Awareness, attitudes, and habits of university students enrolled in Turkish language and literature degree programmes towards AI: the case of Türkiye

Studies on the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools in the field of Turkish Language and Literature usually involve editorial/author/poet comments and/or evaluation of articles published in scientific journals. The literature domain reveales a lack of information about university students’ awareness, behavior, and habits regarding GenAI tools; the likely effects of GenAI on the creativity of writers/poets; and the quality of literary works in Türkiye. However, higher education institutions require detailed information about the above issues before implementing new technology extensively. The study sample consisted of 638 students enrolled in Turkish Language and Literature degree programs at the 27 universities administered by public and private foundations throughout Türkiye. Google Forms were used to survey students and explore their familiarity, awareness, attitudes, and habits towards new GenAI tools during the 2023–2024 spring academic year. These forms contained 43 open-ended and closed-ended items. The study performed frequency and percentage calculations to analyze qualitative data. It also performed descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, and the Kruskal-Wallis H test using the SPSS 26 software to analyze quantitative data. Accordingly, research findings revealed that a vast majority of participants were familiar with the meaning of AI. Nearly half of the university students considered the use of GenAI in literature favorably, reflecting a significant level of support among students. Despite a high level of awareness among university students towards AI, their knowledge level was generally at a basic level. Male students expressed higher and more positive attitude scores towards AI compared to females. Students who engage with AI applications in their daily lives tend to have more positive attitudes towards GenAI. As a result, educational institutions should increase the number of AI courses and training opportunities to help students develop their knowledge and skills in this area.