Artificial Intelligence Tools for Enhancing Academic and Psychological Student Support Services in Public Universities in Rivers State, Nigeria
The study examined artificial intelligence tools for enhancing academic and psychological student support services in public universities in Rivers State. Three objectives, three research questions and three hypotheses directed the enquiry. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The population comprised 92,836 respondents, made up of 92,570 students and 266 administrative staff drawn from three universities. From this population, 541 respondents consisting of 382 students and 159 administrative staff were drawn using a multi-stage sampling technique. Three experts validated the instrument, which returned a composite Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.81. The research questions were answered with mean and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested with the z-test at the 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that each of the three tools examined, namely AI-powered mental health systems, predictive analytics systems and AI-enabled writing assistant tools, enhanced student support services to a high extent. On two of the tools, the perceptions of students and administrative staff did not differ significantly; on AI-enabled writing assistant tools, however, a significant difference emerged. It was recommended, among others, that university management and government should raise their investment in robust digital infrastructure so that AI-powered mental health systems can be deployed and used effectively, thereby strengthening students’ emotional well-being, widening access to prompt and confidential psychological support, and making student support more sustainable, accessible and responsive.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Psychological Student Support Services, Mental Health Systems, Predictive Analytics, Writing Assistant Tools
