Leveraging artificial intelligence for smart teaching

Assessment is an integral part of a studentrsquos learning journey Even as it involves testing a learnerrsquos ability to grasp classroom instructions and make timely progress it is also in some ways a measurement of the teaching proficiency as an instructor and the entry of AI has further changed the dynamic between the teacher and the taughtAlthough the entry of AI in education was a force of disruption initially it is in time turning out to be a remarkably transformative tool from the standpoint of both students and teachers Indeed AI can help teachers not only deliver a more customised and personalised learning experience for their students but also help a great deal in terms of studentsrsquo assessmentsWhile AI has been proving to be a great enabler for formative assessment of students ie assessment and feedback during the ongoing delivery of instructions it can also aid in making diagnostic and summative assessments of the studentrsquos performanceSo what are the different ways in which AI can help teachers with students assessmentsCan generate an array of testsTeachers can employ AI very effectively to generate a wide array of tests and assessments for their students These tests could account for the differential needs of individual students in terms of difficulty levels the nature of the subject itself adaptability time and place etc For instance a combination of AI and voice recognition can prove to be a highly effective tool for assessing the reading fluency of students in the context of formative testing Since there is immediate feedback and the assessment and scoring can be done multiple times teachers can spot specific areas where a student needs help and can make improvements thereafter Importantly based on large amounts of student data AI can help in generating individualised assessments and testsAllows automatic grading of studentsIt is the sheer magic of AI drawing on its very nature that it can facilitate automatic grading and scoring of students on a given assessment in a given subject area For example AIbased automated essay scoring or AES uses natural language processing NLP to grade written essays and is used mainly in summative assessment Although NLP goes back decades the AI engines that underpin AESs have made tremendous progress today in terms of the sophistication of algorithms data processing capacity and overall efficiency1Similarly Computerised Adaptive Testing or CAT has been in vogue for decades and involves automatic assessment and grading of students again particularly used for summative assessment Based on Item Response Theory IRT CATs dynamically adjust their difficulty level according to the students responses to an earlier question and are generally associated with a relatively welldefined knowledge domainStealth assessments address examrelated anxietyAI can also help teachers in creating and implementing stealth assessments and tests Typically used in gamebased learning they can assist teachers in testing students without an emphasis on the process of traditional testing As such having been automatically embedded into the learning process and the content itself these tests resolve issues related to studentsrsquo examrelated anxiety one major factor not only impinging on the latterrsquos performance but also overall evaluationHelps early identification of atrisk studentsWith predictive analytics being at the core of AI applications it allows an examination of the past performance of students based on their interest aptitude attention span and task completion rates Apart from the adaptive assessment that involves adjusting the difficulty level for individual students AI also supports teachers in the early identification of atrisk students as well as identifying problems that would likely require a remedyAids surveillance amp prevents cheatingEven as AI is increasingly being cited as a tool that lsquofacilitatesrsquo students cheating especially in light of the everrising popularity and usage of Chat GPT the generative large language model tool it can also be used as an instrument of surveillance and indeed for prevention of cheating Today AIpowered remote proctoring tools are being developed that also include audio proctoring video proctoring and image proctoring especially making use of facial recognition technologies In addition various plagiarism software focused entirely on AIgenerated content is making their presence felt among users including teachersFrees up teachersrsquo timeThe increased availability of AIbased assessments and tests also allows the teacher to shift back and forth between testing and teaching with more efficiency and more frequently thereby improving overall learning outcomes in the end The bottom line is that AI applications greatly reduce the workload of teachers allowing them to concentrate better on their pedagogical method instructional content and the quality of delivery itselfTherefore AI can indeed make the assessment process more accurate personalized for the student and swift for the 21stcentury teaching community In a time and age of increasingly digitized curricula the advent of advanced machine learningbased assessment systems that continue to make themselves better while being used would further make it easier for teachers to assess and evaluate their studentsAarul Malaviya is the Founder of Zamit a onestop platform that networks and supports school ecosystemsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever