Research and Advances in Education

The Double-Edged Tool: Student Perspectives on the Ethical Use, Skill Impact, and Pedagogical Adaptation of Generative AI in Higher Education

Mark Kevin Astrero — 2026-03-06

Gen AI’s rapid assimilation into higher education calls for critical consideration of its ethical, pedagogical, and competency-shaping effects. This study explores the essential dimensions of college students’ learning experiences and the broader implications of AI-supported learning environments. This qualitative-phenomenological inquiry used a survey/interview protocol in Google Forms to collect detailed, self-reported information from Filipino college students representing multiple higher education institutions across the Philippines. Systematic thematic analysis was used to identify patterns, themes, and categories in students’ responses regarding practical applications, detrimental effects, and recommendations for pedagogical change. Students see GenAI as a double-edged tool that helps with ideation, summarizing complex topics, and becoming more efficient when writing. Yet it posed a significant problem regarding academic dishonesty and the resultant loss of specific basic competencies, such as analysis, logical reasoning, and independent effort. And they reported taking measures to mitigate risk, such as conducting extensive fact-checking and regulating their own activities—even as many students said clearer standards for disclosing sources were needed. This study posited that such duality of GenAI requires an institutional response in kind. It is suggested that the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and faculty move “beyond a blanket ban approach, toward an integration of use” strategy. Specific recommendations include co-creating clear ethical guidelines; rethinking tasks to become “AI-resilient” by focusing more on process-based assessment, such as reflection, collaboration, and application in the real world; and shifting instructors’ roles to facilitators of deep, process-focused learning.

Use of E-Resources by the Users of Erode Kongu Arts and Science College (Autonomous)

Dr. V. Senthur Velmurugan — 2026-03-06

The rapid increase in electronic information resources has changed the academic community and established e-resources as a ubiquitous component of the teaching-learning-research process. This study investigates the use of e-resources by the consumers of Kongu Arts and Science College (Autonomous), Erode, in terms of awareness, usage, purpose, satisfaction levels, and issues encountered. A pretested questionnaire was used to survey 400 respondents, including undergraduate students, postgraduate students, research scholars, and teaching staff. The collected data were analyzed and analyzed using SPSS (Version 25) using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations, and chi-square tests. The survey recognizes that e-journals (88%) and e-books (85%) contribute the maximum usage, and institutional repositories and open education resources have the minimum usage. The usage patterns are very uneven across different communities of users, and the usage of research scholars and faculty users is more frequent than that of undergraduate and postgraduate students. Academic tasks (72%), research (68%), and preparation for teaching (55%) were the main motivations for using e-resources. The analysis of satisfaction reveals that users are moderately satisfied in general, but with a better score on content relevance and worse on access speed. The highest-ranked barriers were low quality of internet connection (55%), authentication/login issues (40%), and lack of awareness (38%). The study concludes that even though e-resources are extensively used and valued, infrastructure development, awareness creation, and provision of periodic user training programs are essential for meaningful use. This study provides recommendations to library managers and policymakers on how they should enhance digital resource services and promote a research-oriented academic culture.