AI's Role in Fostering Student Motivation and Retention

This study investigates the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and student motivation and engagement. It does this by examining how cognitive factors, psychology and emotional factors affect student motivation in the classroom. This has been done by conducting a review of existing literature and previous studies involving students in tertiary institutions in the modern classroom, especially those engaged in remote learning and in classes with large populations. These have shown improvement in the learning experience, including motivation, confidence and self-esteem, through AI capabilities such as predictive analytics, adaptive learning, intelligent tutoring systems and affective computing. Studies show that thrugh the adaptive capacity of AI, learning complexity can be adjusted easily to suit the individual learner, promoting competence and confidence. AI can also provide constructive non-judgmental feedback to improve learner confidence, as well as motivational prompts for encouragement. AI also enables the learner autonomy over the learning process, where they control the pace and difficulty of the work, with instantaneous feedback, making learning interactive to promote connection using virtual assistants, simulating student-teacher interactions. This satisfies the requirements that the Self-Determination Theory highlights for building intrinsic motivation; autonomy, competence and relatedness. These findings highlight the potential of AI to transform higher education, where AI can be used to promote accessibility to quality education, reduce cognitive load on educators and create a customized learner experience for each student. This can however only be successfully implemented when partnership is fostered between AI and human educators while ethical concerns are addressed to protect data privacy and prevent bias while preserving human connection that is necessary for a learner's holistic development.