Literacy Level and Attitude of Academics towards the Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Public Universities in Rivers State

Abstract

The study focused on literacy level and attitude of academics towards the adoption of AI in public Universities in Rivers State. Three research questions were answered and three hypotheses tested in the study. The study adopted descriptive survey design. Population of the study was 3,766 lecturers in the three public Universities in Rivers State out of which 362 lecturers were sampled using stratified random sampling technique. Instrument used for gathering data was a 15-item questionnaire named “Lecturers Literacy and Attitude on the Adoption of Artificial Intelligence Questionnaire” (LLAAAIQ) which face and content validated by three Educational Management expert at Rivers State University. Cronbach alpha was used to estimate the reliability of the questionnaire and it produced an index of 0.81. There were 362 copies of questionnaire administered while 357 copies (238 males and 119 females) representing 98.6% were retrieved. Research questions raised were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using z-test at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that the lecturers had low level of AI literacy but had a good attitude towards its adoption. It was also shown that shortage of AI tools was not a challenge to them but the lack of regulatory framework and security of digital information. It was recommended among others that the lecturers should be trained on the adoption of AI for the discharge of their academic and administrative responsibilities in the University.