ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS’

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

Mr. Hamis Juma

Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are making the ICT devices solve cognitive tasks as a
human would have done by using real-time data. Such a giant leap in digital technologies has
changed the way people learn. In the study, understanding and knowledge of Artificial Intelligence
in education were explored to a class of learners in higher education institution. The study
employed a survey questionnaire in data collection to gather data of the students, which was
analysed used descriptive statistics. The data collected and analysed as part of an action study
process to allow deployment of AI toll for learning in the classroom. The findings show that
students have access to smart devices capable of AI technology integration, however, they are not
using them for learning purposes. Further, learners had little knowledge on Artificial Intelligence
though they are aware of the existence of artificial intelligence technologies. In addition, the
findings reveal that students assert the importance of having Artificial Intelligence in education
and ready to use it in learning and teaching process, however, they have little or no trust in
Artificial intelligence being used assess their academic performance.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Active Learning, Teacher Education, Higher Education

Background
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have changed the way learners are interacting with
instructional activities in various educational settings. Learning has been shifted from instructor-
led to the interaction of AI-powered devices and learners are no longer bound to traditional
classrooms (Chassignol, et al. 2018).
AI has managed to remove the one size fits all education by personalizing the curriculum content
to the individual student after analysing the strength and weaknesses and make the content
adaptive. AI technologies in learning provide immediate constructive feedback on how a learner
can close the gap of knowledge from what the learner knows to where is supposed to be (Klutka,
et al., 2018; W. Lynch, 2017; Martin, 2018). A good example is the Pearson (2019) product
MyLab that is making learning easy by highlighting mistakes of learners, assess them and provide
suggestion and personalize activities based on the performance level.
Moreover, eSchool in their work predicted that there will be an increment of 50% of using AI
technologies in teaching and learning by 2021 in African countries. The increment will give the
teachers and learners affordance to interact with AI technologies in their classroom. With the
necessity of IA in the current skills economy, Maribe and Twum-Darko (2015) assert that it is
essential for educational institutions to adopt the technology for effective teaching in the

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classrooms. For the AI providing new affordability to the learners and teachers, and considering it
is one of the emerging technologies in education it is essential to examine the understanding of
teachers and learners on the knowledge of AI in African higher education.
Literature Review
Integration of emerging technologies has improved our education with technological revolution
happening every century. Education has been embracing the revolutions that have improved
pedagogy (Machanick, 2014), from the use of slate boards, a chalkboard to radio and television to
overhead projectors (Maribe & Twum-Darko, 2015; William, 2015). That shows how over time
education has been adopted technologies that facilitate and improve the process of learning, and
now AI provides the affordance that was not available before by personalizing the learning to the
individual learner and providing smart content (Haran, 2015; Rouhiainen, 2019). Further,
Sharkova (2014) emphasises that using technologies like AI in higher education ensure inclusivity
and support various learning style.
AI has several definitions, Murphy (2019, p. 2) has defined Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined
as the “application of software algorithms and techniques that allow computers and machines to
simulate human perception and decision-making processes to complete tasks”, in that case, AI
operates using the instructions that are coded using the certain algorithm and provided desired
outputs. (Castelluccia et al., 2019) added that the various instructions that are coded can be
combined to create a more complex system that can handle a huge amount of data.
Ai provided learning personalization by taking individual abilities and focus the goal that needs to
be reached by accelerating the learning using the cognitive level of the learner (Uchehukwu, 2018),
for instance, Pluralsight is using the data from learners to customize and personalize the learning
and provide the learning path for every individual learner. In the 21 st century, AI is relevant in our
education as it cannot only provide the personalization of learning to individuals but also insights
to admins and teachers that can be used to make improvements of programs and educational
decisions (Aldowah, et al. 2017; Holmes, et al.2019; Paul, 2017).
Recently, there has been upgrowing development of AI tools for learning and teaching to increase
personalization such as Kolibri developed by Learn Equality (UNESCO, 2019) and RoboTutor by
Carnegie (XPRIZE Foundation, 2019). Further, some of the AI in education solutions developed
in Africa are such as Dapto, Siyavula, Funda and ReThink in South Africa, M-Shule in Kenya,
SkoolDesk in Uganda, and Mtabe in Tanzania (UNESCO, 2019). However, it is not evidenced
that in higher education in Africa there is the usage of AI in teaching and learning. Hence there is
a need to explore the understanding of students and teachers understanding of AI in higher
education.
Methodology
Data in this study were collected using a survey that aimed to answer the questions raised in the
study. Participants were provided with a survey to fill that had questions on knowledge of AI.
Moreover, one class with sixty-four (64) survey questionnaire were provided to the institution and
fifty-eight (58) students returned the filled survey. The following tables describe the age and
stream the students are.
Table 1: Age distribution of the participants

