Assessing the moderating effect of AI literacy and AI awareness on biology students’ behavioral intention and use behavior via extended UTAUT2 model

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the acceptance of biology students toward AIEd tools and the moderating effects of AI awareness and AI literacy on their behavioral intention via a descriptive-correlational design. A total of 162 biology students participated, with different fields of specialization. Moderation and simple slope analyses were utilized for data analysis. The results show that biology students show high level of acceptance on AI-driven education (AIEd) tools (mean = 2.86) across eight constructs, with self-efficacy emerging as a key factor influencing adoption. Biology students have weak habitual use of AIEd tools. Habits were moderately positively correlated with both behavioral intention (r = 0.495) and use behavior (r = 0.559). The study revealed that AI awareness has no direct significant moderating effect on behavioral intention (B = 0.0202, p = 0.761) but significantly moderates the relationship between AI adoption-related factors and students’ behavioral intention (B = 0.4901, p = 0.015). The simple slope analysis shows that across all levels of AI awareness, there is a significant positive relationship between AI adoption-related constructs and AI awareness, with high-level AI awareness (B = 1.131, p < .001) having the strongest effect. However, AI literacy shows a significant moderating effect on behavioral intention (B = 0.280, p = 0.002) but no significant interaction effects on AI adoption factors (p = 0.054). It reinforces the need to integrate programs that strengthen AI awareness and foster AI literacy among students, thereby leading to the ethical and responsible use of AIEd tools. Also, a structured and sustained integration of AIEd tools with a focus on practical applications to address intention-use gaps with an emphasis on enhancing peer interaction.