Science & Tech · AI · 2 days ago
Study links online student persistence to course design and guided AI use
Researchers interviewed 45 online undergraduates about stress, learning and generative AI.
Students said unclear courses and pressure from work or family could make school harder to manage.
Feeling welcome and using AI to break tasks into steps could help, though students worried about relying on AI and where its use is appropriate.
The researchers proposed a model that treats course design and support as part of helping students persist.
A peer-reviewed study by University of Phoenix researchers examined how stress, self-regulation, resilience, belonging, psychological safety and generative AI relate to persistence among non-traditional online students.
The descriptive phenomenological study involved 45 online undergraduates.
Participants said stress and competing responsibilities could make it harder to concentrate, solve problems and engage with academic work.
Students described belonging and psychological safety as supporting engagement, and said generative AI could ease short-term cognitive strain and help them begin tasks.
Participants also raised concerns about dependence on AI and uncertainty about ethical boundaries for its use in learning.
The researchers introduced the Trauma-Informed AI Persistence Model, which links trauma-informed teaching, online course design and guided AI use.
- Who
- University of Phoenix researchers and 45 online undergraduate participants
- What
- A study of factors affecting non-traditional online students' persistence, introducing the Trauma-Informed AI Persistence Model
- When
- Published July 15, 2026
- Where
- Online higher education; the study was published in Innovative Higher Education
- Why
- To examine how trauma-related strain, online learning design, belonging and guided generative AI use relate to student engagement and persistence
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- Study participants
- 45 online undergraduates
- Publication date
- July 15, 2026
- Journal
- Innovative Higher Education
- Model introduced
- Trauma-Informed AI Persistence (TIAIP) Model
- Researchers named
- Melinda Kulick, Jessica Sylvester, Chunfu Cheng, Christina Bergren and Jim Croushore
What people are saying
For students managing work, family responsibilities and other pressures alongside their education, persistence cannot be understood simply as a matter of motivation or individual resilience
stress for me creates a lot of brain fog. If I am stressed out, my ability to problem solve diminishes incredibly
when my instructor acknowledged how hard it is to juggle everything, I felt seen. It made me want to stay engaged.
when my brain is overloaded, AI helps me get started. It takes away the panic of a blank page
Sources
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