New Delhi: With online education becoming the norm post COVID-19 pandemic, many feel a shift to artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted teaching is inevitable.
The efficacy of such systems is being studied, says an indiatimes.com report.
Researchers at the University of Central Florida’s Nicholson School of Communication and Media, analyzing student perceptions of AI teachers, stated that effective communication through such systems and broader acceptance by the society are key factors.
Their findings, published in International Journal of Human Computer Interaction, highlight the benefits of such AI systems, like reducing teachers’ workload by quickly answering commonly-asked questions.
With efforts being made to integrate AI teachers “into the education experience”, the study’s lead author Jihyun Kim added: “To use machine teachers effectively, we need to understand students’ perceptions towards machine teachers, their learning experiences with them and more.”
Jill Watson, an AI teaching assistant created by a Georgia Institute researcher, was able to answer most commonly-asked questions by students without human assistance, after being programmed with several questions and answers mentioned in the researcher’s classes.
For the study, respondents were asked to read an article about AI teaching assistant in higher education, and their responses showed an acceptance towards AI teaching assistants which were “useful and easy to communicate.”
Kim said that by assigning AI agents repetitive tasks, there are more chances of developing teaching strategies that will ultimately help student learning in meaningful ways.