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The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Learning

Regardless of the type of learner you are – whether you’re a student or an employee trying to develop their skills – AI can greatly assist you in the whole process of learning. More and more schools are adopting the new technology, and 47% of executives say they’ve embedded at least one AI capabilit

Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence

Regardless of the type of learner you are – whether you’re a student or an employee trying to develop their skills – AI can greatly assist you in the whole process of learning.

More and more schools are adopting the new technology, and 47% of executives say they’ve embedded at least one AI capability into their business processes.

Once you took that critical first step of AI adoption, incorporating AI into other aspects of both business and education becomes much easier.

Through a Learning Management System or LMS software, you can incorporate AI into classrooms and offices alike, and derive its full potential.

But what are its potentials? What are the current applications and benefits of AI in learning? Let’s take a look.

Automation of Basic Activities

Primarily, every organization that’s decided to take advantage of AI uses it for automating various business processes and streamlining their operations. Automating tasks is the primary goal of over 36% of executives. The same is true for learning purposes.

Combining LMS software and AI allows educators, whether they’re teachers or team managers, to free up their time and focus on more important things by automating admin tasks.

Educators often spend inordinate amounts of time grading tests and going through homework. Now AI can do a quick job of those tasks.

At present, AI can help tremendously with multiple choice quizzes and fill-in-the-blank tests. A lot of progress is being made; however, it’s still not adequate enough for assessing written responses in the form of essays.

Soon enough, we’ll have intelligent assistants reading, analyzing, and grading essays as well because this groundbreaking technology is being developed and tested as we speak.

For the time being, teachers and other professionals can rely on automation tools to help them with administrative tasks, and chatbots to assist them in student interactions. An increasing number of schools are adopting chatbots to stay accessible to students 24/7.

Immediate Feedback

Immediate Feedback

When combined with LMS software, AI can provide both educators and learners with much-needed feedback about the success of a course.

Some educational material might have gaps in them and leave the learners uninformed or confused about certain concepts.

When AI is assisting the educator with administrative tasks such as grading homework and tests, it takes note of the common mistakes among the learners.

If a higher number of them makes the same mistake, the educator is notified so that they could adjust the course material, while the future learners would get hints to the right answer.

Since all assignments would be graded almost instantly, the learners could get immediate feedback on their work, be notified of the things they’re doing well, as well as of the things they should work on.

This is significant from the perspective of learners’ retention rates.

By tracking learners’ progress, AI allows educators to address their pain points and knowledge gaps as soon as they appear and are detected. Otherwise, learners would be stuck on learning curves that are based on wrong assumptions and incorrect information.

Assistance in Personalized Learning

Adaptive learning programs, games, and software are already being used to assist everyone from kindergarteners to professional learners.

6 out of 10 school-age children don’t achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics, for example, and AI can help with that.

In short, as the student (or professional) learns, so does the AI. In this case, it learns how a student is advancing, and what are their strengths and weaknesses.

By doing so, AI can respond to the needs of the learner. It can put greater emphasis on certain topics that a learner is struggling with, and it can repeat the things that a learner needs to master.

This educational practice, known as adaptive, individualized, or personalized learning, is not new. Educators have been trying to create learning conditions in which every student would be treated as an individual, and they’ve repeatedly failed.

Only modern technology that is empowered with AI capabilities such as machine learning and natural language processing has the capacity to cater to hundreds of learners at once and do so according to their unique abilities, interests, and learning styles.

Learners gain confidence, especially if they’re using LMS software because they can learn at their own pace. AI creates a judgment-free zone where they can learn through trial and error without the fear of embarrassing themselves if they get something wrong.

Learning Content Improvement

Learning Content Improvement

Learning Content Improvement

Recently, there’s been a lot of buzz about smart learning content. In short, it refers to the digitized guides, digital interfaces (such as LMS software), and everything else in between.

You can implement this kind of learning content anywhere from elementary schools to corporate environments because the content is condensed into parts that are easy to digest.

Rapid digitization and notoriously lower attention spans have triggered the creation of new types of content, all of which are designed to be easily consumable. Not only should educational content for the new age be easy to navigate through, it should also appeal to all senses.

That’s why creating study guides, summaries, flashcards, intelligent simulations, and more, is made much easier with the help of artificial intelligence.

AI assists in content analytics as well, as its machine learning capabilities enable it to analyze content for its maximum effect, and help educators take care of the learners’ needs.

The technology enables educators to create and manage eLearning content and optimize educational material as needed. More than anything else, this implies interactive elements that should appeal to learners’ attention both visually and cognitively.

Universal Access

Educational institutions and corporations have been finding the concept of a “global classroom” appealing, and AI can make that a reality today.

People with disabilities, or those speaking different languages, can use the same course material, learn at their own pace, and manage to catch up with their peers.

More than a billion people around the world live with a disability, and many are prevented from going to classes or seminars because of it.

But now, through LMS software and AI, those learners can still be productive and continue their education or skill-building from the comfort of their own home.

Aside from the physically challenged, the economically and culturally challenged are other sections of the society that educational AI caters to these days.

The number of countries and cultures that don’t provide education to certain social and gender groups within their communities is still surprisingly high. Presuming they have access to the Internet, these students can now enroll in world-class online schools for free.

In that sense, AI promotes all-inclusive education throughout the world.

But AI also encourages collaboration and cooperation. By using an online learning platform, learners are encouraged to participate and improve without outside pressure.

This is especially beneficial to businesses in the economic sense, as they don’t have to invest in building learning spaces or sending their workers to different states for seminars. Learning can be done from the office space already available.

AI and VR

Last, but not least, we have to mention VR.

VR is still a hot topic. Although mostly used in gaming, it is slowly but surely finding its way in other industries, including education. For example, medical students can use VR simulations to practice difficult procedures. Architecture students can use VR to see how their projects will look like from a first-person perspective.

Paired with AI solutions, VR can present an excellent way for students to learn and hone their skills.

The Bottom Line

A combination of AI and LMS software can bring countless benefits to educators and learners alike. Regardless of whether they’re used in schools or corporations, they can assist in almost all learning processes.

The main benefits of artificial intelligence include:

  • Universal access to learners around the globe
  • Improved (smart) learning content
  • Personalized learning opportunities
  • Immediate feedback for both educators and learners
  • Automation of basic activities and tedious tasks

AI enables educators and learners to keep track of the progress made, and this helps them optimize the content and focus on the most important things.

While there’s great concern that AI will take over the educators’ jobs, this is highly unlikely. The role of AI is to assist, not to overtake.

In classrooms and offices, the best path is that of cooperation. It’s the human touch that makes learning possible, AI is simply there to make the educators’ job easier.

Author Bio:

Kamy Anderson is an ed-tech enthusiast with a passion for writing on emerging technologies in the areas of corporate training and education. He is an expert in learning management system & eLearning authoring tools – currently associated with ProProfs Training Maker.

Author

Daniel Jack

For Daniel, journalism is a way of life. He lives and breathes art and anything even remotely related to it. Politics, Cinema, books, music, fashion are a part of his lifestyle.

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