International Open Access Journal Platform

1 Introduction

With the rapid development of intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, human society has fully entered the intelligent era. While intelligent technologies are profoundly changing the way people live, work, and study, they also bring new challenges and opportunities to ideological and political education in colleges and universities. Contextualized education, as an effective teaching concept and method, aims to combine theoretical knowledge with specific scenarios, create simulated social, historical, or cultural scenarios, organize students to learn in actual scenarios, and use multimedia means to make students understand knowledge more intuitively, making education more vivid, concrete, easy to understand and accept. In the intelligent age, the rapid development of digital intelligence technology has injected new vitality into the contextualization of ideological and political education. The generation of multi-dimensional educational scenarios based on digital intelligence technology meets the requirements and needs of ideological and political education and also provides technical support for the contextualization of ideological and political education, thereby enhancing the appeal and influence of ideological and political education.

2 The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Contextualization of Ideological and Political Education in Colleges and Universities

2.1 Reshape the Educational Space and Enhance the Appeal of Ideological and Political Education

Intelligent technologies construct highly realistic educational scenarios through means such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), providing audiences with an immersive spatial environment. In scene-based Spaces, by using virtual interaction and virtual presentation to downplay the concept of physical time, the educated can form “mental time” at the psychological perception level. When learning in the virtual scene, they may experience the centenary of the founding of the Party in an hour. This “mental clock” makes people fully engaged, as if they have forgotten the time while watching a movie. It is this transcendent existence that determines the attainment of immersion for the educated. In addition, context-based communication can make the educated feel the fusion and touch of mainstream values in terms of visual and auditory aspects by taking into account the temporal and spatial characteristics, emotional psychology, and desire of the educated, and resonate at the cognitive and emotional levels with the psychological characteristics of gradual infiltration and accumulation of memory.

2.2 New Forms of Interactive Teaching to Enhance the Interactivity of Ideological and Political Education

By constructing dynamic, real-time, and diverse interactive scenarios through technology, a three-dimensional network of “teacher - technology - scene - student” is established to promote in-depth interaction between teachers and students, and among students, thus enabling ideological and political classrooms to shift from “single-point indoctrinations” to “multi-directional efforts”, and from “theoretical transmission” to “value co-construction”. For example, using VR technology to recreate the scene of the Zunyi Conference, students participated in the virtual meeting as “representatives of the Red Army”, viewed historical documents and debated strategic guidelines through gestures, and teachers, as “historical observers”, asked: “If you were a participant, how would you use the mass base at that time to argue for strategic adjustments?” Transform the historical theory into an interactive decision-making scenario. Use intelligent technology to create realistic virtual Spaces, build immersive ideological and political education scenarios, help ideological and political education teachers explain the truth deeply, thoroughly, and vividly, fully stimulate the spirit of independent exploration of college students, change the classroom from one-way transmission to two-way interaction, teachers teach with heart and students understand with heart, and achieve the purpose of enlightening the mind and nourishing the soul.

2.3 Connect Theory with Practice to Enhance the Effectiveness of Ideological and Political Education

Build a closed-loop ecosystem of “cognition - experience - practice” through intelligent technology, and transform the theory of ideological and political education from textual symbols into tangible, practical logic and from a knowledge system to a belief system and action consciousness. First, through technology, make the theory “visible and tangible”. Secondly, let students apply the theory to solve problems in virtual practice. AI technology can simulate current social hot issues and provide multi-dimensional analytical perspectives to help students critically analyze and apply Marxist theory. Digital practice platforms on themes such as rural revitalization and grassroots governance are built based on VR/AR technology, and students can participate in virtual community conflict mediation, poverty alleviation policy implementation, and other tasks through role-playing. For example, the virtual simulation laboratory simulates the “grassroots democratic consultation” scenario, where students need to complete policy briefings and mass mobilization in the context of dynamic public opinion changes, and the system provides real-time feedback on the impact of decisions on indicators such as social stability and economic development, strengthening the understanding of the correlation between political theory and social governance. The “Intelligent Public Opinion Analysis” ideological and political practice course is offered, where students use AI tools to analyze the social mentality behind Internet buzzwords such as “lying flat” and “involution”, and design targeted ideological and political education programs.

3 Problems in the Scenario-based Application of Ideological and Political Education in Colleges and Universities in the Intelligent Era

The technological development of the intelligent era provides a broad space for the scenario-based application of ideological and political education in colleges and universities, but also brings many challenges.

