Students' Perceptions and Uses of ChatGPT: Implications for Teaching AI Literacy

Abstract: Emerging technologies, including generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), create new challenges and opportunities for educators within higher education. As GenAI applications increase in sophistication and are integrated more seamlessly into the tools that are routinely used for scholarship, the most productive conversations are centered around using them to enhance education while ensuring that they do not detract from learning. This article presents findings from a research project at the School of Information and Communication Studies, University College Dublin (UCD), entitled "Generative Artificial Intelligence in Education: Exploring Student Perceptions and Use of Large Language Models (LLMs)." An online survey of 1,553 undergraduate and graduate students in UCD College of Social Sciences and Law produced deep insights into their perceptions, attitudes, challenges, and concerns regarding the use of large language model–based GenAI chatbots in academic contexts. This paper focuses on the students' responses relating to the type of training that they perceive they need to be able to use GenAI chatbots ethically, productively, and within the boundaries of what is permitted in their academic education. In addition to extending our emerging understanding of students' knowledge and perceptions of GenAI, the study findings provide useful insight and guidance to educators in higher education institutions who wish to "lean in" and integrate, rather than exclude, GenAI tools in their pedagogical approaches.