IMPACT OF THE USE OF AI-BASED TOOLS ON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

This study has a scope on Artificial Intelligence and its effect on university students in Punjab, Pakistan. The second involves studying the ways in which students’ academic performance and learning behaviour change as a result of AI tools, including intelligent tutoring systems and plagiarism detectors, in higher education. So, while students in urban areas are able to utilize tools like Grammarly, ChatGPT and other more than AI tools to help them with their writing and research skills, students in rural areas have barriers such as no internet access making these barriers worse and further increasing the inequality in education. To address ethical as well as academic dishonesty and data privacy concerns, the study also discusses to the extent to which factors, like perceived usefulness and ease of use, affect the adoption of AI tools using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This finding stresses upon the imperative of policy interventions to bridge the digital divide and to make AI tools available to all students in Pakistan’s higher education system to enable all the students to benefit from these AI tools in Pakistan’s higher education system.

Novel factors contained in this study include the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on university students’ academic performance, motivation, skill development, and learning behavior which were investigated through chi square analysis and factor analysis. Results of the chi square tests show statistical existence of associations for different academic and technical variables showing that AI is of a great impact in helping to understand complex concepts, assignment completion and motivation for the study. Additionally, the factor analysis of the data sorted the data into meaningful themes related to academic performance, technological adaptation, independent learning, research skills, and negative aspects such as dependency and the removal of human connection. Although, AI has made positive contributions in providing support for learning processes, the findings also show a shift towards AI tools in assignments and, in some circumstances, this may impede students’ ability to self-write and develop critical thinking. It is worrying for students to use AI to complete tasks instead of relying on their own thought process which could be a result in rising rates of creativity decline and cheating. The study ends with recommendations to educators regarding how balanced AI use can be promoted, the independent learning encouraged, as well as the strategies that will ensure student engagement with core educational values.