Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Education

The impact of artificial intelligence in education is hardly quantifiable but is game-changing. AI is making the world a better place by powering innovations across all industries including healthcare and education. Learning is an important part of being a contributing member of society and AI is changing how we learn. We are yet to see humanoid robot teachers as depicted in science fiction but AI is rapidly finding its way into the education industry.

Despite the rapid advancement in technology, most education regimes used today are customized for use during the industrial age. How then is AI trying to beat Donald Clark’s claim that “Education is a bit of a slow learner? From smart tutors and content, facial recognition to AI-flagging in improving online assessment security, AI is making a positive impact in education.

How is AI changing the education industry?

Artificial intelligence has an impact on education in many ways, but here are the most dominant ones:

AI is Powering personalized learning

Personalized learning has proven to boost engagement and improve results among students. AI systems play an important role in elevating this experience. We all have different learning abilities and what works for one student may not work for another. Machine learning solutions can be tailored to help students in different levels of the learning spectrum exist in one class.

While it’s impossible for teachers to provide personalized learning experiences to students, AI systems can easily provide individual learning opportunities for students. Machine learning algorithms can predict outcomes thereby allowing tutors to provide content based on learners’ individualistic goals and past performance.

AI systems not only help identify student strengths and weaknesses but also provide reports about the effectiveness of learning methods. These reports can then be used to derive ways to boost learning engagement and improve test results.

Task automation

According to a new study, teachers spend only 43% of their time in teaching, 11% in marking tests, 7% doing administrative tasks, and 13% planning lessons. This can be tiresome and affects the teachers’ ability to provide students with a good learning experience. This is where AI systems come in handy.

Assess.com for example leverages the power of AI to provide exam developers with tools to create questions, assemble test forms, and deliver adaptive tests to students. There is also functionality for automated essay scoring.

Online Assessment Security and effectiveness

Assessment is the most important part of the learning process. Online assessments have become popular across K12 and Higher-Ed and AI systems are playing an important role in making sure that they are effective and secure.

Here are some interesting ways AI is positively influencing online exams:

AI flagging

AI flagging improves assessment security by helping supervisors spot any suspicious behaviors. This can be done using audio and videos captured during the examination period. The human proctor can then take action depending on governing policies. Some actions that may indicate cheating include background audio, extras faces on the screen, and suspicious body language.

AI-powered remote proctoring

Remote proctoring allows students to take online exams from anywhere while safeguarding exam integrity. All a student needs is a computer with a webcam. AI has revolutionized how online exams are managed by powering functionality such as live streaming, lockdown browsers, and so much more!

Automated Item Generation

AI plays an important role in automated item generation. Despite the unavailability of AI systems that can generate item banks automatically (we may see these in the near future), platforms such as Assess.com provide users with intelligent templates which can be customized to increase effectiveness.

AI systems are playing an important role in making online exams more effective, and we are yet to see more of it in the near future.

Facial recognition

Facial recognition is not only useful in identifying criminals in crowds by national security organizations but also helping improve the education industry in many ways. Moreover, facial recognition is gaining momentum in educational institutions as an identification mechanism. This helps increase the security of students by identifying people who are threats to the students.

Facial recognition is also being used in some institutions to improve the learning process. The systems used in this process collect insight by reading facial cues to determine how students feel during a lesson. These systems are also used during online exams to uphold academic integrity.

Smart Content

What is smart content?

Sometimes referred to as “Dynamic content”, smart content refers to a diversified collection of learning material including video lectures, textbooks, and digitized textbook guides.

The main aim of smart content is to ease the learning process.

AI-powered smart content solutions provide real-time feedback, practice exams, interactive content, and many other functions aimed at breaking down complex ideas into easily digestible chunks. This helps students achieve their academic goals much faster.

Understanding and changing learning experiences

AI is not only helping in understanding the learning process but also changing it.

AI systems and machine learning algorithms collect data from learning ecosystems and use it to identify learning methods that work and those that don’t.

Other ways AI systems are changing the learning experience include automatic grading, augmenting recruitment processes, and providing constructive criticisms to students while helping them achieve their personalized goals.

With a projected market revenue of up to $120 billion by 2021, AI tutoring is yet another way to increase student retention by providing personalized learning. AI tutoring comes in many forms including the use of chatbots and virtual reality.

Artificial intelligence in education; The Flip Side

Just like any innovation ever made, AI has its disadvantages.

AI is expensive: The custom development and maintenance of education AI systems can be very expensive. This limits its use to well-funded institutions. However, there are a lot of budget-friendly AI education solutions on the internet that you can easily adopt.
Data Loss and Information Security: Cybercrimes are on the rise and AI systems are no exception.
Risk of Addiction: Technology can be addictive and this may affect the performance of some students.
Lack of human connection: AI systems can have a negative effect on the psychological well-being of students.

The Future of AI in education

AI is growing exponentially and its future in the education industry is bright. The impact of artificial intelligence in education is immense. Not only does it increase efficiency in the learning process but also continues to revolutionize education in ways we cannot imagine.

Despite the many concerns about AI systems not being able to connect emotionally with people or replacing educators, we believe it will open a portal of opportunities in the industry.

Are you interested in getting access to AI-powered online testing solutions? Feel free to check out our solutions and consulting services ranging from Test Development, Computerized Adaptive Testing, Remote Proctoring, Item banking and so much more!