Factors affecting university students’ generative AI literacy: Evidence and evaluation in the UK and Hong Kong contexts

Factors affecting university students’ generative AI literacy: Evidence and evaluation in the UK and Hong Kong contexts

• O'Dea, Xianghan King’s College London
• Ng, Tsz Kit The Education University of Hong Kong
• O'Dea, Mike University of York
• Shkuratskyy, Viacheslav York St John University

Policy Futures in Education, 2024

SAGE Publications

2024

• F Learning & Teaching
  • FD Application of Communicative Media, IT in Learning & Teaching
• P Social Context of Education
  • PB Comparative Education

Generative AI Literacy AI Course AI in Education Higher Education AI Ethics

• Hong Kong
• United Kingdom

• 1997.7 onwards

• Pre-Primary Education

• View Full Text 全文連結

Generative AI (GenAI) has become popular with many university students since late 2022 and is incorporated in their daily life. To use GenAI tools effectively and equitably, and also to meet industry expectations, students should be supported to develop GenAI literacy skills during their time at university. Even though some universities have provided AI literacy training courses to students, the courses are not yet widely available to students across the higher education sector. Besides, there has been a shortage of GenAI literacy courses in particular. And more importantly, it is unclear what knowledge and skills that need to be included relating to GenAI literacy, from the student perspective. Building a strong understanding of student perceptions in this area is critical, because it will help enhance appropriateness and content relevance and promote student engagement. Adopting the four-dimensional AI literacy framework as the theoretical foundation, this paper aims to address the gaps. It explores the perceptions of university students on GenAI literacy in the UK and Hong Kong contexts. Survey data from 234 students were collected and analyzed using the descriptive analysis and Kruskal–Wallis test. The results show that factors such as country of studies and prior learning about AI greatly impacted GenAI literacy. However, factors such as age and educational level do not have a significant effect. Built upon the findings and the theoretical foundation, this paper proposes a new GenAI literacy framework. This framework is a revised version of the four-dimensional AI literacy framework and proposes the essential GenAI knowledge and skills for university students. The new framework also acknowledges the impact of the macro, meso, and micro factors on student GenAI literacy development. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s).

• English

Journal Articles

• 14782103

• 10.1177/14782103241287401

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/3bcce5ae

2025-06-16