Students’ Views on AI in Education: Identifying Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it has become necessary for university students to develop the ability to work independently. Doing so, students would need to use technological means as sources of information. Using advanced technologies, AI has made its way into the field of education. However, some students still have not mastered learning with technology, let alone using AI, which creates confusion for them. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which university students can use AI, how they use it, and the associated challenges and opportunities while using it. To achieve this aim, the targeted group was 140 Moroccan university students from three departments (English studies, Management Techniques, and Advanced Material Physics). Data was collected through an online questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 25. The results demonstrated that though students use AI for certain tasks, they have not mastered it fully (30%). Additionally, the study reveals that even though AI can increase students’ involvement and cater to their learning (62,1%), it cannot foster emotional intelligence (55%), it weakens social relationships (34.3%), undervalues human intellect (45.7%), and contributes to inequalities among students (60%). Accordingly, the study implies that students need explicit support on what AI is and how to use it in an ethical way.