Learners today have a lot more on their plates than the students of generations past. With more information available to them at the click of a key, expectations are high for learners, both onsite and online, to be more productive and competitive.
Universities and learning facilities, in turn, are also expected to sift through thousands of enrollees, detect students with learning problems, support those with the most potential, and come up with the best teaching strategies for both—all within the academic year or learning period.
Unfortunately, quality learning and assessment tend to take a backseat, in light of the volume of students and limited time. And when these learners are up for a resumé writing service to fill out CVs, they’ll find that their learning may not have been sufficient. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) can help teachers, educators, and learners navigate modern challenges.
AI Can Customize and Personalize the Learning Process
Learning is different for everyone. Some students absorb lessons faster than others. Some require specific methods of teaching. Traditional learning systems use the same processes and modules for different types of learners. AI-integrated online learning can meet the students where they’re at and bring them where they want to be with methods that work best for them.
With smart recommendations, schools can suggest lessons or activities based on learner behavior. Virtual tutors (chatbots) also provide instant support by answering students’ questions in real time and guiding them through the content of their lessons.
AI Can Curate Interactive Content for Higher Engagement
Since learners use mobile devices for school work, lessons can be delivered in diverse media formats, making learning more dynamic. AI can curate relevant interactive content, including drag-and-drop exercises, touch-friendly quizzes, and quick polls. It can offer optimized video content with adjustable playback speeds for various learning preferences and captions or subtitles that help learners understand the content better.
AI Assists Learning Intervention Through Real-time Feedback
Waiting a week or a few days for the results of exams or quizzes can be counterproductive. The earlier the learners know how they can improve, the earlier they can make the change. AI-integrated learning platforms provide instant insights to inform students of their mistakes immediately.
With AI-powered automated feedback mechanisms, teachers and students can review answers together right after the tests and suggest additional resources for further learning. Platforms can also enable instructor feedback options for essays and other subjective projects, wherein teachers can add video comments or voice notes to make it more personal.
AI Generates Insights into the Student’s Progress
Analytics removes the guesswork from student progress assessments. Analytics-driven insights provide actual data of the learner’s performance, allowing both the teacher and student to track it and make early interventions.
With these insights, teachers can identify patterns that indicate a student is struggling and develop effective ways to support them. Learning facilities can create visual dashboards that display performance indicators, helping learners identify their strengths and weaknesses.
With predictive analytics, AI can create a performance roadmap using learners’ past performance metrics and behavior, and forecast the likelihood of them dropping out or staying. Teachers can prevent these potential dropouts by recommending programs or mentoring sessions that will guide them toward a more positive outcome.
AI Supports Diversity and Inclusion in Learning
Some students may have specific direct needs that AI-integrated learning platforms can address. For instance, learners who are deaf or hard of hearing will benefit from captioned videos or transcripts for audio content.
Visually impaired learners, on the other hand, can navigate lessons better with curated content that’s compatible with any screen reader, making texts and images easy to manipulate according to preference. Alternative texts (alt text) provide descriptions of images, infographics, and diagrams, which the screen readers can transcribe for these types of learners.
AI can make resources and lessons inclusive by adjusting the language and curating content with diverse perspectives. It can also provide educational content with multiple formats for different learning preferences.
AI Ensures Safe Online Interactions with Moderation
Students spend a lot of their time online now, even in traditional school settings. Most of the lessons can be found online, on apps and workspaces that also allow communication and interaction among learners. Teachers use video conferencing platforms for online presentations and lectures. Students create group chats for easier collaboration and announcements.
In these channels, students need protection, as online conversations and interactions can quickly turn negative or unsuitable. E-learning platforms use AI-driven moderation and reporting to prevent or recognize acts of bullying, harassment, or the spreading of inappropriate content online.
AI can also monitor keywords and software behavior to alert the system to malware or unauthorized access. This will trigger end-to-end encryption, auto-scanning of uploaded files, and access restriction to shared documents and folders.
Though AI is still in its infancy, it has already achieved remarkable things to improve learning and teaching processes in classroom and online education. What’s next for online learning? Who knows. There’s no telling how far AI-driven e-learning platforms can go or how much they can further elevate the learning experience. With the above innovations, the future of online learning will be in the hands of the learners themselves.
