article · Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education
A survey of 850 undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students in Côte d'Ivoire examines how artificial intelligence practices relate to perceived improvements in learning. The analysis explores both the frequency of artificial intelligence use and personal integration strategies, while accounting for factors such as age, gender, level of study, and specific technology concerns. Both regular usage and deliberate integration strategies show positive and statistically significant links to reported learning gains. However, the benefits display diminishing returns: perceived improvements rise sharply from non-use to several times a week, but subsequently plateau between several weekly uses and daily engagement. Other demographic and concern-related controls do not show statistically significant associations. The evidence suggests that higher education institutions should prioritise digital literacy, purposeful adoption, and academic integrity policies rather than solely encouraging students to increase their overall frequency of artificial intelligence use.
As artificial intelligence tools become widespread in tertiary education, understanding how students adopt them is essential. This research demonstrates that deliberate integration matters more than constant daily engagement, offering guidance for African universities designing digital education policies. Focusing on purposeful adoption helps institutions support student learning while addressing critical risks such as academic misconduct, misinformation, privacy, and excessive technological dependency.
The abstract provides empirical survey findings rather than a direct technological product, placing it at the early-stage policy and strategy level. The insights can inform educational technology developers and university administrators designing artificial intelligence training programmes, academic integrity frameworks, and digital learning platforms. By showing that daily use offers diminishing returns compared to structured weekly use, edtech providers can tailor software features to support guided, purposeful engagement over unmonitored frequency.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Purpose This study examines whether artificial intelligence (AI) use practices are associated with perceived learning improvement among higher education students in Côte d’Ivoire. It focuses on AI-use frequency and personal integration strategy while controlling for age, gender, gender study level and AI-related concerns. Design/methodology/approach The study uses survey data from 850 license, Master’s and doctoral students. Binary logit models estimate the probability of reporting better learning with AI. A complementary quadratic specification examines whether the association between AI-use frequency and perceived learning improvement exhibits diminishing returns. Findings AI-use frequency and personal AI integration strategy are positively and significantly associated with perceived learning improvement. The nonlinear analysis indicates diminishing additional benefits: predicted probability rises substantially from non-use to several uses per week but reaches a plateau between several uses per week and daily use. Other controls are not statistically significant. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional, self-reported and non-probability sample prevents causal interpretation and does not measure objective academic performance. Future research should use representative or stratified samples, longitudinal designs, objective learning outcomes and more detailed measures of AI-use strategies. Practical implications Universities should promote AI literacy, purposeful academic use, critical evaluation of AI-generated content and clear academic-integrity guidelines. Policies should emphasize the quality and purpose of AI use rather than simply encouraging more frequent use. Social implications Responsible AI integration can support perceived learning while limiting risks related to excessive dependence, misinformation, unequal access, privacy and academic misconduct. Originality/value The article provides original individual-level evidence from Côte d’Ivoire, an under-researched African higher education context. It distinguishes between frequency and strategic integration of AI and identifies possible diminishing additional benefits at higher usage levels.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1108/jarhe-05-2026-1030
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
