Guided, Not Given: Designing and Pilot Testing an AI-Powered Micro-Lesson for Teaching AI Ethics

This article describes the design, development, and pilot testing of an AI-powered micro-lesson on ethical AI use in education. The lesson used a chatbot named Ava to guide graduate Educational Technology students through three case studies focused on transparency, authorship, accuracy, bias, and verification. Rather than providing direct answers, Ava used open-ended questions, tiered hints, and feedback to support student reasoning. The pilot test compared the AI-powered micro-lesson with a non-chatbot version of the same lesson. Although the AI-powered version demonstrated a larger descriptive gain score, the difference was not statistically significant. Qualitative reflections indicated that students perceived Ava as engaging, reflective, and supportive of guided reasoning. Findings suggest that chatbot-guided micro-lessons may support interaction, reflection, and perceived engagement with ethical reasoning when intentionally designed as learning guides.