What it is
The Protocol Paper is the public, citable version of the ALiF Development Protocol. It was published on Preprints.org in November 2024. It describes how the ALiF self-assessment questionnaire (ALiF-SAQ) was to be built and given its first validation, before full psychometric testing.
What it sets out
- Aim: a self-assessment instrument for AI literacy across learners, educators, researchers, clinicians and administrative staff, based on the ALiF components and levels.
- Design: a pragmatic mixed-methods study in four phases over about three months: expert review (5 to 10 experts), cognitive testing (10 people, two per role), alpha testing (20 to 30), and launch inside a foundation course with opt-in research consent (target of 200 or more).
- Dual profile: the instrument reports a core competency profile and a role-specific profile.
- Outcomes: a working instrument, content and face validity, feasibility, internal consistency and user experience.
- Deferred analyses: confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance testing, which need larger samples, are left to later validation.
- Ethics: approval from an institutional review board before recruitment; taking the course never depends on research consent.
Where it leads
The work the protocol describes continues as Phase 1 of SAQ validation. The ALiF Standard cites the Development Protocol as the source of its development method. Under the Architecture Document, a preprint or peer-reviewed publication with a full psychometric report is part of the evidence needed for an instrument to reach the ALiF Core tier (see endorsement tiers).
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