3.1 The Alienation of Virtual Scenes from Real Life

Digital intelligence technology has provided an unprecedented immersive scene experience for ideological and political education. However, while this virtual immersive education brings rich perception and strong resonance, it also raises another problem, that is, the educated gradually weaken their participation in real life, resulting in a disconnect between the virtual and the real (Meng, 2024). One is that virtual scenes rely too much on technologies such as VR and AR, but the application of these technologies is more “demonstrative” than “educational”. For instance, some red education scenes only restore historical scenes through high-precision modeling, but lack in-depth exploration of the spiritual connotations behind historical events, causing students to fall into a passive acceptance state of “visual wonders” and making it difficult to internalize virtual experiences into real values. Second, virtual scenes often guide students to complete the experience through preset paths, lacking dynamic interaction with real life. For example, after students complete tasks in a simulated “Long March of the Red Army” scenario, they fail to extend to realistic thinking about the responsibility and commitment of contemporary youth, resulting in the educational effect remaining superficial. Thirdly, the role of the teacher in the virtual scene is replaced by a technological platform. After experiencing the immersive scene, students enjoy the feeling of this “game” and do not accept the traditional teaching mode, making it difficult for educators to intervene and guide in time.

3.2 Weakening the Ability of Ideological and Political Education Subjects

In the intelligent age, while the contextualization of ideological and political education in colleges and universities has, to some extent, enhanced the interest and interactivity of teaching, it may also weaken the independent thinking and critical thinking abilities of the education subjects (students). For example, when VR technology was introduced for red education, some students relied too much on immersive experiences and neglected active thinking and in-depth analysis of the complexity and significance behind historical events (Wang, 2021). This “passive acceptance” learning model tends to keep students at the level of sensory stimulation, lacking a deep understanding of the theoretical connotations of ideological and political education. In addition, although intelligent learning platforms can push personalized content based on students’ learning behaviors, they may also cause students to fall into an “information cocoon”, only exposed to content that aligns with their own cognition, thereby weakening their inclusiveness and critical thinking ability towards diverse viewpoints. According to statistics, in some colleges and universities, the proportion of students actively asking questions and engaging in in-depth discussions in ideological and political classes has dropped significantly after the use of intelligent teaching tools. This phenomenon suggests that over-reliance on technology may weaken students’ ability to learn independently, leaving them lacking the ability to think and judge independently when facing complex social issues.

3.3 Eliminate the Characteristics of Ideological and Political Education Content

The widespread application of intelligent technologies may lead to the dilution of the characteristics of ideological and political education content in colleges and universities, or even their replacement by technological tools. When using AI teaching assistant systems to generate summaries of ideological and political knowledge points, the systems tend to simplify complex theories and transform them into easily understandable “knowledge points” or “keywords”, which, while improving learning efficiency, may also lead to students’ lack of a comprehensive grasp of the depth and breadth of ideological and political theories. In addition, the “Smart Classroom” platform analyzes the quality of students’ speeches through big data, but this evaluation method relies too much on quantitative indicators and neglects the cultivation of emotions, attitudes, and values in ideological and political education. Some platforms, influenced by utilitarianism and the idea of “money above all” in the design and distribution of scene content, deliberately attract people’s attention and gain increasing traffic by making fun of heroic figures and teasing classic historical stories. These “pan-entertainment” tendencies of dissemination will seriously undermine the seriousness of ideological and political education content and weaken people’s recognition of educational content.

4 Optimization Strategies for the Scenario-based Application of Ideological and Political Education in Colleges and Universities in the Intelligent Era

To give full play to the advantages of intelligent technology in the scenario-based application of ideological and political education in colleges and universities, and to effectively enhance the pertinence and effectiveness of ideological and political education, it is necessary to formulate optimization strategies from multiple dimensions and build an educational ecosystem driven by technology empowerment and centered on the effectiveness of education.

4.1 Value First, Combined with Technology Empowerment

In the process of deeply integrating digital and intelligent technologies into the contextualization of ideological and political education, “value guidance” is the “anchor” to ensure that the application of technology does not deviate from the fundamental goal of moral education and talent cultivation in ideological and political education (Jin, 2024). It requires that technology be not only a teaching tool but also an “implicit carrier” of value transmission (Zhou, 2023). From scene design to interaction details, all need to be infused with Marxist positions, viewpoints, and methods to form a symbiotic relationship where “technology empowers value and value governs technology”. First of all, value guidance, as the “meta-design principle” of technology application, must address the “value issue”, that is, the target fit, that intelligent technology should serve the fundamental question of “what kind of people to cultivate, how to cultivate them, and for whom to cultivate them”. For example, when developing a virtual scene of the history of the Communist Party of China, the primary goal is not to show off the technology, but to enable students to understand the value logic of “putting people first” in historical choices. Secondly, make full use of intelligent technology to activate the contextualized value of ideological and political education. Smart technology activates the educational function of scenario-based ideological and political education by building immersive experiences, precise interactions, and dynamic connections of educational scenarios, transforming abstract value concepts into knowable, participatory, and resonant “living textbooks”. “Value first” is the “root” of ideological and political education, and “technology empowerment” is the “wing”. Only when the roots are deep and the wings are spread can ideological and political education in the intelligent era truly reach the hearts of students and provide a solid ideological guarantee and spiritual impetus for cultivating new-era talents capable of shouldering the great rejuvenation of the nation.

