eLearning Evolution
The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our everyday lives is becoming increasingly apparent. One of those facets of life is education, where AI is particularly prevalent. It has become the pillar and core of basic educational processes, including eLearning. According to a study, AI in education will be worth $30 billion or more by 2032, and growing at about 10% every year, as AI is becoming an integral part of education, be it generative or assistive AI. But how exactly does it help revolutionize eLearning platforms? Which tools help with what exactly? Today, we’re looking to understand the basics of how Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing eLearning. So, let’s dive right into it.
What Is eLearning? How Did It Begin?
Electronic learning, or eLearning, is the process of education with the help of digital and electronic media. This method has been around since 1999 when educating students via CDs and PDF/text files became a common practice in the US school system. This was meant as a way to allow students to use their computers to study. But, since computers weren’t as common back then, it wasn’t regularized, and nor was it a very common thing in schools. However, things took a turn around 2005-10, when eLearning really took off. With the introduction of virtual universities and schools, and high-speed internet connections, eLearning took a turn for the better and introduced many things, such as:
- Educating via instructive games
- Mobile learning
- Cloud computing
- Online video education
- eBooks and digitized libraries
Since then, eLearning has developed rapidly and it has become more common in recent times, especially in the post-COVID-19 era. The push toward remote education has made online learning and education an important facet of education in general.
Top AI Programs Used In Education/eLearning
There are many AI-based tools which have become an integral part of eLearning today. However, there will always be concern about the ethical use of AI by students, and it boils down to ensuring the proper parameters of using such AI tools are followed. While using a chatbot for research can be good, using it to do all the work for you isn’t. Also, AI has become quite handy for teachers too, as it helps them simplify aspects of their work with programs like plagiarism checkers or a rewording tools. Today, there are many AI programs used in eLearning, such as:
- AI-based learning platforms
- Plagiarism checkers
- Grammar checkers
- Paraphrasing or rewording tools
- Chatbots of various kinds
However, it’s the responsibility of educational institutions to ensure the ethical and proper use of AI in education. It’s also important to implement the use of tools like AI detectors to ensure there are strict parameters around the unsanctioned use of generative AI tools.
4 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Revolutionizing eLearning Platforms
Now let’s talk about AI’s influence on eLearning and its impact on eLearning. Here are four key ways:
1. Personalized Learning For Students
AI means Artificial Intelligence, and that means using a stream of complicated Machine Learning algorithms to produce highly intelligent results. AI makes the most of this technology by personalizing learning for each specific student, and some platforms make this even easier. Today, many EdTech platforms employ AI to make it easier for specific students. Many education departments have already implemented such AI tools, and this includes sectors such as:
- Medical or healthcare for better teaching
- OSHA and other safety training organizations
- Fintech and accounting
- Marketing and customer service education
- Cybersecurity education for enhanced safety
These sectors have thoroughly and completely embraced AI as the key provider for custom and personalized learning for students.
2. Plagiarism Checking And Removal
Plagiarism is strictly prohibited in the academic world. Students need to submit unique work to earn a good score. The internet is full of AI plagiarism detectors that can detect plagiarism within any text in a short period of time. Students can paraphrase and insert appropriate citations to the original content for any text these detectors find to be plagiarized, in order to avoid plagiarizing.
3. Writing Assistance And Productivity
There are quite a few tools that students can use today for writing assistance and to improve productivity. The same goes for teachers, as they can also increase their productivity by using AI tools made for eLearning. Now, we have already seen how AI can assist us with avoiding plagiarism or rewriting text. But other tools can assist with productivity as well, such as:
- Grammar checkers to ensure correct spelling and punctuation use
- Paraphrasing tools to improve content tone or fluency
- Citation generators to ensure proper formatting of references
- AI-based note-taking for better use of information
- AI-based summarizers to quickly summarize the text
These are some of the key examples of how AI assists students in writing.
4. Research And Content Curation
Researching and content curation is one of the key benefits of AI, and it has made search engines a bit obsolete for some students. Using a program like a chatbot can provide information quite easily. However, there are other tools that also provide complete references, and search engines that use AI to provide accurate results. This helps a low when researching for academic writing and creating content according to requirements.
Conclusion
These are some of the key ways in which Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing eLearning today, and how students and teachers have adapted to it. While there are more technical examples, we have kept it simple for the sake of ensuring understanding of the role of AI. Needless to say, AI will continue to grow in eLearning in the coming years.
