Abstract

Digital technology is now central to higher education, yet learner engagement is usually measured as an outcome after instruction rather than designed into the learning environment. This study designs an AI-integrated constructivist learning environment (CLE) framework for promoting learning engagement and creative writing, referred to here as the CLE-EW framework, for Chinese university learners of Thai as a second language. The study followed design and development research (DDR). It combined an integrative literature synthesis, a contextual analysis, a theory-driven design synthesis, and expert review. The contextual analysis took place at two universities in Yunnan Province, China, with 120 third-year Thai majors, their two writing instructors, and four support staff. The framework has seven interrelated centers: Problem Base, Learning Resources, Cognitive Tools, Collaboration, Promoting Learning Engagement and Creative Writing, Scaffolding, and Coaching. AI is used in five centers in three bounded forms (rule-based formative feedback, a retrieval-based answer system, and an external generative tool used to seek, collect, organize, and integrate information), while the Collaboration and Coaching Centers are human-led. The rule-based and retrieval-based forms run in the learner’s browser and send no learner writing to an external service. Five experts rated the framework in two rounds: the theoretical framework, the design framework and the model, and then the learning environment as built. They rated all items of all five forms as relevant, and every form met the content validity criteria. The theoretical framework was revised in response to expert comments. The contribution is twofold: engagement is specified as a designed structural component, and AI is given defined forms and limits alongside instructor and peer mediation.

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