Spectra Human-Centered Learning Framework: A Socio-Technical Architecture for AI-Supported Higher Education

Mario Guadalupe López Ayala

doi:10.32351/rca.v11.441

Authors

Mario Guadalupe López Ayala Autonomous University of the West https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5377-6257

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32351/rca.v11.441

Política de Crossmark DOI: https://doi.org/10.32351/politica-crossmark

Keywords:

AI governance, artificial intelligence, higher education, human-centered learning, socio-technical systems

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) can produce persuasive university work without revealing who performed or checked the reasoning behind it. This conceptual article develops an AI-specific elaboration of the previously disseminated Spectra Human-Centered Learning Framework. Its three foundational conditions, six pedagogical phases and five original propositions are retained, not presented as new inventions. A purposive, critical synthesis distinguishes the functions of the pedagogical cycle and examines how AI assistance, intellectual responsibility, institutional safeguards and contextual constraints may intersect with them. The resulting architecture connects real-world input, conceptual framing, engagement, production, assessment and reflective transfer. The inherited propositions remain verbatim; task-level interpretations, candidate indicators and conditions that might challenge them are added for future research. Augmentation, dependency and substitution describe provisional distributions of work between learners and systems, not validated learner types. A targeted comparison with adjacent frameworks identifies overlaps and the specific scope of this elaboration without claiming global novelty or superiority. No student data were collected, no intervention was implemented and no systematic literature search was conducted. Whether the configuration supports independently defensible learning, accessible assessment and transfer across contexts remains an empirical question.

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Author Biography

Mario Guadalupe López Ayala, Autonomous University of the West

Mexican university professor and researcher. He holds doctoral degrees in Educational Innovation and Administration and in Psychopedagogy. He is affiliated with Universidad Autónoma de Occidente and Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Mexico. His scholarly work integrates human-centered artificial intelligence, socio-technical systems, applied psychology, educational innovation, and AI governance. His research examines the intersections of technology, cognition, human behavior, and institutional transformation, with particular attention to their social and ethical implications. He is an author and co-author of scientific publications, leads the Human-Centered AI & Socio-Technical Systems Lab, and develops research and science communication initiatives through Phoenix24, fostering knowledge generation and its transfer to society.

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