The Impacts of Students’ Acceptance of ChatGPT on Their Academic Self-Efficacy in a Personalized Learning Environment

Abstract

Literature on educational technology has highlighted the roles of AI in personalizing students’ learning and the relationship between learners’ acceptance of technology use and their academic self-efficacy beliefs, both of which contribute to enhancing academic achievement. ChatGPT, a generative language model recently developed by OpenAI, offers opportunities and poses challenges for education. However, limited research has examined how students use ChatGPT to support their personalized learning and the impact of their acceptance of ChatGPT on students’ academic self-efficacy. This study investigated Vietnamese undergraduates’ use of ChatGPT for their personalized learning. It examined the effects of their acceptance of ChatGPT on their academic self-efficacy at a private university in Vietnam. Results from the surveys and interviews indicated that students used ChatGPT to explain and summarize information, answer questions, provide feedback, create texts, and write code. Furthermore, students’ perceived usefulness of ChatGPT did not directly affect their academic self-efficacy. Instead, students’ perceived ease of use and usefulness of ChatGPT indirectly affected students’ academic self-efficacy through students’ attitudes toward ChatGPT. These results suggest improving students’ attitudes is critical for strengthening students’ academic self-efficacy in ChatGPTmediated learning. The study recommends providing structured guidance on using ChatGPT effectively and ethically, which aligns with Vietnam’s 2025 framework of digital competence for learners.