4.2 Strengthen Subjectivity and Enhance the Subject Consciousness of the Educational Subjects

When designing scenarios for ideological and political education using digital and intelligent technologies, “the all-round development of human beings” should be the highest criterion, and the core should always be to cultivate people who “have firm ideals and beliefs, can think and judge independently, and have a sense of social responsibility”, avoiding the misunderstanding of “technology for the sake of technology”. At the cognitive level, the scenario-based teaching of ideological and political courses needs to enhance the understanding and grasp of intelligent technology. We should clearly recognize that intelligent technology serves education, and its purpose is to better promote human development. Therefore, when integrating technology into the contextualization of ideological and political education, it is necessary to awaken human-centered rationality to control instrumental rationality, rather than being controlled by technology. At the same time, cultivate students’ critical and reflective thinking about technology. At the practical level, it is necessary to improve intelligence literacy and enhance application ability.

4.3 Content Optimization to Enhance the Depth and Warmth of Scenario-Based Ideological and Political Education

Compared with traditional teaching, digital intelligence technology endows ideological and political education content with greater adaptability, experience, and emotional resonance. However, the realization of its value should be based on the principle that “content is king”, and through the deep integration of technology and educational content, ideological and political courses should be rich in both ideological depth and humanistic warmth (Huang, 2022). In the process of using digital intelligence technology to empower ideological and political education scenarios and optimize teaching content, the path of digital intelligence technology empowering ideological and political education content optimization should be explored from four dimensions: content supply, context creation, interaction design, and problem orientation (Fang, 2024). First, provide precise content to solve the problem of “what to teach”. Based on the fundamental goal of ideological and political education to cultivate virtue and talent, integrate existing resources, use big data to analyze students’ cognitive levels and interest preferences, dynamically adjust teaching content, and intelligently generate differentiated learning resources. Secondly, create immersive scenarios to solve the problem of “how to teach”. Build virtual simulation scenarios with smart technology, such as red education bases, reenactment of historical events, and even develop “walking ideological and political classes” that combine urban culture, red landmarks, and ideological and political education. Third, design inspiring interactions to reconstruct the “teacher-student relationship”. Build emotional, conversational, and co-creation interaction scenarios with the help of smart technologies. At the same time, create a “virtual space for theoretical speculation” to encourage students to collide ideas and interact with each other. Fourth, solve the problem of “why teach” with a problem-oriented approach. Construct problem situations that blend the virtual and the real, such as using intelligent technologies to transform major historical issues (such as the coordination of interests in land reform, etc.) into critical thinking topics for contemporary youth, allowing students to improve their critical thinking and critical abilities in the process of solving problems.

The development of technology in the intelligent age provides a broad space for the scenario-based application of ideological and political education in colleges and universities, but it also brings many challenges. The effectiveness of ideological and political education can be effectively enhanced through technological integration, content innovation, and model transformation. However, issues such as technology dependence and the entertainment of content still need to be addressed. In future educational practice, leveraging the advantages of AI technology to balance the depth and breadth of education and cultivate high-quality talents with critical thinking and a sense of social responsibility will be the key to reforming ideological and political education in colleges and universities.

References

[1] Meng, C. (2024). The Value and Path of Scenario - based Communication Empowering the Innovation of Ideological and Political Education Forms in Colleges and Universities. Heilongjiang Researches on Higher Education, 42(9), 117−124.

[2] Wang, Q. (2021, November 25). Scene Creation and Application of Ideological and Political Education in Colleges and Universities. China Communist Party News Network - Theoretical Investigation.

[3] Zhou, X. C. (2023). Thoughts on the Scenario Application of Ideological and Political Education in the Era of Smart Media. Journal of Northeastern University (Social Science Edition), 25(6), 115−122.

[4] Huang, D. X. (2022). Challenges and Countermeasures for the Construction of Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Colleges and Universities in the Context of Scenario - based Communication. Research on Ideological Education, (1), 115−120.

[5] Jin, G. F. (2024, April 7). Exploration and Practice of Contextualization of Ideological and Political Education in the New Era. Theoretical Edition of China Youth Daily.

[6] Fang, Z. (2024). The Application Picture, Problem Perspective and Action Path of Scenario - based Ideological and Political Education in the Digital and Intelligent Age. Journal of Southwest Minzu University (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 45(6), 209−217.