With the EdTech industry increasingly adopting digital ways of teaching, we can see that automation is also becoming very relevant for ensuring smooth operations. Since the pandemic, digital learning has become a very popular norm and continues to grow at a rapid speed. Development in technology has paved the way for personalized learning and improved efficiency. With automation in education sector, educators can enhance productivity by replacing the traditional learning methods. Teachers can now focus on the material they want the students to learn and the system can handle the administrative tasks by employing technology in classrooms.
From AI-powered tutoring systems to student engagement analytics, automation in eductaion is set to transform the EdTech field just as it has others. Development in technology has paved the way for personalized learning and improved efficiency. With automation, educators can enhance productivity by replacing the traditional learning methods. Teachers can now focus on the material they want the students to learn and the system can handle the administrative tasks.
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AI-Powered Tutoring Systems
With the development in Natural Language Processing, AI-powered tutoring systems are changing the way students receive help outside of the classroom. By using NLP, these systems deliver personalized tutoring experiences tailored to individual student needs.
Key Features
- With the help of technology used in classrooms, student performance can be analyzed and the strengths and weaknesses are identified. This helps in curating a customised study plan.
- Students can get their doubts cleared at any time of the day with AI tutors. They help in solving problems, answer questions, and clarify doubts in real-time.
- These systems offer blunt feedback to the students based on their performance. This also helps in adjusting the level of difficulty of the material, ensuring optimal learning.
The benefits of AI-powered Tutoring Systems are plenty, including accessibility to material and tutors at any time, cost-effectiveness as they can be cheaper than one-on-one tutoring, and scalability as these systems can cater to a large number of students simultaneously, making them ideal for large institutions.
Example:
Khan academy and Duolingo, two EdTech giants, deploy AI to offer personalized learning experiences. The systems adapt to student responses and progress.
Automated Grading and Feedback
It takes educators a good amount of time to grade the assignments and provide feedback to the students, especially when the class size is large. However, with automation in education, grading and feedback provision, the process can be more streamlined and faster. This lets the educators focus on teaching and improving the material rather than worrying about administrative tasks.
How it works
- For the purpose of grading and evaluation of assignments, automated grading tools use AI and work in a way that helps them analyze written responses. With NLP in play, it becomes easier for the algorithms to provide a more humanized response.
- Students do not have to wait to ask for feedback at odd times, as with AI, you can get responses quick and at any time. They can quickly identify the areas of improvement and work on it from the get-go.
- There is no scope for bias when we use AI. the system will provide a straightforward answer to all the students without sugar coating or harshing the result. This ensures fair and objective evaluation.
The benefits of automating grading and feedback processes include time saving for teachers as they do not have to individually grade and provide feedback to students, enhanced learning for students as they get quicker feedback and can identify mistakes to improve, and improved efficiency as automation in education makes grading more consistent and error-free.
Example:
For automating the task of grading for multiple-choice, essay, and programming assignments, educators can use tools like Gradescope and Google Classroom. Through these tools, you can get quick and reliable results.
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Student Engagement and Retention Analysis
It is hard to keep students engaged and motivated when they are learning online, and poses as somewhat of a challenge for them. With the help of automation in education industry which is powered by data analytics, it is easier to track student engagement and retention rates.
How it works
- With the help of AI, the systems keep track of student activities like the time they spend on lessons, participation rate in discussions, and interactions with course materials.
- By identifying the patterns in student behavior, analytics can highlight the factors that contribute to or hinder engagement in the online classrooms.
- AI predicts at-risk students based on engagement data and suggests interventions to improve retention.
Benefits of this include intervention at an early stage as educators can intervene when they identify potential dropouts, designing personalized strategies to boost engagement, and improving outcomes as students are more involved and learn better through increased interaction. So, technolgy in classrooms can really enhance the learning experience.
Intelligent course creation
AI can be used to fasten the process of course creation. This makes the courses more personalized and efficient. This is done by utilizing intelligent tools that analyze data and leverage AI to design courses that align with the learning objectives and cater to diverse student needs.
How it works-
- Educators have to spend a lot of time on curating a curriculum as they have to identify relevant topics and build lesson plans from multiple sources. With the help of AI, they can easily automate this task.
- The systems take it upon themselves to design the courses in a manner that can adapt to the learning sytle and pace of the students.
- For the purpose of evaluation, automated tools incorporate quizzes, tests, and assignments into the course structure.
This brings efficiency into course creation-ultimately reduces the time and effort required to develop comprehensive curriculum, allows for customization, and makes way for faster scalability while accommodating a wide range of subjects and learners.
Example:
Articulate 360 and Thinkific are two platforms that provide tools that create interactive, adaptive courses. This allows educators to design engaging and effective learning experiences.
Virtual learning assistants
Just like there are chatbots, the edtech space has virtual learning assistants which are powered by AI. they can act as personal guide for students and provide real-time support- from giving feedback, solving queries, informing about schedules, and a lot more. This technology allows for smoother learning experiences for students.
Key features
- Students get virtual assistant support throughout the day, as the assistant is not on a time out. It will always provide consistent answers with no biasness, at any hour of the day. This removes the time restriction posed by human tutors.
- The manual tasks like taking attendance, performing administrative tasks, and other small duties can be easily taken over by these virtual assistants, freeing up the tutors to refine their material.
- These systems can provide students with interactive quizzes and questionnaires in between sessions to boost engagement among the class, ultimately making the sessions more fruitful and imprinting.
Adoption of virtual assistants leads to a lot of time saving, enhanced engagement amongst students and educators, and boosted motivation in both- the student and educator- to learn more and teach better.
Example:
AI assistants like Siri for Education and tools like Quizlet use automation to support students with personalized learning paths and instant responses.
Tools for automation
- Canvas
- Moodle
- Blackboard
- Infinite campus
- Power school
- Gradescape
- Turnitin
- quizizz
These tools can help in several tasks like grading, course creation, plagiariasm checking, engagement, virtual assistants, and much more.
Conclusion
So far in our automation series, we have scene the several industries that can adopt artificial intelligence to streamline operations. Every benefit that is accompanied with AI saves a lot of time, reduces scope of error, and instills efficiency. The healthy adoption of technology is a must. Resistance will only lead to the organization becoming obsolete as the world moves forward. We can see the need for digital assistance has risen since the pandemic, and has become the first choice for many. Students prefer attending online classes and having their personal schedule on the side, while educators depend on technology to grade and validate the assignments. By finding the right balance and embracing automation in education, the EdTech industry can benefit by many folds.
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