The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in higher education poses the challenge of integrating personalized learning with collaborative learning.
Collective intelligence is presented in this study as a tool that allows both approaches to be articulated, transforming individual contributions into shared knowledge through AI-mediated technologies.
Within this framework, the perception of the Kampal platform as a learning environment that simultaneously promotes student autonomy and collective knowledge construction is analyzed. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used with an initial sample of 399 digital distance higher education students and a final matched sample of 25 cases. Three dimensions were evaluated through a structured questionnaire: familiarity with the tool, perception of its effectiveness, and expectations of use or future willingness to use similar technologies.
The results show a significant increase in familiarity with Kampal and willingness to use collective intelligence tools in the future, although no significant changes were found in expectations or perceptions of immediate effectiveness. Factor analysis revealed two main dimensions: familiarity and effectiveness/expectations.
The findings suggest that these tools promote a favorable attitude toward their future use, although without significant changes in perceived effectiveness. This highlights the need for intentional teacher mediation.
When properly supervised, AI empowers hybrid environments that integrate personalization and collaboration, where collective intelligence operates as a nexus, facilitating complex dynamics such as swarm intelligence in higher education.
---
How to Cite: Martínez-De la muela, A., Ruiz-Fuentes, J. P., & González-Geraldo, J. L. (2026). Artificial intelligence and collective intelligence in digital higher education: a quasi-experimental study using the Kampal platform. RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 29(1), 29–51. https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.45560
