The Mental Image of Artificial Intelligence Applications Among Teaching Staff Members in The Faculty of Arts & Media, Misurata University - A Survey Study

Abstract

This study aimed at determining the level of awareness among academicians at the Faculty of Arts and Media regarding artificial intelligence (AI) applications, identifying the most major AI applications used by teaching staff members at the Faculty of Arts and Media, Misurata University, and defining the most significant fields the AI applications used in academic work among the study sample. Further; this study focuses on identifying the most crucial challenges encountering the academicians in using AI applications. To achieve the study's objectives, a descriptive-analytical method was applied to a sample of all the tenured teaching staff members at the Faculty of Arts and Media, Misurata University, totaling (25) academicians. The census survey method was used considering the small size of the study's population. A digital questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. The study reached at that the teaching staff members at the Faculty of Arts and Media have a good knowledge in terms of AI applications that scored a high percentage of (54.2%). The most significant AI applications academically used are: text writing and content generation tools such as (Mains, Deep Seek, Google Gemini, and ChatGPT) with (75.0%) of the total sample. The study shows that the respondents used the AI applications in their academic tasks on a weekly basis, representing with (45.8%) of the total study population. The results confirmed that there is a positive mental image among academicians towards AI applications. The dimensions of this mental image were: sentimental, epistemological, and behavioral- all of them reflect high levels of agreement. The study also showed that one of the most noticeable obstacles the academicians encounter in using AI applications is the absence of training courses and programs the university provides on AI which they may need to avail from in their academic works and scientific research. This issue scored a high arithmetic mean of (4.00), indicating a high level of agreement.