6 Ways Artificial Intelligence is Shaping eLearning in 2023
eLearning and online education have transformed education and corporate training for good, but how can eLearning platforms scale and incorporate a personalized experience that takes different learning styles into account?
The answer is artificial intelligence, also known as AI or machine learning. eLearning AI enables the eLearning industry to customize learning experiences for their learners, improve retention, and break away from stale one-size-fits-all learning courses.
Adaptive learning is an educational method that uses algorithms and learning AI systems to orchestrate better interactions, customize learning environments and online courses, and address the unique needs of learners.
AI technology can mimic human intelligence through deep learning and natural language processing to seamlessly facilitate and improve the learning process. In this article, we’ll look at the ways AI can optimize digital learning and deliver a personalized learning experience.
We’ll also discuss whether AI is essential to set up your online education platform, and how you can apply some of these concepts simply and quickly using WordPress.
In the last few years, the effectiveness of traditional one-size-fits-all teaching methods has been questioned, especially as the dropout rate of undergraduate students in the US comes in at around 40%.
eLearning AI can create online courses that are personalized to users based on their different learning styles. This is called adaptive learning, which uses machine learning algorithms to change course material in real time based on the way learners respond to it. AI could gauge a learner’s level of knowledge and interests from the beginning to create a streamlined and highly relevant learning experience. The learning AI could offer more help where it’s needed or leave out things that aren’t relevant. It will also customize activities based on the unique needs of the student.
In corporate learning, the learning management system may adjust the presentation of eLearning course content based on their responses to questions or experiences. This can reduce time spent rehashing content that learners already know and increase their enthusiasm for the learning experience.
Additionally, self service business intelligence tools can be integrated with eLearning AI, providing learners with insights into their own learning progress. Learners have these tools to track their progress, evaluate their understanding level, and pinpoint where they may need additional assistance or resources. This enables learners to take ownership of their educational experience and achieve their goals at their own pace. Utilizing adaptive learning and Self Service business intelligence, eLearning AI can offer a more personalized and practical learning experience, foreseeably leading to higher engagement, improved outcomes, and lower dropout rates.
Authoring eLearning courses can take weeks, which is far from ideal in a world where new discoveries and updates are constantly being made and need to be taught. AI authoring tools can greatly speed up the content creation process. It uses a programming technique known as language modeling, a training algorithm that teaches machines to write like human beings.
While it’s not recommended that you use AI to write an entire course, it can create a solid foundation for you to build on, especially if you need to create a lot of content at scale, e.g. by creating headings and subheadings for certain topics.
AI can assist you by converting volumes of existing content into “smart content” designed for digital consumption by implementing search marketing techniques and using the data in your CRM to create more appealing courses.
You could also use AI to translate or localize your existing courses so that you can reach new audiences from around the globe.
It’s impossible for human assistants to monitor and manage the needs of students around the globe who are learning remotely at all hours of the day. Bots can fill the gaps. They are easy to implement and cost-effective.
Bots can answer repetitive questions to free up teachers’ time or guide students through the initial adaptation period, providing valuable information about their course and expectations without the need for a human trainer.
Instead of Googling and going down the wrong path, AI bots can provide guidance directly within the LMS.
Virtual assistants differ from chatbots that only answer questions when they are asked. Virtual assistants are more proactive. Many eLearning courses use virtual tutors during assessments. eLearning AI can detect if a student’s written answers are incorrect and provide feedback in real-time before the student moves on to the next topic or skill set. This not only saves time but ensures that students have the support and resources they need at all times.
Virtual tutors can also help with scheduling and automated grading and provide explanations on how course materials work within the subject.
Grading assessments are the most time-consuming task a teacher has to go through. Fortunately, learning AI can be used to grade long and even very complex exams, as neural matching capabilities in artificial intelligence enable machines to understand the intent and answers behind written assessments.
eLearning AI can combine with plagiarism detection tools to detect similarities between students’ submitted assignments and past or present assignments submitted by other learners. It can also compare samples of students’ writing to determine whether or not someone else potentially completed a particular student’s work for them.
eLearning AI can also serve learners with special needs or visual, mobility, or speech impairments. The eLearning industry has made education more accessible as anyone can access learning from anywhere.
Elearning AI can offer language-based support, e.g. by automating closed captioning and transcription services for learners with hearing impairments. eLearning companies can train the service with keywords and concepts unique to their online courses’ knowledge domain to increase transcription accuracy and improve inclusivity.
AI-powered translation apps can also convert spoken words into a different format so that non-native speakers of a language can access materials in their home language. This can also improve access for students that struggle to process speech quickly.
One more way AI is changing eLearning: It’s making it adaptive
eLearning AI goes beyond simple personalization. It makes learning adaptive by providing mentoring, detecting knowledge gaps and providing recommendations, and boosting learning engagement by continually assessing learners’ weaknesses and progress to keep their online learning experience relevant.
Adaptive learning provides more efficient, effective, and customized learning paths using a data-driven approach to adjust the path of education according to a learner’s skills and preferred pace. As one adaptive learning expert says, “a learning environment is considered adaptive if it is capable of: monitoring the activities of its users; interpreting these on the basis of domain-specific models; inferring user requirements and preferences out of the interpreted activities, appropriately representing these in associated models; and, finally, acting upon the available knowledge on its users and the subject matter at hand, to dynamically facilitate the learning process.”