Artificial Intelligence Utilization and Research Writing Skills: A Comparative Study of Federal and State Universities in Nigeria (Published)
This study examined artificial intelligence utilization and research writing skills among students in federal and state universities in Nigeria. The study adopted a comparative descriptive survey research design to determine the extent of artificial intelligence utilization and its influence on research writing skills among students in both categories of universities. The population of the study comprised undergraduate and postgraduate students from selected federal and state universities in Nigeria. A sample size of 381 respondents was determined using the Krejcie and Morgan sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire titled “Artificial Intelligence Utilization and Research Writing Skills Questionnaire (AIURWSQ).” The instrument was validated by experts in educational technology and research methodology, while Cronbach Alpha reliability analysis yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.88, indicating high internal consistency. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while independent t-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation analyses were employed to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that students in federal universities demonstrated a higher level of artificial intelligence utilization compared to students in state universities. The study also established that artificial intelligence utilization significantly influences research writing skills among university students. AI tools such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, QuillBot, Turnitin, Gemini, and Perplexity AI were found to enhance grammar accuracy, citation management, paraphrasing, academic organization, plagiarism detection, and overall research writing quality. The study concluded that artificial intelligence has become an important component of academic research and writing in Nigerian universities. The study recommended that universities should integrate AI literacy into research methodology courses, improve ICT infrastructure, and organize regular workshops on the ethical use of artificial intelligence tools in academic writing.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Federal Universities, Grammarly, Nigeria, QuillBot, State universities, Turnitin, research writing skills