From customized curriculum to personalized learning and immersive experiences, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is helping learners evolve holistically and achieve dynamism that can’t be attained by simple classroom learning. Estimates suggest the market cap of AI in education to reach $54bn by 2030. This translates into 47.2% CAGR between 2024 and 2030 with a size of $5.4bn estimated in 2024.
So, how AI is enabling the success story of global higher education. Let’s look at five najor insights and implementation strategies:
a) Tackling Shortages:
To achieve the sustainable development goal (SDG) 4 of inclusive education to all, 44 million teachers will be needed worldwide by 2030. Out of this number, the majority will be required in higher education as the sector today is feeling an acute shortage of quality educators.
AI can prove instrumental in bridging this gap by offering virtual learning, data-driven assessments, and real-time support to millions of students worldwide irrespective of their location. By using AI tools and technologies, educators can significantly expand their student base and offer education to all aspirants without actually mandating their physical presence.
Implementation Strategy: Colleges, Higher Education Institutes, and Universities need to integrate AI into their strategic vision for tackling the shortages of skilled educators and faculty members.
b) Immersive Learning:
The use of AR, VR, MR, and Metaverse can enable instructors to offer an immersive learning environment, helping students to imbibe concepts more impactfully. This integration will help in shifting focus from a theory-based approach to hands-on learning – something that is significantly important for professional and vocational courses. Further, the use of AI can mimic the real-world situations virtually and offer a cost-effective and unharmful way for training students in specialised disciplines such as firefighting, surgery, aviation, etc.
Implementation Strategy: Organise and conduct regular faculty development programmes on AI use so that the full benefits of the technology integration can be realised across the spectrum of specialisations.
c) Redefining Roles:
AI tools can significantly reduce the burden of mundane tasks that often eat up a majority of educators’ time. Take, for instance, the task of grading assignments of students which is quite time-consuming. However, using grading platforms based on AI can significantly increase the efficiency of grading and save up to 70% of the time that faculty invest in evaluating students. Further, AI tools offer real-time analysis of the student’s performances, allowing both learners and educators to identify both strong and weak areas and accordingly work to improve their performance.
Implementation Strategy: Top management of the educational institutions and universities must earmark a budget for AI tools as this can help educators spend more time imparting learning to students.
d) Special-need Learners:
AI plays a crucial role in ensuring that every learner receives the benefits of higher education including students with special needs. Technologies such as speech-to-text, image recognition, and alt text are enabling learning among students with special needs. The AI is also assisting in designing curricula for visually and hearing-impaired students in addition to offering them personalised learning paths. This ability of AI to offer Equal Opportunities for special needs students is incredible and will lead to the development of a more holistic society in the coming years.
Implementation Strategy: Policymakers need to come up with a strict mandatory framework regarding use of technology to facilitate learning among special needs students.
e) Improving Retention:
Retention of students is a big challenge and by offering personalized recommendations on courses and specializations through analyses of learners’ interests, AI can play an important role in enhancing the retention ratio of students. The technology can also prove conducive for educational institutions to enroll the right students whose interests are aligned with the courses that they offer.
Implementation Strategy: Use AI tools to match the interest areas of students with the specializations they choose to improve the retention ratio throughout the course duration.
