HARNESSING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR PROMOTING 21ST CENTURY SKILLS ACQUISITION AND UNDERGRADUATES’ PREPAREDNESS FOR SUSTAINABLE LIFELONG LEARNING IN NIGERIA.

Abstract

The 21st century has brought education great opportunities hence schools need to ensure students have the expected life skills and knowledge in order to fit into the work environment upon graduation. Academic knowledge content alone is not sufficient to prepare students for the world of work.  With increasing global competitiveness, undergraduates need energetic drive for skills that are challenging and inspiring to thrive in today’s world.  The study examined harnessing artificial intelligence for promoting 21st century life skills acquisition and Undergraduates preparedness for sustainable lifelong learning in Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study, four purposes of the guided study, four research questions were raised and four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection titled “harnessing artificial intelligence for promoting 21^st century skills acquisition and Undergraduates preparedness for sustainable lifelong learning “Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for promoting 21^st Century Skills Acquisition and Undergraduates preparedness for Sustainable Lifelong Learning”.  The instrument was validated by two experts and a reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained.  Population comprised of 250 (99 males and 151 females) respondents used for the study. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used for data analysis using mean, standard deviation and independent t-test.  Findings revealed that undergraduates’ awareness of available AI technology was moderately low.  Moreover, it was observed that undergraduate’s preparedness with learning skills, exposure to literacy skills and acquisition of skills for sustainable lifelong learning were moderate. Findings further showed that males have more awareness of AI technology and preparedness in 21^st century skills than females.   Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others, that there should be concerted effort by government and tertiary institutions management to organize awareness and training programmes on new and emerging technologies, especially AI in teaching and learning so as to keep students informed about and improved skills and knowledge in the utilization of AI technologies.