Digital Literacy, Attitudes toward Artificial Intelligence, and AI Literacy among University Students: A Path Analysis Study
Keywords:
Digital literacy, Attitude toward artificial intelligence, AI literacy, Higher education, Path analysisAbstract
The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into higher education has heightened the need to understand how students develop AI literacy. This study examined the relationships among digital literacy (DL), attitude toward artificial intelligence (AIA), and AI literacy (AIL), with particular attention to the mediating role of attitudes. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed. Data were collected from 214 undergraduate students enrolled in an information systems program at a public university via a structured questionnaire that measured digital literacy, attitudes toward AI, and self-reported AI literacy. Regression-based path analysis with bootstrapping was used to estimate direct and indirect relationships among the study variables.
The results indicated that DL was positively associated with both AIA and AIL, while AIA was also positively associated with AIL and partially mediated the relationship between DL and AIL. These findings suggest that digital literacy is related to AI literacy both directly and indirectly through attitudes, highlighting the role of cognitive and affective factors in the development of AI literacy. However, given the cross-sectional and self-report nature of the data, these relationships should be interpreted as associations rather than causal relationships. This study provides contextualized empirical evidence from a Southeast Asian higher education setting and contributes to the literature by examining the DL–AIA–AIL framework in an underrepresented context. From a practical perspective, the findings suggest that higher education institutions may benefit from integrating digital skill development with learning experiences that foster positive engagement with AI technologies.
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