Artificial Intelligence Ethics Awareness, Digital Citizenship Competence, and Institutional Readiness Among Ph.D. Education Students at the University of Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the university experience for teaching, research and the creation of knowledge, and its widespread adoption by doctoral researchers is outpacing institutional guidance on how to use it responsibly. . The method used was a descriptive survey design and the sample was 150 respondents obtained from 239 Ph.D. education students by using Taro Yamane's formula. The Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Digital Citizenship Questionnaire (AIE-DCQ) was used to measure data, which is an expert validated 15 item questionnaires with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.93. Means, standard deviations and one sample t-tests were used to analyse data with a criterion mean of 3.00. Participants' AI ethics awareness (M = 4.27, SD = 0.60) and their digital citizenship competence (M = 3.88, SD = 0.63) scores were significantly higher than the criterion means, while their score on perceived institutional support for responsible AI use (M = 2.14, SD = 0.72) was significantly lower. The findings indicate that there are already many ethical considerations and digital competencies of doctoral students when it comes to using AI responsibly, but the University of Jos has not yet developed the policy, training, and infrastructure needed to support this practice. To bridge this gap, the study suggests the creation of AI governance structures for the institution, digital citizenship-focused training for lecturers, and enhanced support for lecturers.