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Chunling Niu, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching

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Bio

Dr. Chunling Niu is an Associate Professor at The University of Texas at San Antonio under the Regents' Research Excellence Program, with a joint appointment between the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching (ILT) in the College of Education and Human Development and the Department of Statistics & Data Science in the College of AI, Cyber, and Computing. She previously worked at the University of the Incarnate Word, the University of Kentucky, and Western Kentucky University. Her main research spans the areas of interprofessional AI applications and education, human-AI co-agency, AI-integrated assessment and measurement, AI-assisted decision science, psychometrics and rater-mediated performance assessment, and educational data science, all in both methodological and applied perspectives.

Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed, high-impact journals such as Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, Education and Information Technologies, Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, Model Assisted Statistics and Applications, The American Journal of Distance Education, Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, Journal of Youth Development, College Student Affairs Journal, Leadership and Policy in Schools, and others, as well as in the proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the IFIP International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations, and the NCME Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education. She has also conducted interdisciplinary research with scholars from social work, public health, internal medicine, human resource management, construction management, human-computer interaction, and other fields. Her collaborative work has been published in journals such as Military Medicine, Health Promotion Practice, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, Child & Family Social Work, Children and Youth Services Review, Clinical Social Work Journal, Built Environment Project and Asset Management, and others. To view her up-to-date publications, please visit her Google Scholar profile.

 

Teaching

  • Probability and Statistics
  • Educational Data Science
  • Educational Research Design & Methodology
  • Measurement, Assessment, & Program Evaluation

Research Interests

  • Human-AI Co-Agency
  • AI-Integrated Assessment and Measurement
  • AI-Assisted Decision Science
  • Educational Data Science

Degrees

  • PhD University of Kentucky
  • EdD Western Kentucky University
  • MA Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
  • BA Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

Recent Media and Clips

Honors and Awards

American Educational Research Association (AERA): Outstanding
Reviewer Award for Technology as an Agent of Change in Teaching and
Learning (TACTL) Special Interest Group (SIG) 
  • Year Awarded:  2024-2025
American Evaluation Association Minority Serving Institute Fellowship
  • Year Awarded:  2023-2024
UIW Faculty Endowment Research Award
  • Year Awarded: 2022-2023 
UIW Provost’s Legacy Teaching Award
  • Year Awarded: 2022-2023

Presentations

Niu, C., Bradley, K., Grote-Garcia, S., & Love, A. (2026, July). Predicting Compound Risk in AI Incidents: A Cross-Sector Classification Approach with Education as a Critical Case. Paper presented for the 22nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations (AIAI), July 16-19, Hybrid Conference, Chania, Greece & Web.

Niu, C., Del Rio-Guerra, M., Jin, R., Marrero, E., Carroll, J., & Brady, C. (2026, May). When Human-AI Collaboration Failed: Analysing Sociotechnical Incident Patterns in Educational AI. Paper presented for the 18th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU), May 18-20, Hybrid Conference, Benidorm, Spain.

Niu, C., Bradley, K., Cossette, L., Waltman, B., Biao, Ma., & Jin, R. (2026, April). To Adopt or Else? Mapping Faculty AI Integration Profiles and Systemic Barriers. Paper presented at the 2026 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, April 8-12, Los Angeles, CA.

Niu, C., Bradley, K., Cossette, L., Waltman, B., Biao, Ma., & Jin, R. (2025, October). Bias and Reliability in AI Safety Assessment: Multi-Facet Rasch Analysis of Human Moderators. Short paper presented at the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) 2025 Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education (AIME–Con), October 27-29, Pittsburgh, PA.

Niu, C., Sadeghi, S., Jin, R., Grote-Garcia, S., Love, A., Waltman, B., Garfield, T., & Hernandez, A. (2025, September). Potentially Divergent Paths in the AI Era? A Mixed-Method Policy Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Integration Frameworks Across Texas Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Paper presented for the 2nd annual International Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education Symposium 2025, September 25-26, Virtual Conference.

