How Indian higher education is embracing the future
This article is authored by Vivek Iyer, managing director, D2L India.
It can be said with certainty that the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in learning has become a reality for Indian higher education institutions (HEIs). According to a recent report published by Ernst and Young-Parthenon, in collaboration with FICCI, over 60% of HEIs in India have permitted students to use AI tools for academic purposes. The same report also reveals that 50% of institutions in India are employing generative AI to develop learning content for students. These findings are evidence of the growing usage of AI in the Indian education landscape.
This AI revolution on campus presents both an opportunity and a responsibility. An opportunity for all institutes and educators to personalize learning and the responsibility to prepare students to thrive in this modernised world.
Going deeper into the trend of AI adoption, it has been further revealed through surveys that almost half of these institutions have introduced adaptive learning platforms on their campuses with the aim of making learning more personalised in accordance with the needs and pace of their students. This is a big step that institutions are taking towards embracing adaptive learning platforms and eventually a blended learning system, where traditional learning and digital learning go hand in hand.
Institutions are actively leveraging AI to automate grading, reducing the workload of educators, and allowing them to focus on mentoring students while simultaneously improving assessment efficiency. Additionally, they have also deployed AI-powered tutoring systems and chatbots that offer real-time support to students beyond classroom hours or when teachers are not available. These use cases show that AI tools are not an experiment anymore, rather they signify the fundamental shift that the nation has taken towards AI-based knowledge ecosystems. Technology now plays an integral role in supporting teachers and students to make their learning methods more efficient and effective.
Learning platforms that offer AI-powered adaptive learning capabilities can help analyse a student's academic and cognitive performance, learning style, and level of knowledge to provide personalised learning for each student. It provides students with learning pathways that are tailored to their ability rather than a one-size-fits-all model for all students. These platforms personalise learning in multiple ways, such as adapting to the course's difficulty level, providing individual feedback, and showing content in a preferred format. They allow teachers to provide timely interventions to enhance learning and ultimately result in a better academic experience. In India, this change is at the beginning of its adoption, as demonstrated by the fact that 39% of HEIs in India have implemented them on their campuses.
{{/usCountry}}Learning platforms that offer AI-powered adaptive learning capabilities can help analyse a student's academic and cognitive performance, learning style, and level of knowledge to provide personalised learning for each student. It provides students with learning pathways that are tailored to their ability rather than a one-size-fits-all model for all students. These platforms personalise learning in multiple ways, such as adapting to the course's difficulty level, providing individual feedback, and showing content in a preferred format. They allow teachers to provide timely interventions to enhance learning and ultimately result in a better academic experience. In India, this change is at the beginning of its adoption, as demonstrated by the fact that 39% of HEIs in India have implemented them on their campuses.
{{/usCountry}}A learning management system (LMS) is a learning platform that incorporates adaptive and personalised learning which can be utilised by colleges and universities to facilitate learning. This system is a platform that aggregates all learning content and resources in a single space. Attendance records, quizzes, completed assignments, and even recorded lectures can all be uploaded and graded on an LMS. The benefits of using an LMS are innumerable. They are intelligent ecosystems that trace student behavior, make recommendations on resource usage, and assist in the adaptive learning path. With the use of AI, education institutions can acquire student engagement data that learning systems acquire and provide learners with a recommendation that fits their pace and proficiency. It is then an essential pedagogy in the educational system seeking to integrate blended learning into the ecosystem.
For administrators, educational systems can aid in curriculum management and ease the burden on faculty by taking care of administrative and routine tasks.
As India lies at the convergence of AI with HEIs, focus should begin to shift towards using these tools and technology effectively and responsibly. While using AI tools and adaptive learning platforms, institutions should emphasise critical thinking and creativity to students and encourage them to strike the right balance between technology and innovation. For this to happen, universities and policy makers should collaborate and create thoughtful policies for the use of AI. They will need to set clear parameters to regulate the extent of AI involvement in assignments, projects, or exams so students can also use their own creativity and thrive in the growing digital world. There needs to be training, and enablement provided to teachers on how to make AI a more effective collaborator for them. Ensuring that transparency and accountability are upheld in the usage of AI is equally important.
Ultimately, now that AI is an active and crucial component of our education system, our responsibility is to ensure that it is used efficiently, in a manner such that it empowers both students and teachers rather than becoming a tool that eliminates critical thinking or human creativity in educational institutions.
This article is authored by Vivek Iyer, managing director, D2L India.
