Generative AI in higher education: utility and institutional based explanations of user acceptance

Grant: International Advanced Fellowship-UBB programme no. 21PFE/30/12/2021, ID:PFE-550-UBB

Grant holder: Prof. Dr. Raluca Bunduchi, University of Edinburgh

STAR-UBB-N scientific coordinator: Prof. Dr. Daniel Mican

The fellowship seeks to leverage Prof. Bunduchi’s research expertise indigital transformation and institutional analysis of technology, and Dr. Micanand Dr. Sitar-Tăut’s research expertise in technology adoption for education todevelop a collaborative research project examining the acceptance bystudents and teachers of generative AI for learning and teaching. Theproject takes a broader contextual perspective to examine the perceptions thatusers develop in relation to the use of generative AI, and the rationales for theiracceptance (or otherwise). The project outcomes will provide important insightsinto the interplay between economic, social and cognitive factors that shapethe acceptance of AI tools depending on their area of application, helping botheducation professionals and their institutions to make decisions regarding howbest to encourage or curtail the adoption of generative AI in higher education.The project will also have important theoretical contributions as understandingthe context in which technology is adopted is a key criticism of widelydeployed models of technology acceptance (e.g. TAM or UTAUT) which focus onindividual factors, but do not account for the role of macro-structural factorsin shaping such adoption. Nevertheless, cultural and normative factors havelong been shown to shape the adoption of new technologies by individuals, andeven more so within highly institutionalised settings such as professionalorganisations (Mignerat and Rivard, 2009).