How AI Fosters Advancement in the EdTech Industry

While much of the discussion around generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education has focused on how tools like ChatGPT are ushering in a new wave of concerns around academic integrity, AI has tremendous potential to positively transform the education technology (EdTech) industry. With these tools rapidly expanding their abilities and integrations, it already is. 

Generative AI is changing how educators develop courses and calculate grades. It’s changing how students learn and interact with content. And it’s creating a flood of new products and use cases across the EdTech industry that are set to transform the entire educational experience. 

 

Personalizing Learning 

One of the most promising applications of AI in education is personalization. AI can be used to analyze student data, such as test scores, grades, and attendance, to create personalized assignments and learning plans for each student. Personalized learning can help students learn more effectively by tailoring the content and pace of instruction to their individual needs and abilities. It can also help them stay motivated and engaged in learning by not exacerbating their limitations and leaving the student to fall behind their peers. For educators, it can alleviate the challenges inherent in teaching large numbers of students by developing lessons that can be adapted to suit each student’s unique learning style. 

To lessen issues around access, students with language barriers can benefit from AI’s capacity to translate content and access resources that may not be widely known. Students who don’t have access to or can’t afford tutors or college admissions coaches can use generative AI’s abilities to refine their applications and advocate for themselves. 

Within course software itself, AI can be used to personalize the user interface to make it more intuitive and user-friendly for each student, as well as provide students with personalized recommendations for courses, materials, and activities that can improve their understanding. Virtual classrooms equipped with AI-powered tools can facilitate dynamic collaboration and communication, increasing interactions among students and teachers, especially those in remote and asynchronous environments. 

 

Grading Assignments 

Grading assignments is one of the most time-consuming and often subjective tasks teachers face. AI-powered grading systems have already been shown to grade multiple choice questions, computer code, and even some creative assignments more accurately and efficiently than human graders. It can also provide meaningful feedback to help improve how students understand the material and improve their future assignments. While human intervention is still needed to grade essays and similar assignments for structure and content, generative AI can help lessen the burden of grading for grammar and punctuation. 

AI's predictive analytics capabilities empower educators to proactively identify students who might require extra support, enabling a more personalized approach to education. This can free up teachers' time so that they can focus on other tasks, such as providing feedback to students. Perhaps most notably, these tools may help to ensure that all students are graded fairly, regardless of their background or abilities. 

 

Creating and Managing Content 

AI is a powerful tool that can be used to create educational content. AI-powered chatbots can answer students' questions, and AI-generated images and videos can help students visualize concepts. Its ability to personalize content for each student based on their learning history, abilities, and background can help students learn in a more familiar context. For example, instead of learning from a singular textbook that may only use examples specific to one culture or geographic area, generative AI can create examples that are unique to the student’s environment and frame of reference. This can make learning more engaging and interactive, as well as help students learn at their own pace and in a way that is tailored to their individual needs. 

 

Privacy Concerns 

Despite generative AI’s revolutionary potential, it carries significant privacy concerns. AI-powered systems collect a lot of student data, which could be used to track their online activity in, to the student, unintended or unknown ways. Similarly, biases built in to AI models can still unfairly target certain demographic groups, raising issues around grading and resource allocation. 

It is important to ensure that student data is collected and used in a responsible and ethical manner, both by the schools and the platforms themselves. This should involve using anonymized data, getting student and parental consent, and providing students with the ability to access and control their data.  

 

The Future of AI in Educational Technology 

AI has the potential to revolutionize the way students learn by making it more personalized, efficient, and engaging. It can change how teachers teach by outsourcing many time-consuming tasks so they can focus more time on providing feedback and nurturing discovery in individual students. Though generative AI should always be partnered with oversight to ensure appropriate development and use, educators are moving away from resistance and toward embracing the innovative and impact of AI-powered educational technologies.  

Capitol Technology University’s programs in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Data Science can equip you with the skills needed to create these tools and understand how generative AI can transform the future. For more information, visit the AI program page or contact our Admissions team at admissions@captechu.edu.