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Towards Excellence: An Indexed, Refereed & Peer Reviewed Journal of Higher Education / Mr. Hamis
Juma/Page 834-841
Frequen Perce Valid Cumulativ
cy nt Percent e Percent
Valid 18-20 1 1.7 1.7 1.7
years
21-23 27 46.6 46.6 48.3
years
24 or 30 51.7 51.7 100.0
older
Total 58 100.0 100.0
The table display the learners having the age more than 24 years old dominating the class by fifty
two percent followed by whose age is between 21 to 23, and only 2 per cent of the class was below
the age of 21.
Table 2: Demographic characteristics of the students who participated in the study
Stream Male Female Total
Chemistry & 29 15 44
Biology 09 01 10
Chemistry & Maths 06 - 06
Physics & 04 - 04
Chemistry 48 16 64
Physics & Maths
Total
The sample selected was year II students which provided enough reflection on the knowledge of
AI in higher education as learners have already spent one year at an institution and exposed to
various technologies that are used for learning and teaching.
The pilot study was done to test the internal reliability of the tool before data collection.
Cronbach’s alpha was used to ascertain the internal reliability of the questionnaire for the study.
The pilot study was also done to highlight challenges that might occur during data collection. The
table below shows the reliability of the test in pilot test and data collection.
Table 3: Internal reliability of Questionnaire
Cronbach's Cronbach's Alpha N of Items
Alpha Based on
Standardized Items
.685 .712 8

The questionnaire was distributed to the students to fill out at their own time, then returned to the
researcher after filling them. The students’ questionnaire comprised of 15 questions from 8 items
of which intended to get the students prior experience to ICT usage in learning activities,
understanding of students’ knowledge on AI and general perception on the role and abilities of AI
technology in teaching in learning. The data collected were analysed by descriptive statistics using
SPSS (version 25) to get the frequencies (Cohen, et al., 2018). The analysis of data collected used
to generalize the results to other institutions of higher learning.

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Towards Excellence: An Indexed, Refereed & Peer Reviewed Journal of Higher Education / Mr. Hamis
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Findings and analysis
In the study, the data revealed that basic ICT technology was used in the classroom in the process
of teaching and learning. However, most of the technology that was used was based on the delivery
from the teacher to the learners such as projectors to display presentations and computers for lesson
preparation. Further, there was no evidence of using any Artificial intelligence tool in the class.
The survey collected information about ownership of devices that AI technology has been
integrated and the overall knowledge of students, as detailed below.
Students’ ownership of the smart device
To integrate AI in teaching and learning, smart devices are one of the necessities of students to
have, the student was seemingly using a collective of smart devices. The ownership of smart
devices suggested that knowingly or unknowingly they have once interacted with smart devices
during their studies when using the devices. The class was using smart devices in large number,
the collection of statistics of smart devices usage, it showed that more than eighty per cent of the
class is having a smartphone and nearly twenty per cent are having laptops as reflected in the table
below.
Table 4:Students owned smart devices (n = 58)
Ownership Frequency Per cent
Smartphone 50 86%
Laptop 11 19%
Tablet 2 3.5%

