Corporate

As many companies took to remote work in the first half of 2020, learning and development got sidelined. Without company trainers or in-person sessions, it became less important in the face of other business obstacles amidst a global recession. On the other hand, companies know that automated learning and development enables employees to learn anytime, anywhere, and on any device, all while having their progress tracked. In fact, to boost morale, some companies encouraged their employees to go on a walk every day and meet a 10,000-step daily goal. The winning team wins a prize by the end, encouraging teamwork and helping employees practice moderate physical exercise while working from home. Instructor-led training is costly, time-consuming, and is quickly forgotten. It can be difficult for HR teams to measure the effectiveness of training and development especially when it’s conducted on a weekend every couple of months. While instructor-led training can be inspirational, it can just be that: only inspirational. According to the forgetting curve hypothesis (which refers to the strength of human memory and time it takes to lose information), humans can typically forget half of what they learned just days or weeks after they learn it. So, while going attending an instructor-led training session can be great for employee morale, it may not really be effective. When newly-fed information is not re-practiced or re-affirmed, it will quickly be forgotten – driving the case further against traditional instructor-led training. On the other hand, the learning curve showcases that the more someone performs a task, the better they get at it. Hence, the more you practice, the better you become as you get more experience: the same goes for company training. However, it can be costly to train employees regularly, and it can be ineffective if the training is about different subjects and topics every time. Employees will not retain the information, and it will go to waste. It would also be boring to repeat the same training over-and-over again. How AI is changing the game Companies can have a complete and automated learning and development journey by leveraging artificial intelligence to support their business goals. Here’s how. 1. Enabling continuous learning With AI-powered learning platforms, employees can practice bite-sized information for 5-10 minutes every day, which does not affect their work during office hours. This is fully automated, and with AI, learners will receive personalized advice and suggestions to help them improve according to their own pace. This enables employees to easily track their learning, revise, and eventually master topics overtime. With AI-enabled microlearning, employees can: – Spend as little as 5 to 10 minutes daily to complete one microlearning module out of a course – Read relevant and specific chunks of information that do not disrupt the flow of work – Access a complete overview of their performance through stats and reports – Keep track of their progress – Complete practice exercises and surpass challenges to reinforce the information they learned – Review what they learned over time – Achieve lifelong learning – Practice and quiz themselves 2. Automating learning transfer Instructor-led training can be very vague, or would only provide a general overview, while some employees would need more specific training. With AI learning and development solutions, employees can ask questions and receive specific answers, and they would complete coursework that is relevant to their department and work. This will help employees learn transferable skills that can be applied in the workplace, improving the entire organization’s productivity and efficiency. Recent studies have also proven that you are more likely to retain information by studying small chunks of content daily rather than spending one full day of learning. AI-powered learning can: – Assess the progress of employees – Improve productivity – Provide measurable results in the workplace – Enable employees to develop good habits over time 3. Predicting learner performance through historical data Like humans, artificial intelligence learns with time, but it doesn’t forget and has the added advantage of predicting the future more accurately than us. By analyzing the performance of learners over time, AI solutions can help managers put more achievable goals for their teams. This provides facilitated workforce planning, with measurable learning and development ROI. With a culture of continuous improvement, companies will see performance gains. 4. Increasing engagement Technology can be accessed immediately. With AI-enabled chatbots, learners can ask any question to a chatbot and receive their answers immediately. This helps speed up employee upskilling as they apply learning outcomes immediately. Some tools also apply gamification aspects that help drive higher engagement. Some elements of engagement that can be applied include: – Missions – Personalized reminders – Multiplayer challenges – Leaderboards Concluding notes As AI becomes a more crucial element of education today, its applications in learning and development can increase productivity, reduce costs, improve employee morale, and much more.  With the advent of remote work, employers can offer more flexible modes of learning and development that are measurable and transferable into the workplace. To discover how AI is reforming other industries, read more on our blog Want to integrate AI into your business? Get in touch

