A Phenomenological Study on Experience of Using Generative AI by University Students

Objectives This study aims to explore the direction of Generative AI literacy education through the exploration of college students' experiences using Generative AI. Methods For this purpose, written and face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 university stu-dents (5 male students and 7 female students) and analyzed by applying Colaizzi's phenomenological method, which consists of seven steps to explore the nature of common experiences rather than the individual participants. Results As a result of analyzing the interview data, 5 semantic themes and 14 sub-themes were derived under the essence of the experience called ‘co-evolution’. The five semantic themes consist of ‘getting to know new media’, ‘useful but dangerous existence’, ‘sharing roles with Generative AI’, ‘adapting to changes in the learning environment’, and ‘seeking a life that coexists with Generative AI’. The 14 semantic themes consisted of ‘matching up with Generative AI’, ‘creating my own method of using prompts’, ‘limitation of inanimate object’, ‘repeating unnecessary learning activities’, ‘incomplete learning assistant’, ‘my own tutor’, ‘reducing learning time’, ‘setting my own scope of use’, ‘another team member’, ‘passive new media user’, ‘recognition of reality and acceptance of new media’, ‘improving the competence to use Generative AI’, ‘selecting Generative AI according to the purpose of use’, and ‘competition with the human-specific domain’. Conclusions The discussion points on the direction of Generative AI literacy education for university students are as follows. First, it provides education in which prompts can be effectively input. Second, it provides guidelines so that the Generative AI can be used as an auxiliary tool rather than the main tool for learning. Third, it provides education on the characteristics of the Generative AI. Fourth, it enhances education on usage ethics.