JOIN USWith businesses across industries increasingly discovering the power of algorithms and automation, the discussion on artificial intelligence's (AI) abilities continues to intensify. While AI is, without doubt, the biggest buzzword today, it is also something that many people are highly apprehensive about, particularly owing to its potential implications on human jobs.
Since the representation of AI in popular culture has often been accompanied with the idea of a dystopian world where machines rule over humans, our perception of this technology is clouded due to a lack of understanding about it. Adopting AI doesn't necessarily mean that machines will replace humans in the workforce. Rather, AI refers to the computational power of machines that helps deliver exceptional results that are far better than what can be achieved by even the best of
human minds.
One-on-one learning
In education, whether offline or online, providing effective pedagogy and delivering educational content to students on time are of utmost importance. AI can transform the educational experience through the application of individualised learning. With the rising number of adaptive learning programmes, games, and software, it is already a reality. Such educational systems respond to an individual student's learning requirements by placing greater emphasis on explaining certain topics in detail and clearing any doubts related to the topic to ensure that all students have understood the topic. This helps the students learn at their own pace.
These tailored education tools offer a machine-assisted solution to help students with different learning preferences learn together in one classroom. These tools also enable teachers to support the students to understand the core concepts and offer additional help when needed.
Currently, education as a sector is poised for a massive disruption, and as far as leveraging AI is concerned, we have only barely scratched the surface. The role of AI in education goes beyond just dishing out relevant content for students, or creating exceptional products or services. It can also help ed-tech platforms deliver unparalleled results in three major areas - tutor profiling, performance analysis, and operational efficiencies. Here is an in-depth look at how AI can transform these three areas:
Tutor profiling: AI can create a learning environment where both human and machine intelligence can be combined for enhanced results. It can assist in gauging the personality of tutors based on several parameters - their education, their scores, their interaction with different kinds of students, feedback from students, performance of their students, etc. That's where
machines will use the data to give intelligent suggestions as to which tutor profile is best suited for a specific student profile.
Performance analysis: AI will be imperative when it comes to analysing massive volumes of student assessment data that is created on ed-tech platforms. This will not only be helpful in delivering personalised content to students, but will also aid in the creation of more meaningful lesson plans and, in turn, designing powerful teacher training programmes.
Operational efficiencies: The success of an online educational platform depends on its operational efficiency, which can be ensured by leveraging technology to the fullest. To survive in today's hyper-competitive market, online educational platforms need to grow and scale quickly, and this can be achieved only through highly tech-driven processes.
Consider chatbots and servicebots, for instance, which can interact with several customers without having to add more humanpower. Like tutor profiling, AI can be deployed in HR functions for employee profiling and create a robust team that is best suited to the culture and processes of the organisation, thereby leading to greater operational efficiency.
The potential of AI to transform the ed-tech sector and other sectors is quite
astounding. The responsibility,
however, lies on us humans to be smart in harnessing the power of AI to solve the problems of the present for a better, technologically-empowered future.
(The author is co-founder & director, Genext Students, Mumbai)