There is a lot of controversy recently about the use of AI, particularly in education. It is an issue that is inflaming many people with discussions of ethics, what ifs, will it be helpful or harmful to mankind.
When the emotions have settled, it is likely that AI is something that is with us for some time to come.
The UK Government has recently announced £100 million in funding for the development of AI in agriculture and other industries.
One of the areas where there has been particular debate is the use of AI in education.
We have already talked about AI in one of our previous blogs - AI isn't a magic bullet for better learning- but let’s look at some of the debates that has arisen in recent weeks regarding AI and education that could impact on online education providers.
Unpredictability
ACS Principal, John Mason, states, “From my perspective, the greatest value of writing is to communicate that which is not predictable; but by definition, AI is about creating that which is predictable. I suspect this contradiction gives the human mind advantage over AI. AI may not create diversity in the same way the human mind does – at least not in the foreseeable future?”
The world is unpredictable, life is unpredictable. Things do not always go the way that they are meant to go. AI can predict certain things, but not everything. This is where the human mind is superior to AI.
When we are looking at courses, we, of course, need to consider that some things are unpredictable. Factitious Disorder Imposed by Another (Previously known as Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy) is a condition where a parent or caregiver will make someone else ill as a way to get attention and medical help. For example, a parent might give a child a diet high in salt or potassium, causing them to be ill and needing medical help. When training as a nurse, doctor, psychologist or other health professional, it would be important to recognise the symptoms that a patient is experiencing, but also recognising that sometimes things are not what they seem. Factitious Disorder imposed by another is fairly rare, so it is unusual and may not be detected by AI in the same way as a human health care professional. Therefore, training in this area, recognising verbal and non-verbal communication clues are important. Something AI may not pick up on.
Free Resources
The Financial Times recently reported that online learning is going to be heavily affected by AI as students will be able to get many of their resources for free. It is happening in some cases. BUT it has also been happening for some time without the impact of AI.
MOOCs were first introduced in 2008. MOOC stands for massive open online courses. They are courses free to students. MOOCs were seen as a threat to online course providers in 2008, but as we have seen, the online education industry has grown rapidly since then and is expected to grow a further 23% by 2030. The free courses provided as MOOCs were not as threatening as they first appeared to be. When people talk about free resources provided by AI, we don’t know the full extent of the threat as yet, but they may not be as threatening as first predicted. Online resources can provide information in the forms of –
- Texts
- Ebooks
- Videos
- Self-tests
- Etc
But students may want more than that. They may want an actual person to discuss something with or mark their work. AI may also not be as knowledgeable about particular issues and ethics as a human expert.
Education
The aim of education is to impart knowledge to students. Years ago, students often learned by rote. Some readers may remember having to learn a poem or an English Literature text by heart, then regurgitate it in a test or exam. Educators realised that this was not a good way to learn. The student might have memorised the poem, but that did not mean that they understood it. Decades ago, educators realised that students needed to understand what they were learning and then apply it in the real world.
By reading or viewing AI produced learning resources, a student may simply be doing an updated version of rote learning, watching, remembering and regurgitating that information, not learning how to put it into practice in the real world.
A Tool
Many students are worried about using AI for fear of being accused of cheating and plagiarism. However, AI can be a good starting point to develop an essay or answer to a question. If treated as a form of research, it can be a useful tool.
It is another tool for students to use in their educational careers.
AI has its place in the education system. It can be useful to answer questions, mark multi-choice questions or some assessments, provide students with information and so on.
Students are learning to use AI in creative ways.
Early Stages
AI is in the very early stages of development and there are a lot of issues that need to be sorted out to ensure it is ethical and does not provide misinformation to students in the educational setting and elsewhere.
However, AI is here and it is likely to be here for quite a while. As an education provider, do we ignore it and hope it goes away or embrace it? This is a question that individual education providers need to answer for themselves.
It has its uses and disadvantages in the educational setting, but it is an important tool for students.
As an education provider, we therefore need to consider two main points –
- Do we start to use AI as an education provider?
- Do we offer courses in AI for our students? AI is becoming increasingly important and it is important that people understand more about AI, how it is developed, its uses and the issues with AI.
At ACS Distance Education, we are developing courses written by humans. Humans who are experts in their fields and in developing courses for distance learning.
We have also used that human knowledge to develop a course in AI.
It is important that students study AI and understand how it is used in the future. If you are interested in offering courses in AI and other related areas, why not get in touch with us?
We offer courses in –
- AI
- Ethics
- Statistics
- Education
- Psychology
- Horticulture
- Agriculture
- Creative Writing
- And much, much more.
These courses are available for white label reselling, so if you are interested in –
- Expanding your existing provision
- Setting up a business as an online course provider
Then please get in touch with us to find out more.
ACS Distance Education – The Human Face of a Rapidly Changing World