The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing Student Engagement in Higher Education

Main Article Content

Zijing Wang
University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.70267/ICLPCE-2027.2027.0107

Keywords

artificial intelligence, student engagement, behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, cognitive engagement

Abstract

Student engagement has been perceived as a key factor of persistence, academic success, and satisfaction in higher institutions of learning and entails behavioral, emotional, and cognitive aspects that concurrently determine how students learn. In the last ten years, AI has transitioned from being viewed as a peripheral experimental tool into a widely adopted tool in higher learning where it contains platforms for learning, chatbots and learning aids like ChatGPT. While the AI tools continue to develop, research indicates inconsistencies on the role of AI in redefining the multidimensional construct of engagement. AI-based tools can enhance behavioural and cognitive engagement via personalization, providing real-time feedback. Conversely, the impacts on emotional engagement are varied and dependent on pedagogical design, institutional context, and student wellbeing aspects like overreliance and technostress. The paper examines recent empirical and conceptual literature on AI and student engagement in institutions of higher learning, via narrative and thematically presented synthesis, relying on past systematic reviews, theoretical frameworks and mixed-methods primary research from 1999-2025. It confirmed that the use of AI-based tools improves cognitive and behavioral engagement through real-time feedback and personalization, whereas the effect on emotional engagement changes based on the design of pedagogy, institution and mental wellbeing. It highlights gaps, including the scarcity of longitudinal and causal lenses, international student populations, and the weak theoretical link between engagement and AI in education. Future research needs to focus on longitudinal, theory-driven, and context-sensitive studies to examine the influence of pedagogical approaches on the effect of AI on engagement.

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Published
Oct 29, 2026
Conference Proceedings Volume
Vol. 35 (2027): Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Linguistics, Psychology and Creative Education (ICLPCE 2027)
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Articles
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Wang, Zijing. “The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing Student Engagement in Higher Education”. Exploring Science Academic Conference Series, vol. 35, Oct. 2026, pp. 1-7, https://doi.org/10.70267/ICLPCE-2027.2027.0107.