Teachers dedicate a lot of time and effort into lesson-planning, delivering engaging content, creating worksheets, grading assignments, monitoring progress, and more. With the abundance of tasks that educators are required to juggle, it becomes more difficult to personalize their teaching methods towards every student in the classroom.    Personalization as a global phenomenon   Personalized learning has been gaining attention over the previous decade, and it is interesting to note that this wave of personalization in teaching is a part of a larger umbrella of personalization in retail, gaming, finance, and other major industries globally.  In fact, personalization in retail is transforming into a service that customers expect from outlets, as a 2019 survey by The Harris Poll revealed that 63% of customers in the USA, UK, and Canada want and expect personalization in shopping from retailers, referring to it as the “standard” service. [1]  For crafts and the arts, major websites such as Pinterest and Etsy have been gaining traction for offering personalized gift ideas, with many freelancers launching their businesses online by selling customized gifts for global customers.  In the financial sector, digital banking has been taking the industry by a storm; most if not major banks now have mobile apps wherein customers can download their statements, create budgets, open savings accounts, and more, viewing all their purchases easily in a hyper-personalized dashboard.  Hence, the trend of personalization can be identified as the reflection of our global culture. As children grow up in a hyper-personalized world – forming their own social media profiles and accounts on e-commerce websites – it is only fair for them to expect the same in schools – a place they view as their second home.       Personalized learning in the classroom    Personalized learning is when teachers tailor their teaching instruction for every student, with content catered to students’ academic needs, skills, and interests.  For teachers, personalized learning is particularly exciting, because it helps them track every students’ progress without losing sight of the classroom’s performance. In addition, it enables teachers to use a variety of different teaching methods, helping them excel in their careers as professional educators. Personalized learning essentially enables students to learn at their own pace in an approach that works best for them. It differs from traditional teaching methods in a number of ways:   Personalization through the lens of EdTech   EdTech (education technology) has been dominating the educational sphere since the introduction of smart tablets and interactive boards in classrooms, around a decade ago.  Educators have utilized new technology such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to offer personalized programs for students and systems for schools that can be integrated into any teaching curriculum.  These tech innovations are assisting teachers in lesson planning, tracking individual progress, viewing classroom performance, as well as recommending engaging content material. The integration of technology in the classroom revives the teacher’s main role as a source of guidance and mentorship, saving time and effort on banal and mundane tasks such as correcting assignments and recording grades.  Tailored content for every student: EdTech systems and programs assist teachers in assigning personalized content according to every student’s individual needs, so that they can learn at their own pace.  Collaboration at any time, and any place: Students can access their devices at any time, allowing them to complete tasks anywhere such as at home, on the bus, or in the park – so they can have a more holistic perception of learning that can be utilized in their daily life, rather than perceiving classroom topics as a separate concept from their day-to-day activities.  Flexibility and overview of the classroom: By receiving daily or weekly reports of students’ performance in completing virtual tasks that test their subject comprehension, teachers can have a clearer overview of the classroom’s performance – enabling them to repeat topics students didn’t understand, and supporting them in creating content that is easily digestible for students. Seeing as personalization is the standard for many services across the world today, Gen Z are expecting the same in schools to find subject-matters more relatable. To achieve a more effective approach to learning within the classroom, teachers are encouraged to utilize technology to help them redirect their efforts in guiding the coming generation of future leaders.    Sources: [1] “RedPoint Global and Harris Poll Survey Exposes Gap Between Consumer and Marketer Expectations for Customer Experience.” BusinessWire, 27 Mar. 2019   [2] Rodel Foundation of Delaware, Personalized Learning 101, Mar. 2013

It is a universally known fact that technology is developing at a breathtaking pace. Education has to adapt to technology to enhance the overall learning experience for students while continuing to tackle the regular workload of teachers. AI has been a topic of research and investment since the 1980s, and only in recent years have we begun to witness the application of AI in industry. Implementing AI in the field of education is the next logical step as teaching methods have been subject to scrutiny and subsequent evolvement over the years since education has been formally instituted. In 2016, Pearson, one of the world’s largest education publishing and assessment organization, issued a pamphlet titled ‘Intelligence Unleashed: an Argument for AI in Education’ which outlines the future of education that relies on AI-driven learning systems. This report helped to put AI into the educational domain’s spotlight. Automatic Grading On average, a teacher’s job involves the preparation of teaching materials, grading papers, reviewing assignments, and teaching in class. These tasks are repeated on an almost daily basis and can tend to stack up. If AI could be implemented to assist teachers with grading, the quality of teaching can drastically improve as teachers can assign more time to the preparation of their materials as well as refine their teaching methods. It would be an exceptionally useful tool as it will help speed up one of the most tedious tasks that teachers have to deal with. AI can grade any type of standardized assessment. This will result in greater accuracy and consistency in the assessment of work and will also help eliminate any bias, intentional or unintentional, on the teacher’s side. Virtual-TA in Support of TAs and Teachers Online education has become more widespread and popular in recent years, with the process improving over time as more and more students enroll in online programs. A major issue that professors face with teaching classes is online is answering the hundreds of questions they are faced with after each session. Even with the help of TAs, to answer every one of the questions with satisfying responses can become a complicated matter. This is where a virtual TA can be introduced. A virtual TA picks up the questions and responds to them just like any other TA. This is, of course, to break the traditional model of one-size-fits-all teaching, and works more with individual learning assistance. It turns out that this is very much needed in the 21st Century for preparing students to join or rejoin the competitive global market. Supporting Students As students tend to have different learning styles and paces, it would probably be helpful to have an AI program or device that could keep track of a student’s learning progress and school history. In addition, it would provide an ongoing analysis of a student’s strengths and weaknesses, while offering accurate feedback for improvements. It’s an efficient and accurate way for students to know how they can improve. Students will also appreciate the application of such sophisticated technology in their daily lives at school, creating a healthier learning pattern through the physical environment. AI in education is an excellent way to enhance the learning and teaching efficiency of educational institutions that are slow to change; a change which is needed once you gauge student performance in the workforce after studies are over, frequently the investment of money and time does not match the outcome. With the assistance of AI, we could bridge this gap in a very short period, with a cost-effective ratio of time, money, effort, and positive results.

