Over the years, we have seen a number of problems plaging the education sector. From one size fits all learning methods to biasedness by the assessor, students and even educators have faced challenges over the years that did not have a viable solution. But that may not be the case anymore.

Just like other field, AI is now rapidly changing the landscape of education also by offering innovative tools and solutions that enhance both teaching and learning experiences. From personalized learning platforms that adapt to individual student needs, to automated grading systems that save educators valuable time, AI is transforming classrooms and institutions worldwide. And its likely that this is only the tip of the iceberg of AI’s benefit.

In this post, we are going to see a number of applications of AI in the education sector.

Advantages of AI in the Education Sector

Personalized and Innovative Teaching with AI in Education

With the rapid advancement of AI, student can now feel at ease as the AI provides adaptive technology so that every student regardless of his learning style, strengths and weakness can harness it to their advantage.

The likes of Knewton Alta, Squirrel AI and DreamBox offers personalized learning to the student based on his answers. A key benefit of AI personalized learning is that students can feel free to ask questions from the AI powered platform as many times as they want. This may not be the case with the human teacher as the student may be shy or hesitant to communicate.

Easy to Analyze Student’s performance

Analyzing performance can be challenging for the teachers especially if there are plenty of students under a single teacher. AI powered educational platform can monitor student’s progress in real time by keeping tabs on metrics such as the following

How long they student takes to answer the question?
The types of error they make
The specific area where the student gets hung up while solving the problem

By analyzing the above metrics, teachers can get the precise idea where the student is lacking the understanding. It also helps the parents to get a clearer view where their child is lacking.

As per a study by Stanford University, AI enabled automated feedback mechanism benefitted both the students and teachers.

Purdue University too has developed an in-house AI mechanism called as “Course Signals” that allows teachers to get notified about the students who are likely to fail. By analyzing metrics such as previous GPA, attendance, running scores, it allows teachers to intervene to offer more support to the students in their academic purpose wherever needed.

Support outside Classroom Hours

Some students may have an easier time focusing and engaging with the learning material outside the classroom hours. However, it is next to impossible to get tutor’s support at those times. But now with AI, student can not only access the material at any odd hours but can have an interactive experience while understanding the concepts just like in the case of the real human and student experience.

Universities like Georgia State provide 24/7 access to chatbots which greatly helps in answering student’s queries and doubts. These chatbots offer real time responses, even outside the office hours.

Administrative Efficiency

Grade assessment is not only time-consuming and laborious but often requires more than one teacher in order to eliminate biasedness. AI is extremely handy in such cases with its automated grading and assessment.

According to a credible publisher, nearly a quarter of chinese schools are using AI for autograding. The machine learning powered AI system is not only effective (92% agreement with human teachers) like the human assessor but is affordable too. That is not to say that it needs more refinement but the inconsistencies are not that of a magnitude.

Similarly, enquiries related to admission can be overwhelming at times. Swift communication is crucial when it comes to converting prospective applicants into enrolled students. The use of Chatbots for such cases can provide instant, error-free and accurate information related to admissions, enrollment, and logistical.

This is what Georgia State University did. More than 50,000 messages were received from prospective applicants on their AI powered chatbot Pounce, however only 1% of those required the attention of the college staff. Without the chatbot, the university would have required nearly 10 more additional staff to handle the query load.

AI Content Generation tailored to individual student for better learning

The need for innovative and engaging methods in teaching will always be there. And with AI, smart content creation helps in designing quizzes, exercises and simulations that focusses on increasing engagement for that particular student.

With text to speech technology, written material can be converted into audio format which allows students with learning disabilities like Dyslexia or ADHD to listen them instead of reading them thereby increasing their engagement.

Conclusion

Whether its a requirement for creating tailored content for the student or having an automatic grading system, AI is aiding massively in every sector of education. Some may opinion that AI is impacting jobs but that may be just center staging AI’s negative effects when there are plenty of upsides of it in the education sector.