Construing digital competence of Vietnamese students and consequences from ChatGPT user experience

Abstract

The increased pace of the development of generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT has caused an immediate necessity to comprehend how user experiences with this technology are being used to build the Digital Competence (DC), Digital Entrepreneurial Intention (DEI) and Self-Perceived Employability (SPE) of students. Nonetheless, the current research also remains short of a unified framework that can eloquently describe what psychological processes and mediating properties are underlying. This research is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to analyze the influence of Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) on ChatGPT user experience, the mediating effect of Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction (BPNS) on developing DC, and then the effect of DC on DEI and SPE. The survey data, including 438 valid responses from university students in Vietnam, were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The findings are that PU rather than PEOU increases User Experience (UE); UE elevates the BPNS and consequently the DC. Moreover, the DC affects DEI and SPE positively. The research contributed to the discipline by presenting the integrated TAM-SDT sequential mediation model linking ChatGPT use to DEI and SPE through BPNS and DC. The study also offers practical implications to institutions of higher education and policy formulators on how they can develop and manage the utilization of ChatGPT as an aid to developing digital and career-related competencies of the students.