This study explored factors influencing ChatGPT adoption among higher education students in five Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland) and the USA. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) framework was employed and extended to incorporate personal innovativeness. Data was collected from 586 students recruited through Prolific and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed varying patterns of relationships between different factors and behavioral intention in each region. In the Nordic countries, performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, and habit demonstrated positive relationships with behavioral intention. In the USA, the results revealed positive relationships between behavioral intention and performance expectancy, social influence, habit, and personal innovativeness. Performance expectancy emerged as the strongest predictor of behavioral intention in both regions. In both the Nordic countries and the USA, habit and behavioral intention emerged as the only predictors of ChatGPT use behavior. Behavioral intention demonstrated a marginally stronger influence on use behavior in both regions. These findings offer insights for educators and policymakers regarding AI integration in academic settings by highlighting common drivers and differences in AI adoption patterns.

The emergence of augmented reality (AR) and gamification in higher education has gained relevance by virtue of their usefulness in learning spaces. Prior research has examined these technologies separately, but less is known about the impact of combining AR and gamification in the area of web development. This article examined how different educational materials on web development influence students’ motivation and learning in higher education. The educational materials included lecture notes, an AR prototype, and an AR prototype with gamification. A web-based experiment involving 95 students demonstrated that using AR could enhance students’ motivation compared to conventional educational materials, such as lecture notes. However, compared with using only AR, the combination of AR and gamification did not enhance students’ motivation or learning. The findings may serve as a basis to further AR in higher education and support authors in the design of AR in course literature.

Contemporary creativity support tools (CSTs) primarily support divergent thinking, while often neglecting convergent thinking. Currently, research is limited concerning how these complementary aspects of creative thought could be integrated into a unified approach. This article theoretically conceptualizes the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) as a facilitator within CSTs to enhance design students' divergent and convergent thinking during ideation processes in higher education. The research employed the concept-driven design research methodology and conducted qualitative interviews with ten design students to evaluate and refine a theoretically underpinned design concept. The study identified four key themes that informed the crafting of a revised design concept: clarity and comprehension requirements, visualization of user journeys, the role of AI, and the balance between predictable and unpredictable interactions. Through iterative refinement, the research established a theoretically and empirically underpinned design concept that demonstrates how AI facilitation can support both divergent and convergent thinking while preserving student agency in creative processes. This research contributes to the theoretical grounding of AI-enhanced creativity support and provides practical insights for integrating AI facilitation in CTSs for design education.

The accelerated spread of fake news via the internet and social media such as Facebook and Twitter have created a debate concerning the credibility of sources online. Assessing the credibility of these sources is generally a complex task and cannot solely rely on computer-based algorithms as evaluation still requires human intelligence. The research question guiding this article deals with the conceptualization of a theoretically anchored concept of a participatory and co-creative medium for evaluation of sources online. The concept-driven design research methodology was applied to address the research question, which consisted of seven activities that unify design and theory. The result of this article is a proposed concept that aims to support the assessment of the credibility of sources online using crowdsourcing as an approach for evaluation. The practical implications of the proposed concept could be to constrain the spread of fake news, strengthen online democratic discourse, and potentially improve the quality of online information.

As information technology continues to evolve rapidly in society, coding skills become increasingly essential to develop. The purpose of this article is to examine differences between the learner-centered and sociocultural approaches when teaching and learning coding in higher education. A quasi-experiment was applied over six academic semesters evaluating the mentioned approaches in terms of students’ explicit attitudes, grades, and course evaluations. The findings indicated that the sociocultural approach may be a viable alternative to the learner-centered approach. More specifically, students indicated a preference for the sociocultural approach over the learner-centered approach, a greater number of students who passed the courses were educated via the sociocultural approach, and overall satisfaction was significantly higher for this approach as well. While the sociocultural approach has demonstrated to be advantageous, its integration in courses must concurrently be carefully balanced against constraints that teachers continuously experience in higher education, such as time and resources, which presents a challenge to the design of courses and to academia at large.