Analyzing the Effectiveness of AI Ethics Education through Extracurricular Programs: A Pre- and Post-Semantic Network Analysis

This study aims to analyze changes in university students’ perceptions and attitudes toward AI-assisted writing through a liberal arts curriculum-linked extracurricular program and to verify its educational effectiveness. The research data consisted of pre- and post-program worksheets collected from 75 students at M University, which were analyzed using semantic network analysis and network centrality measures. The results revealed that, prior to the program, students’ responses were dominated by anxiety- and task-oriented vocabulary such as “assignment,” “writing,” and “concern.” After the program, however, words related to ethical considerations and practical utilization, such as “source,” “plagiarism,” and “application,” became more prominent. Furthermore, the network structure shifted from scattered connections to a cohesive structure centered on core terms, indicating a transition in students’ perceptions from instrumental use to ethical and creative application. These findings confirm that the extracurricular program effectively enhanced students’ competency in utilizing AI responsibly and fostered a mature writing attitude. This study is significant in that it demonstrates the tangible outcomes of extracurricular learning within liberal arts education and suggests future directions for AI-integrated writing instruction.