A Review of AI Literacy Tools’ Contexts, Knowledge Dimensions, and Methodologies

While numerous studies on the development and validation of AI literacy instruments exist, less work has reviewed the state of AI Literacy tools within the broader yet unique context of higher education. This study reviews existing Artificial Intelligence or AI literacy instruments (e.g., scales, instruments, pedagogical innovation, and other approaches). The question: What is the state of AI literacy surveys in higher education literature? is explored by analyzing the AI literacy contextual dimensions as outlined by Kong et al. (2024), knowledge dimensions as defined by Ng et al. (2021b), and methodological aspects including participant types and research design. Findings revealed that the most extensively studied areas are metacognitive and cognitive contextual dimensions, the pedagogy, and content knowledge dimensions, the user (non-expert) perceptions as well as the mixed methods or qualitative methodology. This work provides a unique perspective on the current state of literature and discusses implications and considerations for the future of AI literacy tool development.