Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a staple not only in cloud computing but in eLearning, too. The reasons are obvious – it can be trained on several functions, saves time and money, build more efficient learning, and provide a deeper level of personalization for learners. Even the numbers back it – per a research report, the AI market is forecasted to reach $190.61 billion by 2025, out of which the eLearning market will surpass $6 billion by 2024!
But beyond the usual suspects of personalized learning and language learning, AI has a lot to offer in the eLearning industry. Let’s explore other areas where AI is revolutionizing eLearning.
1. Content Analytics
AI-driven content analytics significantly optimizes learning solutions for off-the-shelf eLearning content providers and digital learning content publishers. Leveraging the “what works and what doesn’t” information, they can proactively build course catalogs to address the market demands and learners’ challenges. For educators and course creators, AI helps not just create and manage their eLearning content, but also gain important insights into learner progress and understanding through powerful data sets and models.
2. Virtual Facilitators
AI will, one day, replace an actual instructor with a robot. We already see virtual human mentors and facilitators that can think and act like humans. AI makes it possible via the “touchless technology” or “gesture recognition technology,” which lends human-like abilities to these virtual facilitators to respond or act naturally on verbal and nonverbal cues. Future smart learning environments and platforms will increasingly use AI to create realistic virtual characters and social interactions through augmented reality. Virtual facilitators could be strategically used to optimize human instructors’ time and involvement in the teaching or training process.
3. Intelligent Tutors
They sound the same as virtual facilitators, but they aren’t. AI is increasingly being used in eLearning to tutor a learner based on their difficulties beyond just condensing a lecture into flashcards and smart study guides. For instance, “SHERLOCK,” an intelligent tutoring system, is being used to teach air force technicians to diagnose electrical system problems in aircraft. UCLA has developed intelligent tutoring systems – avatar-based training modules – to train military personnel. In the future, these tutors will be able to help learners with anything and can also adapt to a wide variety of learning styles.
4. Course Creation
Using AI in eLearning will make the complete course creation process simpler and faster. For instance, AI can help in automatic translation and localization to offer more speed and efficiency by developing multi-language content for global companies, or for remote teams that speak different languages.
5. Chatbots and Virtual Assistants
With AI, educators can perform assessments faster and process inquiries in real-time to accelerate the learning process and enhance engagement. The best example is that of a chatbot or a virtual assistant, which can “decide” what question to ask learners based on their previous answers and jump to a higher level when the learners consistently enter the correct answers. Chatbots and virtual assistants can help both learners and instructors by answering questions that might otherwise have been sent directly to the instructor, or by helping students navigate course material in a friendlier way.
6. Accessibility Experiences
It’s perhaps the most important capability of AI, but less talked about. AI is revolutionizing the accessibility experiences for learners. For instance, Microsoft developed a free app called “Seeing AI” to leverage the power of AI to narrate to the blind by reading text, recognizing products, describing scenes, currencies, and the person standing in front of you, including their emotions. When more content creators add such apps to their learning courses, it will automatically increase collaboration and facilitate social learning. And not just blind; AI can also act as a virtual assistant responding to voice commands, to individuals who deal with mobility issues.
Paving New Pathways
The EdTech industry has seen solutions with AI components in the last few years. However, the adoption has been slow and unmatched to its boundless potential. The AI tools used in the education sector positively affect students, teachers, and schools by improving the accessibility of quality education. We will continue to see it gain a foothold in all areas of digital learning.
AI can seem complicated, but it’s more accessible than you think. Liqvid can help you better understand the potential applications of AI within your unique business process and recommend ways to utilize this game-changing feature to ensure your training is engaging and successful. AI-powered learning is the future. Embrace it to make it your competitive advantage. Contact us!
