Artificial Intelligence won its rightful position as a society re-shaper. In a society where the school is rather a tradition and a set of well-established teaching methods, the emergence of AI and its deep integration into our daily lives is due to change this parading. We are faced with a shift in mentality and views over education and both schools and parents seem to be more open to a learning model that is sustainable, student-centric and differentiates itself from the traditional teaching and learning methods.
The 21st-century school class isn’t much different than it was centuries ago. It follows the same instructional character, with a keen emphasis on the subordination relationship between the teacher and student and the students will take notes from the modern version of a blackboard. But with AI, machine learning and virtual reality technologies changing the way we live, new, more student-centric teaching methodologies based on those pieces of technology also emerged. Below are only some of the ways in which AI is already changing the way in which we learn.
Customized Courses and Material
Until now, all courses and teaching methods were based on the cookie cutter method. All students were treated the same, all particularities in their learning styles were identified and teachers tried to reduce them and create an even educational process. This isn’t the best approach. Whether the student is home-schooled or attending the classes of a certain school, the syllabus was strict and all students had to follow through with it.
The first disruption appeared in the way in which home-schooling platforms approached their syllabus and how they design their courses so their students have all their educational needs met. Recently, these platforms started to use ML and AI to find patterns in data. This way, online tutors were able to get actionable insights from student performance which allowed them to make better decisions and act accordingly in the educational process. And so, each student enjoys courses tailored to their specific needs, abilities, and tutors have the capacity to steer them in the right direction.
AI and ML have the ability to collect data and identify areas where the student has more problems in the learning process. Tutors can now adapt and change courses so they help the student bridge those gaps.
AI is able to find and recommend learning paths for each student. This eliminates the cookie-cutter approach to the educational process and creates a student-centric approach. By doing so, homeschooling platforms assure that they offer each student the easiest way to build a positive academic portfolio and their future careers.
The same algorithms used by certain homeschool tutoring services can identify strengths and weaknesses and can even help students pick a major based on those. Advanced AI applications like Deep Learning Applications and Natural Language Generation can deliver the content of the course written and exposed in the same fashion as a human would do.
Advanced Tutoring Capabilities
Online tutoring is an old concept that is already disrupted by AI and ML. These services are usually hosted in the cloud and became widely accessible to an increasing number of students, thanks to the Internet.
Tutoring tasks have, thus, also became widely available and they can be performed remotely. Anybody with a steady Internet connection and a computer can benefit from the types of courses presented above. People miles apart from each other can connect and learn and perfect their skills.
With AI and ML, online tutoring platforms are now moving to a whole new level where they are able to provide a customized experience and a far better quality of the educational process. Besides, these platforms mimic the exact same benefits that students have in the context of one-on-one tutoring and enjoy a personalized and quality learning experience.
Better Capabilities of Measuring Learner Progress
When assessing how good a student is performing in class, teachers have to take into account everything, from physical reactions to wrong homework answers and assignments turned in early or late. But measuring learner progress in this particular fashion isn’t effective and this is where the traditional classroom and system as a whole is failing. To address each concept differently and to approach it in a personalized fashion, depending on each student’s progress.
This is where Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence come in to change these variables. These technologies analyze and find patterns and correlations between different types of data and they can become a handy tool to quantify each student’s understanding level. AI has the potential to outline in a matter of seconds those particular areas where each student might need further information and guidance. This type of technology is making its usefulness known at a large scale since more online tutoring platforms started to successfully integrate it into their education process.
Identifying and Filling Gaps in the Learning and Teaching Process
Traditionally, teachers in schools have to deal with thousands of students. There is no wonder that a more student-centric approach is not yet implemented. When missing gaps and wrong information from more students, the latter can end up confused and drawn back in the learning experience.
Fortunately, thanks to the disruptions brought by AI in the teaching and learning process, these deficiencies can be identified early and corrected by tutors. This customized approach is helping each tutor guide the students back on the right path.
Not only tutoring platforms can help the student by providing personalized courses, but they assist and offer reliable and accountable feedback when this is needed. In traditional schools, learning gaps cannot be bridged that easily since teachers simply don’t find the time (and sometimes the disposition) to offer each student their undivided attention.
Plus, these platforms are always ready to enhance their services and perfect their approach, thanks to AI and all the data gathered in the process.
Considering the rates at which AI and ML are integrated into the teaching and learning process by tutoring platforms, there is no wonder that a growing number of parents consider homeschooling a far better option than the public school system.
