Educommunication and artificial intelligence for learning, creating, and communicating: professional competency development in university prosumers

Abstract

This study examines the pedagogical integration of educommunication and artificial intelligence (AI) and its association with self-reported professional competencies among university prosumers-students who simultaneously consume, produce, and share academic content through digital platforms. A non-experimental, cross-sectional quantitative design with descriptive-correlational and structural purposes was employed. Data were collected using a psychometrically validated 26-item Likert-scale questionnaire (plus six open-response items) administered to a convenience sample of 547 university students enrolled at Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Ecuador. The instrument assessed five dimensions: (1) AI-mediated learning processes, (2) educommunication and expression, (3) knowledge prosumption, (4) perceived professional competencies, and (5) ethics and critical AI use. Psychometric validation confirmed excellent reliability (Cronbach's α  = 0.91; McDonald's ω  = 0.93). Exploratory factor analysis supported the five-factor structure (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin [KMO] = 0.91; Bartlett's test p  < 0.001; variance explained = 61.4%). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a satisfactory model fit (comparative fit index [CFI] = 0.96; Tucker-Lewis index [TLI] = 0.95; root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.052; standardized root mean square residual [SRMR] = 0.061). A single-factor test yielded a first unrotated factor accounting for 28.3% of the variance, below the 50% threshold, offering a preliminary indication against a single dominant method factor, although this test alone does not rule out common method bias (see Section 3.3). Structural equation modeling revealed significant direct paths from AI-mediated learning to perceived professional competencies ( β  = 0.58, p  < 0.001) and from educommunication to knowledge prosumption ( β  = 0.51, p  < 0.001), with knowledge prosumption partially mediating the educommunication-competency association ( β _indirect = 0.21; R² = 0.74 for D3; R² = 0.78 for D4), and ethics and critical AI use functioning as a significant moderator of the AI learning-competency path (interaction β  = 0.34, p  < 0.001). Given the cross-sectional, self-report design, these results are interpreted as structural associations rather than causal effects. Findings indicate that AI integration within educommunicative frameworks is positively associated with autonomous learning, creativity, and digital communication skills. However, risks associated with technological over-reliance and epistemic dependency were also identified in the qualitative data. These findings constitute structurally validated evidence that pedagogical AI integration, framed within educommunicative approaches, is associated with the perceived development of critical, collaborative, and innovative professional competencies in higher education.