtual Assistant: A Study Case
Elisabetta Crescio* and Miguel Gonzalez-Mendoza
School of Engineering and Sciences, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, Mexico
Email: elisabetta@tec.mx (E.C.); mgonza@tec.mx (M.G.-M.)
*Corresponding author
Email: elisabetta@tec.mx (E.C.); mgonza@tec.mx (M.G.-M.)
*Corresponding author
Manuscript received May 28, 2025; revised June 27, 2025; accepted July 17, 2025; published November 10, 2025
Abstract—In this work, the results of an analysis aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a virtual assistant in helping undergraduate students with comprehension and critical reading of scientific texts are presented. The virtual assistant, based on Google generative AI Gemini 1.5, was specifically designed for this study and programmed in Python, using LangChain and LangGraph (platforms optimized for the design of applications based on generative artificial intelligence). A comparative analysis was conducted on two groups of students: a control group that was not provided with the virtual assistant and an experimental group that was granted the use of the virtual assistant. A set of reading comprehension questions was given to the students. The effectiveness of the virtual assistant was analyzed quantitatively using natural language processing techniques, measuring the cosine similarity between the students’ answers to the questions and the correct answers. The analysis showed a significant difference in the accuracy of responses to reading comprehension questions between the experimental and the control groups. This work has shown that the controlled use of generative artificial intelligence in the classroom can provide great benefits. The use of virtual assistants can be particularly helpful in distance learning courses or e-learning, since they can be used remotely and at a student’s own pace.
Keywords—virtual assistant, chatbot, generative artificial intelligence, scientific literacy, educational innovation, higher education
Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
Keywords—virtual assistant, chatbot, generative artificial intelligence, scientific literacy, educational innovation, higher education
Cite: Elisabetta Crescio and Miguel Gonzalez-Mendoza, "Enhancing Scientific Literacy with an AI Powered Virtual Assistant: A Study Case," International Journal of Information and Education Technology, vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 2328-2334, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).