SynthesisAI: Knowledge Synthesis in Collaborative Learning

Ishita Asnani
Erin Kingsley
Bo Shui
Cong Wang
AIED CSCL Tech Design Learning Analytics

This project is led by Dr. Xinran Zhu (PI) and Dr. Liam Magee (co-PI), with contributions from a multidisciplinary team.

SynthesisAI is a design and research initiative focused on developing and deploying intelligent technologies that foster meaningful and ethical partnerships between students and AI in collaborative knowledge creation. The project integrates two interconnected design components:

  • SynthesisAI, a tool powered by learning analytics techniques and GenAI to support knowledge synthesis practices; and
  • Pedagogical strategies that guide its classroom integration, emphasizing student agency and collaborative knowledge creation.

We use co-design methods to develop and implement the tool in both lab and real-world classroom settings. Our research investigates how AI can support and mediate collaborative learning in higher education contexts.

Before AI: The Synthesis Lab

The Synthesis Lab is a precursor to SynthesisAI—an app originally developed by the PI, together with a team of researchers and a developer, in 2023 at the University of Pennsylvania. The app was designed to support students’ knowledge synthesis in collaborative learning, particularly by helping them integrate peer ideas from online discussions such as social annotation.

Knowledge synthesis is a critical cognitive process in knowledge creation, defined as the process of connecting, analyzing, and integrating ideas to foster conceptual innovation, generate novel knowledge, and develop creative solutions (Deschryver, 2014; Morabito & Chan, 2021; Qian et al., 2020). In contrast to other cognitive processes such as summarizing information, synthesis-making involves rising above current levels of explanation which results in understanding phenomena on a higher plane (van Aalst, 2009). The Synthesis Lab supports the knowledge synthesis process by deconstructing this complex process into smaller, manageable building blocks and guides students through key steps such as distilling, connecting, analyzing, and elevating ideas to a higher level.

[Try the Synthesis Lab] | [Tutorial]

Screenshot of the interface:

See this paper for more details aboutthe Synthesis Lab

SynthesisAI

Building on the current capabilities of the Synthesis Lab, the project develops a GenAI-powered chatbot, SynthesisAI, and integrate it into the knowledge synthesis process within the Synthesis Lab. This new feature has two primary goals: to support students in the synthesis writing and to promote meaningful peer collaboration as an integral part of the overall collaborative knowledge creation experience.

Publications