Despite the class owning smart devices (smartphone by 86% and personal computers by 19%),
they were not used in teaching and learning activities. However, the Tanzania ICT policy has
allowed the use of ICT in learning and teaching, smart devices are not utilised in higher education.
Further, the curriculum for teachers’ colleges, does not explicitly say about how ICT must be used
during teaching and learning and ICT as the subject has been given more weight than using ICT
in teaching and learning. Therefore, using smart devices (smartphones or computers) in teaching
and learning in class is the tutors own initiative.
Learners understanding, prior knowledge and awareness of Artificial Intelligence
It was expected that the students are aware and have prior knowledge of artificial intelligence.
Considering more than eighty per cent (80%) are owning smart devices and using various apps
that have artificial intelligence capabilities.
During the study, students were asked if they are aware of how smart devices operates and whether
they have knowledge of artificial intelligence. The question aimed to get the overall understanding
of the students’ knowledge and their experiences interacting with the devices that are supposedly
having artificial intelligent apps.
The students' replies, indicates that they are aware of some functionalities of artificial intelligence
such as how artificial intelligence use algorithms in making decisions. However, they could not
relate to artificial intelligence as a whole concept. Further, seventy per cent (70%) of the class
were aware of how Artificial Intelligence operates and its capabilities in the devices they have
been using. On the same, only twenty-one per cent (21%) were having prior knowledge of artificial
intelligence before taking the survey.
Table 5: Awareness of student teachers on how smart device operates and prior knowledge
of what AI is (n=58)

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Towards Excellence: An Indexed, Refereed & Peer Reviewed Journal of Higher Education / Mr. Hamis
Juma/Page 834-841
Response Frequency (%)
Awareness of AI and how it operates 70%
Prior knowledge of what AI is 21%

The table indicates that students have been interacting with smart devices in their normal routines
(from the data that more than 85% have a smartphone and use applications that have artificial
intelligence capabilities). Interaction with smart devices gave them the awareness of knowing how
AI operates. However, the response suggests that the learners are using devices with AI
applications but not conscious that it was AI and how it works and its integration in education.
Learners’ views on the importance of acceptance and trust of using AI
The students who participated in this study perceive that having AI in education as an important
step in improving education. The students in large per cent believe that the results that are provided
with AI technologies can improve the learning and teaching process in the classroom. When asked
about the importance, nearly seventy per cent of the class assert that will be ready to trust the
decision making that is made by Ai on their learning progress.
However, the class participants are much disagreeing with the idea of integrating AI technologies
for their assessment, which raise the question of the mistrust of AI that was not thoroughly
answered by the data obtained. However, from the sample group, the assumption is that they
consider themselves incompetent in using smart devices for learning activities, as using devices
were illegal at a low level and have no time in getting used to the devices in classroom settings. In
addition, the issue of the cost of being connected to the internet raised another concern as they
must be connected all the time and college access to internet connectivity is limited and mobile
data subscription is cost full.
Table 6: Students view on the importance of AI, trust, and acceptance of using AI in
academic settings (n=58)
Response Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree
Importance 52 % 48 % - -
Trust 28 % 41 % 26 % 5%
Acceptance 10 % 28 % 38 % 23 %
The result shows that implementing AI technologies in education will help students and they are
welcoming the technology and can interact with it in learning. However, when implementing the
integration of Ai technologies in learning and teaching to keep in consideration the cost of
connectivity to the internet and how learners can access it around the school environment. Further,
the students are not interested in being assessed with Ai technologies in their learning though they
see it as important in their learning. This indicates their preference of being assessed by a human
tutor than relying on Ai technologies for assessment.
Conclusion
The students in higher education are having access to smart devices that allow the Ai technologies
to be integrated for learning and teaching. The possession of devices is supported by the ICT policy
(2016) that states what crucial role ICT can play to improve education and usage of emerging
technologies. However, no AI technology was used for teaching and learning nor assessment of
learners. The infrastructure for internet connectivity and the cost of the internet (Cable, 2018) are
the challenges that in large part hindered the full integration of Ai in teaching and learning.

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Juma/Page 834-841
Further, there is a need to conduct a thorough qualitative study to get the details as to why students
do not trust AI and what can make them trust AI in learning. In addition, the study can be done to
a large sample with diverse specializations to have a wide view of higher education.
Competing Interests
Authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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Mr. Hamis Juma

PhD Scholar
University School of Psychology, Education & Philosophy
Gujarat University, Ahmedabad
Email: Hamisj10@gmail.com, Mobile: +918128738762, +255673815018
ORCID: 0000-0003-0946-463X

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