Artificial intelligence (AI) is a new buzzword in the eLearning field.
Before jumping into the topic of how AI can prove to be revolutionary in the field of eLearning, let’s understand what AI is?
What is artificial intelligence?
AI is software that is capable of mimicking human actions without human intervention.
For example, Grammarly is a cloud-based writing assistant based on AI technology. Remember how in school your English teacher corrected your test papers, pointing out your grammar mistakes and poor sentence structure? Similarly, an AI-powered Grammarly reviews grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence formation. It may also suggest a better sentence structure for writers. So what was initially done by a teacher is now done by an AI-powered tool. Thus, an AI has the potential to transform the entire landscape of eLearning.
Recently, the world is witnessing a new wave of learning supported by a learning management system(LMS). It is this software that promotes eLearning. An LMS is a web-based technology that helps in planning, delivering, and tracking online training and learning. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual learning has become a very common thing as it ensures that one can learn without the need to get out of their home.
The manner in which AI and LMS are gaining prominence can take eLearning to great heights. Undoubtedly, AI and LMS are a dynamite combination. For instance, a sales enablement platform using AI can provide an ocean of learning opportunities to employees, which will not just upskill the employees, but also increase the sales of the organization in a great way.
The benefits of an AI-powered LMS are:
- Real-time assistance-
Well, we all have been through that phase in life where we hesitated or feared asking questions to our instructors or teachers. Thinking that our question might be too small or stupid to ask, we often took a step back.
However, an AI integrated into your LMS acts as your virtual tutor. Online learners or employees can simply ask their questions on the AI engine and get the most appropriate answer. In this way, one need not run after an instructor.
- Content language of your choice-
An organization contains a diverse workforce. The employees hail from different regions, speak different languages and showcase the different cultures, but are expected to speak in a different language at the workplace. Say, for instance, English. This prevents many employees from opening up and raising doubts. In reality, they may possess a good amount of knowledge but are unable to perform well in assessments.
Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of AI which has the ability to understand and process human language. This means once you integrate AI into LMS, you can ask questions in any language you want.
- Personalized learning-
Traditional training follows a “one size fits all” approach. This means the same learning content is provided to all the employees irrespective of their level of understanding.
However, an AI-powered LMS gives a personalized learning experience to employees. The AI has the capability to track online learners’ activities and progress. It tries to understand the weaknesses and strengths of online learners and based on that, recommends what eLearning material and courses one should go for.
It can also scale your training content building. Researching, developing, and finding out the best content is not an easy task. But with an AI-powered LMS, the online learner can get the best eLearning content, which may be internally or externally located. For instance, if your employee wants to study how to repair a mobile, the AI can source the best material which may be located on the online training library or can extract the best content available on the internet.
- Automated online training assessments-
AI is now being used to generate unique questions and grade the online training assessments. This reduces a huge burden on online instructors who previously spent hours designing and marking assessments.
- Curriculum automation-
The course design is altered every next year with changing times. But redesigning is a very hectic and time-consuming task.
With an AI-enabled LMS, the automated curriculum can be generated. The online training modules, online training courses are all developed using AI.
- Timely completion of online courses-
AI can be very helpful in eLearning. An AI suggests only those online training courses or modules that are essential for skill up-gradation. AI is equipped with a deep learning feature that analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of an online learner. It sees which online training courses have the user accessed to date. Based on such analysis, AI makes recommendations to online learners.
- Enhancing employee training-
Well, AI can be very beneficial in enhancing the quality of employee training. AI is equipped with a speech recognition feature. This can be especially useful for building good interactive and communication skills of sales personnel. For example, to examine the pronunciation of words, whether the salesperson is hesitating while speaking and how is the flow of words. This way, AI is acting as an online tutor.
- Makes learning accessible to all-
AI ensures that the disability of employees doesn’t inhibit their learning growth. AI tools and apps such as Blindsquare help employees with visual impairment to navigate their travel and work environment independently.
- Gives reliable and objective feedback-
There are many chances that personal biases or subjectivity may creep in when an instructor designs the course module or assessment questions. For instance, he may ask only those questions of which he knows the answer or may recommend those reading materials which are written by him. His feedback to learners may also be biased based on his relationship with the learners. This can be very dangerous.
To remove such biases, an AI-powered LMS is a must. An AI uses the data insights and gives the best feedback to online learners. It suggests the best-suited eLearning courses, online training assessments that make the learning path more efficient.
Conclusion-
AI, if infused in an LMS, can do wonders. It caters to the learning and training needs of an organization. It speeds up the design and implementation of eLearning.
