September 11, 2019

AI and Chatbots in the Education Sector: The Future of Learning

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Technology has changed the way that students seek and absorb information. Millennials and Gen Z’s prefer getting instant answers and solutions and would easily switch to another provider if they don’t get it. Convenience and time are extremely important to the younger generation in all aspects of life, including education.

In fact, a recent BCG study concludes that millennials prefer speed and efficiency over a friendly service. This builds the case for using AI and chatbots in the education sector to make the learning process more efficient.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and chatbots are instrumental in bringing about this revolution and are changing the landscape in several ways. Here are some of the ways you can apply AI and chatbots in education and how they are changing the sector.

Related article: Artificial Intelligence: What is it and how does it work?

Instant Access to Information and Support

Just like any other industry, chatbots can also act as virtual assistants in the education and learning sector. They can help students, teachers, and staff get instant access to any information they need, enhancing their experience with the institution.

If a student is considering joining a new course, for instance, they can use a chatbot to collect all the essential course information. They can find out anything they want to know about the admission process and the topics covered.

Chatbots can provide answers to many topics including:

  • Admission processes
  • Courses and specializations
  • Campus life
  • Fees and payment-related information
  • Sponsorships and benefits

Besides these topics, chatbots can provide answers to questions about many other aspects of the institution. You could argue that this information is available through other channels as well, but the truth is that people don’t always have the time to do all that research.

Today’s digital era is extremely fast-paced. To match this, the younger generation also wants instant answers without wasting too much time. AI and chatbots can provide just that.

Another added advantage of having a chatbot to answer queries is that you won’t need to hire people to do that. It will save both time and money as you won’t have to spend time answering each student’s queries.

Related article: Chatbots also participate in education

Siglo21 University, for example, leverages our AgentBot to serve as a self-service assistant for students. This chatbot provides instant answers to a broad range of queries. It can answer questions about the registration process, subjects, courses, payments, and a lot more.

Personalized Learning

The use of AI and chatbots in education can personalize the whole learning experience, adapting to each student’s needs and pace.

The problem with the traditional way of learning is that every student taking a class or an online course is treated the same. From the modes of learning to the appropriate checkpoints for evaluating progress, everything is the same for every student.

Given that each student has different skills, abilities, and aptitudes, it hardly seems fair to treat them all the same. AI can help resolve this problem by customizing the interactions for each student to enable the best learning experience.

Imagine a solution that can automatically answer a student's question based on their academic record and personal data. Wouldn’t that make learning more effective?

Chatbots can understand the intention behind the interaction by chatting with students through their preferred channels.

Overall, AI and chatbots can improve the whole learning process by personalizing it to each student’s needs. This also makes it more effective and provides a better experience.

Student Engagement

Going to college, attending classes, and studying are often considered boring and mundane experiences. Students often go through them only because they must do so. Introducing an interactive AI and chatbot platform can change that by making it fun and engaging.

Using an interactive platform where you can ask questions and take different approaches to understand something can make the experience more interesting.

Just imagine you’re reading up on a certain topic and you have a hard time understanding it. So you watch a cool video to grasp the concept more effectively. This takes education to another level and makes it a truly engaging experience for students.

Another use of chatbots in education is that they can provide a communication platform between students and teachers. Students, like anyone else in this digital era, spend a lot of time on their phones either using social networks or messaging apps.

Using such technology to post class schedules, tests, etc. is an effective way to keep students engaged. They can also ask questions and participate in discussions with other students, making them more inclined to engage in the topics and subjects.

Grading and Assessments

If you ask any teacher what the most tedious part of their job is, they will almost unanimously tell you that it's the grading process. Going through hundreds of papers takes a lot of time and effort for teachers.

AI can help with this by analyzing objective-type questions and grading papers much faster than a human ever could.

This will free up the teacher’s time to assess subjective answers like essays. In other words, they have more opportunities to do justice to the assessment as they can dedicate more time to each paper.

This proves just how beneficial AI can be. And in the future, AI and machine learning might even evolve to a stage where it can grade subjective answers.

Conclusion

There are a lot of potential applications for AI and chatbots in education including, but not limited to, the ones mentioned above. These are just some of the ways that chatbots are making an impact in the education sector.

If you want to improve your students’ learning experiences and provide better support, chatbots provide the ideal solution. Try our intelligent Virtual Assistant to realize the full potential of AI and chatbots in education.

Are you looking for new ways to improve your CX?

Our customer service solutions powered by conversational AI can help you deliver an efficient, 24/7 experience  to your customers. Get in touch with one of our specialists to further discuss how they can help your business.