Niu, C., Sadeghi, S., Del Rio-Guerra, M. S., Bradley, K., Ammari, M. E., & Hernandez, A. E. (2025, May). Alignment divergence metrics: Measuring human-AI concordance in document content analysis. Short paper presented at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2025 Conference on Artificial Intelligence - Human Alignment in AI Decision-Making Systems (HAADMS): An Inter-disciplinary Approach towards Trustworthy AI (IEEE CAI Workshop), Santa Clara, CA.

Niu, C, Love, AS, & Labay-Marquez, J. (2025, May). From AI Skeptics to Skilled Practitioners: A Transformative Graduate-Level Framework for Building Practical AI Fluency across Disciplines. Paper presented for the 3rd annual Teaching and Learning with AI conference, May 28-30, Orlando, FL.

Hernandez, A., Niu, C, Caffer, P., & Love, A. (2025, April). Toward a Purpose-Built AI: Custom Applications for Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation. Paper presented at the 8th annual Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment International Conference, Chicago, IL.

Niu, C., Love, A., Miranda, E., Olivan, L., & Alhamami, N. (2024, October). Beyond Traditional Metrics: AI-Enhanced Approaches to Evaluating Leadership Effectiveness. Paper proposal accepted for the 2024 Evaluation Annual Conference for the American Evaluation Association (AEA), Portland, OR.

Niu, C., Waltman, B., Sadeghi, S., Cossette, L., Love, A. & Hernandez, A.(2024, August). AI Integration in Academia: Investigating the Impact on Faculty Organizational Belongingness. Poster presented for the 2024 Annual Conference for the American Psychology Association (APA), Seattle, WA.

Grants, Patents and Clinical Trials

The Comprehensive Evaluation Project for the "Dando Esperanza a las Familias" (Giving Hope to Families) Initiative - Age-Stratified Implementation with Single-Case Design, an Accompaniment Model for Faith Families Developed by the Archdiocese of San Antonio with Support from the Lilly Endowment's Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative.

  • Role: Principal Investigator
  • Funder: Subgrant with Support from the Lilly Endowment's Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative, The Archdiocese of San Antonio
  • Project Duration: August 2025 – December 2028
  • Funding Awarded: $145,000

Software Application Development of AI-ARAS: An AI-Powered Academic Reading Assistance System for UIW’s First-Year Student Success

  • Role: Principal Investigator/Lead Developer
  • Funder: The 2025-2030 Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Initiative, University of the Incarnate Word
  • Project Duration: January 2025 – December 2025
  • Funding Awarded: $13,100

Evaluating Growth Through Play: A Collaborative Research Partnership with the DoSeum of San Antonio with Support from the Meadows Foundation Grant.

  • Role: Principal Investigator
  • Funder: Subgrant with Support from the Meadows Foundation Grant, The DoSeum: San Antonio Children’s Museum
  • Project Duration: May 2025 – September 2026
  • Funding Awarded: $75,460 

The Formative Evaluation Project for the "Dando Esperanza a las Familias" (Giving Hope to Families) Initiative, an Accompaniment Model for Faith Families Developed by the Archdiocese of San Antonio with Support from the Lilly Endowment's Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative.

  • Role: Principal Investigator
  • Funder: Subgrant with Support from the Lilly Endowment's Christian Parenting
    and Caregiving Initiative, The Archdiocese of San Antonio
  • Project Duration: February 2025 – April 2025
  • Funding Awarded: $9,000

AI Integration in Academia: Investigating the Impact on Faculty Organizational Belongingness
  • Role: Principal Investigator
  • Funder: The Faculty Graduate Research Assistantship Awards Program,
  • University of the Incarnate Word
  • Project Duration: July 2024 – July 2025
  • Funding Awarded: $7,020


Developing an Artificially Intelligent (AI) Coach for Reducing Sedentary Habits

  • Role: Assisting Program Evaluator & Data Analyst
  • Funder: The Igniting Research Collaboration (IRC),
  • University of Kentucky
  • Project Duration: July 2020 – July 2021
  • Funding Awarded: $39,270


COVID19 - Assessing Self-Care Among Television Journalist: The Impact of COVID-19

