AI is profoundly changing the business world, along with many other sectors. It’s, therefore, no surprise that artificial intelligence is making its mark in the education space, including online education.
AI in education involves a range of opportunities that could make learning easier for students and help educators to be more effective. It is set to bring in exciting changes in the online education space in the near future.
Here’s how.
AI in Education: What We Can Expect
Artificial intelligence is already starting to impact education in mostly positive ways. This is particularly true of the online learning space, where AI-driven tools and technologies can help make remote learning more effective and improve learning options.
Adaptive Learning
As AI technology develops, it is rapidly becoming capable of supporting adaptive learning. In the near future, adaptive learning platforms will use AI to learn and adapt to each student’s own learning style.
Educators will be able to access AI tools to analyse learning data, and discover more about students’ learning preferences, strengths, and weaknesses, in order to design better programmes.
Every student learns differently, and AI can assist educators in adapting to the diverse learning needs of their student cohort.
Better Teaching Strategies
Artificial intelligence also presents a range of opportunities that allow teachers to be more efficient and ultimately improve the quality of education they deliver.
There are a range of AI tools that teachers can use to assist them in many aspects of teaching, from grading assignments to designing courses.
This could have a huge impact on educators’ workloads: a McKinsey report found that up to 40% of K-12 teachers’ activities could be automated with technology. With educators in the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors sharing high workloads, it’s likely that AI could have a similar impact for post-secondary teachers.
By making their work easier and taking over many repetitive tasks, AI tools will give teachers more time to focus on the things that allow them to be better educators, such as honing their teaching skills, being more accessible to students, or exploring the latest developments in the field.
More Efficient and Effective Learning
Just as AI tools can help teachers be more efficient, similar technologies make it easier for students to learn more in shorter amounts of time.
There are a range of tools that students can use to gather and analyse information to speed up research processes and target specific information.
While this technology can’t replace research and analysis, there are emerging tools that can make it faster and more effective, such as automatic captioning and translation on videos. There are also applications that can search videos for specific content, allowing students to skip to relevant sections.
AI Tools that are Set to Transform Online Education
While AI can never replace a human teacher, there are AI tools that help students learn, as well as supporting educators to deliver a higher level of education. Here are some of the emerging tools that are set to have an impact in the near future.
Dragon Speech Recognition Tool from Nuance
US-based AI developer Nuance’s Dragon Speech recognition tool can transcribe speech at an impressive rate of 160 words per minute. This could be a game-changer for online learners who experience difficulties in typing or spelling, or who have other accessibility challenges. It also has the ability to make transcription and writing tasks more efficient for any learner or educator.
Otter AI Chat
Otter AI Chat is gaining popularity as a note-taking tool for meetings, but it also has useful applications for online education. The tool provides real-time transcriptions that could equally be used for tutorials, lectures, and group project meetings. These notes are searchable, secure, and users can easily share them with their fellow students or group members. Members can then add comments, highlight sections, or assign tasks to others, which is set to make group work more efficient and effective.
Notion AI
Notion is another AI-fueled tool that is designed for the business world but could be highly beneficial to online students. Notion’s AI features include the ability to summarise notes and pull out key points, which could allow students to organise their lecture notes to better prepare for exams or create assignments.
QuizGecko
QuizGecko is an AI test and quiz generator that creates tests from existing content. Teachers and trainers use it to more efficiently create unique quizzes and assessments. Equally, students can access the tool to generate tests to check their knowledge as part of exam preparation.
Risks of AI in Education
It’s important for both students and teachers to be aware of and manage the risks associated with AI.
As AI technologies develop, these risks may include:
- Students could rely too much on AI tools rather than exploring genuine learning
- Students may use AI tools to cheat, such as using ChatGPT to write assignments
- AI tools may not be inclusive, as many existing tools do not reflect cultural diversity
- New technologies could compromise data security and students’ privacy, especially if they are implemented without proper protections
Education institutions will need to develop new strategies to manage these risks. For example, audio and video assessments could be used to control AI-based cheating. Understanding and managing these risks will be part of how AI transforms learning in the near future.
Discover the Latest in Online Education at EDHEC
The online learning space is set to see radical changes in the near future. AI in education will help create a more inclusive learning space that adapts to the learning needs of each student, while assisting teachers to improve learning outcomes.
EDHEC has long delivered innovative, interdisciplinary programmes to maximise the learning outcomes for students as well as their personal and professional growth. As such, we will continue to take advantage of the best and latest educational tools, including AI applications that support the best learning outcomes.
