Challenge Professors to Change their Teaching Methods
Throughout history, political leaders have challenged us to rise up and advocate for ourselves. While not as serious as other issues, AI use in education remains at a standstill. Concurrently, the latest studies on AI show that 84% of students have reached a level of AI acceptance, using AI tools to complete their homework. As we’ve noted, academia remains conflicted on how to use AI in universities. In the past, we’ve advised deep research and carefully questioning your school’s AI policy. We stand by this advice. Get to know those handbooks well because they might save your academic career. Even if you think you know the classroom policy, be sure to subscribe to an AI Detector Pro plan to access advanced statistics and rewrites that will bypass outdated detectors. Better safe than sorry.
However, it might be that the tide is turning (or showing signs of turning, at the very least). Faculty Focus, a digital journal aimed at professors, recently published an article advocating that professors consider “Promoting AI-Enhanced Performance in the Online Classroom.”
Online Classes might Lead to AI-Acceptance and drive AI Adoption
We note that the article linked above discusses online education. In 2022, 54% of college students took at least one college course online. There are many reasons for taking classes online. The biggest reason is flexibility. Students take classes online at night if they work during the day and reduce their financial risk by working and studying at the same time. A second major reason was that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly accelerated the popularity of online education.
As pandemic shutdowns stopped in-person instruction, many professors and students adapted and eagerly expanded the adoption of online education. The data suggest that online education has become even more popular following the COVID-19 Pandemic. While the total number of college students fell by more than a million between 2019 and 2022, an additional 1.5 million students started taking all their courses online, and 1.35 more students began taking at least one course online. As educational consultant Phil Hill noted, “Online has become more the norm…[It’s] almost like exclusive face-to-face instruction is becoming the exception.”
Online Educators are looking to AI strategies for better Classroom Engagement
The biggest reason online education will lead in AI-acceptance and AI technology adoption is the issue of student engagement. While online learning is driving many exciting opportunities, the well-documented rate of lower student engagement in online classes continues to be a roadblock for both educators and students. In particular, students themselves expressed disappointment in their online educational experiences, with 72% of surveyed students stating that “low engagement during lectures hurt their online learning experience.”
Start Framing Conversations around AI in Terms of Classroom Engagement
Have you heard about the “demographic cliff?” Smaller colleges are especially worried about it. Essentially, fewer children were born after 2007, which will cause a sharp decrease in college enrollment. Many universities worried about closing since they depend so heavily on tuition. Therefore, unsatisfactory educational experiences for students are highly worrisome to them.
We believe that professors who adopt and promote AI technologies that boost classroom engagement, whether students are online or in-person, will drive better educational experiences and higher rates of student retention, both in their classrooms and for the college generally. Becoming an AI-forward educational institution could become a distinguishing factor for colleges as they manage the demographic cliff. The areas discussed below apply to online and in-person education. This means you should speak up if you think your classroom could benefit from the use of AI.
AI Technologies You can Bring up and How to Use Them
The most important issues for online educators and colleges are the following.
- Retention
- Student Engagement during Class
- Improving student productivity
- Driving Inclusivity
Here are a couple of options with different technologies that the article discusses:
- Using ChatGPT to improve content ideas or analyze student contributions during class
- Improving productivity and inclusivity by enabling AI transcription tools
- Leveraging AI image generation tools to bring more depth to the subject matter for visual learners
Conclusion: Pitch AI to your professors more proactively
Change doesn’t happen overnight. But we are now at the point where publications aimed at educators are finally admitting that AI tools are framed as important to the future of pedagogy and achieving educational goals important to online classrooms. As always, until guidelines are set in stone and professors and colleges make up their minds, subscribe to one of our affordable plans.