The world of academia has been going through a technological revolution in the recent years and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slated to change the landscape of education even further. With robots and the right piece of software, AI will not necessarily replace an academic organization’s professors and lecturers, but instead, offer them a number of tools that will help them perform their work duties faster. It can also help administrative workers do their work at a higher capacity by automating most office and accounting tasks. If you are in the business of developing smart software solutions for academic institutions, AI is your friend as machine learning offers the opportunity to develop a framework for creating your app or services. One of the best ways in which AI can change education is by speeding up the administrative process for an institution and its educators. Grading homework, papers and evaluating student participation grades is a time-consuming task that requires a lot of time and effort from lecturers. The time they spend on these tasks could potentially be slashed with AI, allowing them to spend more time on lesson planning and having more one-on-one meetings with students. AI-powered technology can already grade multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank tests without much of a hassle. Soon, you will be able to add software that can automate the process of grading written response work. AI can also help you streamline and improve the admissions process by cutting down the workload for high volume admissions offices. Chatbots can help to automate the paperwork and support admission process for students, while interactive website materials can give prospective students an idea of what they can expect from an institution. Your company can also create smart content with AI, including digitized textbook guides and customizable learning digital interfaces for students of all levels. One solution you could implement is a platform that uses AI to help break down textbook content into digestible, bite-sized flashcards to create a smart study guide. This includes chapter summaries, multiple-choice practice tests, and true-false questions. Other solutions can help your students highlight and create text with personalized chapter-specific summaries, which are then archived into a digital collection that can be accessed online. You can also create smart, digital tutoring systems that use cognitive science and AI technologies to offer personalized tutoring and real-time feedback for college students. This is especially useful for incoming college freshmen as they can use these tutors to avoid taking remedial courses. This can help reduce an organization’s costs of remedial learning, which is an expenditure that costs colleges $6.7 billion annually with only a 33% success rate in math courses. AI offers a variety of solutions for businesses and educational institutions of all sizes, including machine learning technology and cognitive learning tools that can be used to develop personalized tutors and smart content.  

Computational machines offer speed and accessibility to a variety of daily chores. The missing link has always been intelligence. Ranging between smart search to optimizing resources, AI can solve problems wherever data-based decisions are involved. By knowing when you will access what applications and for how long, your device can free up some memory to allow a smooth experience. Knowing what emails are relevant to you, what movies should you watch, what car should you buy, when should you visit a doctor, how can you manage your finances and what else can you do in your ‘free time’? this list could just go forever. Further, if you did not notice the previous sentence did not have a verb of its own, so add ‘correcting your grammar’ to that list. So why did we not have all these earlier? The answer is- No idea! But why the heck not now? Let us take a metaphor of automatic transmission cars compared to a manual transmission. Both of those have their own benefits which you can try out for yourself. Are we to say that automatic cars will replace manual ones? Certainly not, since both are enjoyable in their own unique ways. However, shifting to the top gear and hearing the torque pinch is just as thrilling as whizzing off the signal with a push of a pedal while your co-drivers fiddle with their gears. In essence, AI is for you if you are craving for a magical experience, an alternative to the way you have been doing things. So how does it work? Data and lots of it. Technically AI is not magic but meticulously planned and Applied Science. When we say Science, we know it means the practice is testable, reproducible, quantifiable and available within the system constraints that define it. A major share of Artificial Intelligence applications nowadays is achieved through Machine Learning. With a large community of open source and peer-reviewed research, conferences, and journals happening around the globe, AI is in safe hands. There is no need to panic as even the giants in Information Technology have embraced AI. So whether you like it or not, AI is here to here to stay, just as much as Helio-Centric theory, Atomic theory, Internet, Smartphones and Big Shaq. The good news is that scalable AI is only getting started and experts in the field have begun developing refreshing products. Indeed, it is a very good time to be alive as we subconsciously vote on what our future generation get to witness. Believe me, it is easy to get carried away and set out to build an autonomous machine which can turn back time by snapping its fingers. In fact, in a recently proposed paper on Gestational Intelligence- an ever-evolving approach to goal-oriented machines, the author suggests that… Gotchya! Nothing to worry about! We are nowhere near Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Almost all our solutions these days are only narrow AI, meaning solutions towards closed-ended problems. The reasons why the industry won’t venture into AGI for decades are because of limited funding, lack of clear outcome, risk in maintaining and managing such systems; the best of the reasons being weak research as on date. Meanwhile, let us enjoy the benefits of a smart revolution and let machines serve us like we always wanted them to!