Readiness and Self-Efficacy of Lecturers toward Using Perplexity Artificial Intelligence for Research Purpose in Federal University of Education Kontagora, Niger State

Abstract

The study investigatesawareness and self-efficacy of lecturers toward using Perplexity Artificial Intelligence for research purpose in Federal University of Education Kontagora, Niger State. Using descriptive survey design. The population of the study consists of 281 lecturers from Federal University of Education Kontagora, Niger State. Random sampling technique was used to select 165 sampled lecturers. The research was guided by four research questions and two null hypotheses and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Questionnaire named Perplexity Artificial Intelligence Research Questionnaire for University Lecturer (PAIRQFUL)with five items each on readiness and self-efficacy was used for the study. A pilot study was carried out to test reliability of the research instrument. A reliability coefficient of 0.76 and 0.81 on both readiness and self-efficacy respectively, using Cronbach Alpha. The data collected from the administration of the research instrument was analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while (t-test) statistics was used to test the research hypotheses. SPSS version 20.0 was used as statistical package. The findings of the study revealedthat lecturers’ readiness towards using Perplexity Artificial intelligence for research purpose in Federal University of Education Kontagora is positive. Also,there was no significant difference in the mean of gender of lecturers’ readiness towards using Perplexity Artificial intelligence for research purpose.The study conclude that lecturers exhibited high level of readiness to utilize Perplexity Artificial Intelligence for research purpose while a low self-efficacy was observed. Moreover, AI self-efficacy was found to have no significant impact on the gender of lecturers for research purpose. It was recommendations that Federal University of Education Kontagora should tailored support programmes that will develop and improve Perplexity AI self-efficacy for research purpose, for both female and male lecturers.