You open your favorite website and suddenly there’s a pop-up at the bottom-left corner on the right side of your system. You check out the box and there’s Mia or Robert, your AI-bot assistant. By now, netizens have gotten used to the concept of AI-based chatbots.
Almost every other service site today has a bot to help visitors with the most basic questions and conversations. What’s interesting is that AI chatbots are slowly but surely making their way into the education industry. You heard it right. Enterprises largely used AI-based chatbots as an add-on to customer support.
The bots helped enterprises understand the mindset of their visitors based on Machine Learning algorithms. But, applications of chatbots in the educational sector are far more critical than just understanding the mindset of students and helping them with basic conversations.
Chatbots are here to assist them with mainstream studies. How? That’s what we are here to discuss — the most effective ways in which AI chatbots are transforming the education industry.
So let’s get down straight to the points and look at how chatbot development services can result in the convenience of learners and educational institutions.
Round-the-Clock Support
We have the early risers and then there are the night owls. The point is that students study at their own convenient timings. You can always get stuck with one or another thing; no matter how helpful your teacher is, timing is a factor.
Chatbots can come in as a useful tool to provide students with round-the-clock support with their studies. They are certainly no substitute for real experts, but at least they can help find some solution and let students carry on for the time being.
Learning at One’s Own Pace
This probably has been one of the biggest concerns of teachers, students, and parents as well. The learning pace of every student is different. While some can grasp things really quickly, others tend to struggle with learning.
Although teachers try to do their best to help the weaker ones with extra classes, tutoring, projects, and assignments, students still need to learn things on their own. AI chatbots can be their virtual teachers and can help them with queries and research.
The chatbots can be designed with special tasks that students can solve at their own pace. They can take as long as they want without worrying about any deadline.
Personalized Lessons
Besides offering 24/7 support and helping students learn at their own convenience, AI-based chatbots can also give students personalized lessons. With the help of ML algorithms, the chatbot can learn about a student’s strengths and weaknesses.
Based on the assessment and combined with their curriculum, the bots can find better and easier learning routes. Students can have personalized lessons, work on their weaknesses and improve their academic performance.
Help Teachers Focus Better on Teaching
Chatbots don’t just help students; they prove as useful tools for teachers as well. Throughout the day, a teacher has to carry out several mundane tasks like setting up papers, evaluating papers, and assessing the results. Chatbots surely cannot take up all their tasks but they sure can help.
Teachers can prepare quizzes that the students can access through the bot. Once they are done, the chatbot can evaluate the answers and keep the results prepared. This can eliminate repetitive tasks and can help teachers focus their attention on preparing their lessons or other useful things.
Engage Students More Openly
There are the smart kids and then there are the shy kids. While smart kids often hog the attention, shy ones often hesitate to ask even a single question. They are afraid of being ridiculed or sounding too dull.
Thanks to the chatbots, the shy ones can now ask as many questions as they want without being too conscious. The bots encourage students to interact so that they can engage more openly, thereby allowing them to learn more liberally.
Immediate and Active Feedback
Projects, quizzes, assignments, and tests are all thrown at students to test their capabilities. But sometimes they have to wait too long for the results. AI-based chatbots can provide students with immediate and active feedback.
This way students can know about their mistakes and can start working on them. This can turn out useful in helping students prepare better for their exams and entrance tests.
Administrative Assistance
Chatbots can act as useful guides and offer administrative assistance to anyone who is looking for detailed information on an educational institution. They can ask to get the prospectus, and know about the courses, their structure, fee structure, etc.
The bots can also help with administrative assistance like filling out admission forms, survey forms, or submitting admission letters. This can also cut down a lot of extra manual labor for the institutions.
Acquire Sentimental Insights from Students
Feedback is important for students but it is also the same for teachers, schools, and colleges. While students might not always feel brave to disclose their sentiments to counselors or provide honest feedback, they can do so on the bots.
Whether it’s about the curriculum, teaching style, physical health, or most importantly bullying, they can discuss it with the bots without fearing their exposure to the other party. This can actually prove as a useful tool for the institutions to get an insight into the true sentiments of the students.
AI’s Future in the Educational Sector
According to Grand View Research, the global market size for the chatbot is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25.7% in the next eight years, starting from 2022. Earlier in the year 2022, Juniper Research forecasted that chatbot conversations will have contributed to cost savings by 8 billion USD.
The numbers suggest that AI’s grip is going to tighten over time, and though its use in education is limited at the moment, it will surely widen within the next few years. It can be said that AI-based chatbots might just become the limelight of eLearning solutions.
Take Away
The above-discussed points make it quite clear that AI chatbots are beneficial not only for students but also for teachers and institutions alike. With more institutions realizing the potential of chatbot development services, the market size is also going to grow. So investors who wish to venture into this technology can set their plans in motion.
