Up to 47% of learning tools are expected to incorporate AI by 2024. Although the ongoing debate revolves primarily around how much screen time the students should be allowed, those at the forefront of EdTech innovations realise that the quality of that time is much more important and that AI can help improve it.
For example, a student that has two hours of screen time may spend it all trying to find an answer to one single question. If the same student is introduced to a chatbot that will quickly scan the question and offer an answer and comprehensive explanation, those same two hours can be used to answer tens of questions.
Other than this obvious benefit of easier time management, let’s take a look at other ways that AI is uplifting the learning experience.
The Benefits of Incorporating AI into Education
It Lowers Anxiety
Research done in 2020 provided fifth-grade students with an ITS, or an intelligent tutoring system. The ITS was tasked with helping the children better understand multiplication and division, which were to be tested later. The results showed that the students’ grades improved after using the ITS. Moreover, the learners reported lower levels of anxiety and higher levels of motivation upon using a responsive and technologically advanced tool to aid their learning.
It is Customisable
What every educator knows is that each student has their own learning preferences. In a classroom of 20-30 learners, catering to everyone’s individual needs is nearly impossible. However, giving them access to a tool such as ChatGPT (and, more importantly, teaching them to use it correctly) can provide them with the approach they need. ChatGPT can be asked to simplify input, illustrate abstract concepts with examples, or retell an entire unit but in a more interesting way that the individual student will resonate with. For example, students can be taught to prompt ChatGPT to explain a concept using the voice of their favourite movie character.
It’s important to note that ChatGPT is flawed and can sometimes lead the student to an incorrect answer. To avoid that, the teacher should also equip their students with the tools and skills to fact-check the machine’s output.
It Makes Learning More Accessible
In some cases, especially in a university setting, the audience of students may consist of learners who speak different languages or have certain visual or hearing impairments. This might cause a significant hindrance and rob them of the opportunity to learn from, for example, a guest lecturer from a different country.
Usually, students are provided with materials such as presentations to help them revise at home. A plugin called Presentation Translator allows them to do so without investing additional time into manually translating the material. The plugin can also simplify the language used to make complex concepts easier to understand or cater to those who are at a lower reading comprehension level.
Application of AI in EdTech
An EdTech platform that maintains user satisfaction levels at a high level needs to be technologically advanced enough to stay ahead of its competitors. The features described in this section are the most popular must-haves aimed at improving and simplifying the end user’s daily activities, and which can be integrated into a platform with ease.
Tutoring Outside the Classroom
It is not a rare occurrence that students will need extra help outside the classroom. Teachers are put on call nearly 24/7, as their students send them emails and calls asking for additional clarification on tasks.
This can be entirely eradicated by introducing them to AI tools that can give them the answers without needing to pester their teachers at odd hours. Again, implementing such tools in the classroom needs to be accompanied by a brief lesson on fact-checking.
Automating Admin Tasks
Other than teaching, educators are tasked with many tedious administrative tasks. These are not only time-consuming but also notoriously dull. Thankfully, AI offers the opportunity to automate many of them, alleviating the teacher’s duties.
Machines have already proven successful in turning lessons into tests by assessing the importance of information and turning it into questions of various types. They can also be used to grade multiple-choice tests and have even shown potential in simplifying the admissions and enrollment processes.
Deriving Analytics
AI has been used to interpret data and create comprehensible insights in many fields so far, and this use can also extend to education. For example, median grades or time spent per unit can be calculated within seconds, giving educators a clearer picture of which areas need improvement.
Real World Examples
An excellent example of using AI to adapt the material to the student is the Age of Learning. This is a Personalized Mastery Learning Ecosystem™ (or PMLE™) that provides foundational literacy in the areas of math and reading to US students ranging from preschool to the 2nd grade.
The system uses AI-driven entertainment to create interactive and engaging learning paths that are specifically designed to appeal to their very young audience. The system also has two modules, one for classroom and one for at-home learning.
The most famous example of an AI-based EdTech platform is Duolingo. Although it’s most widely recognised as a language-learning tool, there also exists a sister app called Duolingo Math. Both of them use AI to pace the lessons according to the individual learner and have found their application both in schools and with casual learners.
Finally, we also have to mention Century Tech, which is a tool primarily oriented towards making the educator’s life easier. It uses cognitive neuroscience and data analytics to create learning plans while also tracking progress, identifying knowledge gaps, and offering feedback and suggestions.
Summary
To conclude this article, let us reiterate the numerous benefits that can come from implementing AI solutions into education. It’s been proven to improve learning outcomes, address individual needs, and lower students’ anxiety levels while increasing motivation. EdTech AI also allows for a tailored learning experience and makes materials and lectures more accessible.
On the other hand, instructors will benefit from AI’s ability to create and check tests, aid in creating lesson plans, and make other administrative tasks easier. If there’s anything that can be learned from the real examples we discussed, it’s that AI certainly has a place in education and that it can only push it towards further improvement.
Need an EdTech Platform?
If you’re looking to create or upgrade an existing EdTech platform to reap all the benefits of AI in the classroom, Valcon can help with that! We have extensive experience in working with educators to enhance their students’ learning experience and the right tech stack to do so with ease.
Get in touch today, and we can discuss how to best implement AI into your EdTech platform.