Generative Artificial Intelligence: Student Learning, Anxiety, and Legality Perceptions

Before higher education instructors design learning activities that help students use AI to find and thrive in future jobs, instructors first need to gauge the level of student understanding of AI, especially generative AI that uses large language models to create new content. Students are mixed in their perceptions of AI. After completing a prompting activity, some student comments were optimistic, with some expressing a desire to use generative AI tools in the future and showing interest in learning how generative AI works. Other students viewed generative AI negatively with little future need for what they considered a ‘creepy’ tool. Also, some students noted the inauthentic manner of speech the generative AI provided while others described their beliefs that using generative AI constituted cheating. To better understand student beliefs about AI, a survey measured student anxiety regarding generative AI, anxiety with respect to various AI applications, understanding of legality and AI, as well as perceptions concerning a prompting exercise designed to teach the value of refining prompts. Several activities designed to expand student use and knowledge of prompting are described.