  • Role: Data Analyst & Quantitative Methodologist
  • Funder: The UK CURE COVID-19 Pilot Program, University of Kentucky
  • Project Duration: January 2020 – May 2021
  • Funding Awarded: $10,000


Evaluation of Kentucky’s Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project Initiatives

  • Role: Principal Program Evaluator
  • Funder: Kentucky Department for Community-Based Services, State of Kentucky
  • Project Duration: August 2016 – May 2019
  • Funding Awarded: $6,000,000

Hilltopper Teacher Preparatory Academy (TopPrep) on Elementary/ Special Ed. Teacher Preparation and Assessment
  • Role: Program Evaluator & Co-PI
  • Funder: Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, State of Kentucky
  • Project Duration: January 2015 – December 2016
  • Funding Awarded: $500,000


Clinical Experiences and Practices in Teaching (CEPT) Program on Teacher Preparation and Assessment

  • Role: Program Evaluator & Co-PI
  • Funder: Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, State of Kentucky
  • Project Duration: January 2014 – December 2015
  • Funding Awarded: $500,000

Publications

Niu, C., Bradley, K., Grote-Garcia, S., Love, A. (2026). Predicting Compound Risk in AI Incidents: A Cross-Sector Classification Approach with Education as a Critical Case. In: Maglogiannis, I., Iliadis, L., Zervakis, M., Papaleonidas, A. (eds) Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations. AIAI 2026. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 794. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-30805-4_20

Jin, R., Niu, C., & Zhao, M. (2026). What individual factors matter for secondary students’ ICT self-efficacy? Humanities & Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-08307-4
Niu, C., Rio-Guerra, M., Jin, R., Marrero, E., Carroll, J., & Brady, C. (2026). When human–AI collaboration failed: Analyzing sociotechnical incident patterns in educational AI. In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (Vol. 1, pp. 438–445). SCITEPRESS. https://doi.org/10.5220/0014897100004021

Sadeghi, S., Harrison, T., & Niu, C. (in press, 2026). Artificial intelligence in human resource management: HR professionals’, employees’, and job applicants’ perceptions and outcomes. Research in Human Resource Management.

Sadeghi, S., Niu, C., Marjani, T., & Lotfi, R. (2026). Machine learning-enabled construction project management: systematic review, comparative performance synthesis and implementation framework. Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-11-2024-0264

Niu, C., Bradley, K., Jin, R., & Love, A. (2025). Systematic Comparison of Two Approaches for Validating and Using Rater-Mediated Performance Assessments. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, 30(1), 13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7275/pare.2042

Niu, C., Sadeghi, S., Jin, R., Grote-Garcia, S., Love, A., Waltman, B., Garfield, T., & Hernandez, A. (2025). Potentially Divergent Paths in the AI Era? A Comprehensive Policy Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Integration Frameworks Across Texas Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Intelligent Technologies in Education, Advanced Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.53761/ssw9kz69

Jin, R., Zhao, M., Niu, C., Xia, Y., Zhou, H., & Liu, N. (2025). Evaluating the performance of ChatGPT and Claude in automated writing scoring: Insights from the Many-facet Rasch model. Education and Information Technologies, 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-025-13774-4

Niu, C., Bradley, K., Cossette, L., Waltman, B., Biao, Ma., & Jin, R. (2025, October). Bias and Reliability in AI Safety Assessment: Multi-Facet Rasch Analysis of Human Moderators. In Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con): Full Papers (pp. 393-397). https://aclanthology.org/2025.aimecon-main.42.pdf

Niu, C., Jin, R., Sadeghi, S., Cossette, L., & Molina, M. (2025). COVID-19 Adolescent Technology Use and Physical Activities: Cluster Analysis for Mental Health. Journal of Youth Development, 20(3), 6. https://open.clemson.edu/jyd/vol20/iss3/6

Niu, C., Sadeghi, S., Del Rio-Guerra, M. S., Bradley, K., Ammari, M. E., & Hernandez, A. E. (2025, May). Alignment Divergence Metrics: Measuring Human-AI Concordance in Document Content Analysis. In 2025 IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) (pp. 1235-1238). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/CAI64502.2025.00214