AI undoubtedly offers innovative opportunities to enhance and transform educational experiences.
According to experts, employing artificial intelligence and insights gained from their usage helps teachers to create individualized learning.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in a recent report advocates that “human teachers should largely steer the use of AI in classrooms, ensuring that it aligns with pedagogical goals and ethical standards and is appropriate for contexts and cultures that vary enormously within as well as across countries”.
However, the adoption of this technology in Africa is still very low. According to the state of AI in Africa Report 2023 by the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT), the usage of AI in Education in Africa is at 12%.
The report stated that ”most students in Africa cannot benefit from these tools largely due to a lack of access to internet connectivity and technological infrastructure.”
That notwithstanding, here are some classroom educational AI tools that are transforming education in 2024:
MathGPTPro is an AI-driven math tutor with 2M+ students globally and over 10k downloads on the Play Store. Founded in 2023 by Tianwei Yue, Shujia Liang, and Quinn Lyu. It allows users to upload math problems via photos or text for instant solutions.
Key features include:
- Offers 90% accuracy in solving math problems
- Offers diverse, gamified exercises to maintain student interest and motivation.
- Tailored Learning for personalized education with instant, detailed feedback to guide learners.
ExamSoft founded in 1998 by Adam Wasserman and William Storage, is widely used in education for secure examination administration and assessment, with over 90 million exams conducted.
It ensures fair testing environments, prevents cheating with lockdown browsers, and offers robust analytics for performance evaluation. Its features include:
- Secure exam delivery
- Lockdown browser
- Detailed performance analytics
Course Hero platform provides AI-powered homework help that dramatically fastens the process of finding instant answers and detailed explanations for a wide array of study materials and online tutors.
Course Hero was founded in 2006 by Andrew Grauer at Cornell University. It has over 20 million students and educators with hundreds of knowledgeable tutors on call round-the-clock.
Its features include:
- AI assistant curates relevant study material information.
- Dedicated instructor support is available around the clock.
- Global network of vetted subject-matter experts.
Gradescope was designed to streamline the grading process for instructors and provide faster feedback to students it offers tools for grading written exams, homework assignments, and auto-grading submitted code.
Founded in 2014 by Arjun Singh and Sergey Karayev. It has graded over 700 million questions with over 10k downloads on Play Store over 140k instructors and 3.2 million student users.
Features of Gradescope:
- AI-assisted and manual question grouping
- Student-specific time extensions
- AI-assisted grading
- Increased efficiency and fairness
Nuance provides speech recognition software that can be used by both students and faculty.
Founded in 1992 by Ron Croen, the company is currently led by Mark Benjamin who is the Chief Executive Officer. The company’s Dragon Speech Recognition product can transcribe up to 160 words per minute, assisting students who struggle with writing or typing.
Here are some of the main features
- Accessibility features supporting verbal commands
- Voice to assess student work
- Dictate class work with 99% accuracy
Cognii develops AI-based products for kindergarten to higher education institutions. Its virtual learning assistant uses conversational technology to assist students in developing critical thinking skills and creating form open-format responses.
Dee Kanejiya is the founder and CEO of Cognii which was founded in 2010.
Features of Cognii
- Helps students form open responses
- Provides one-on-one tutoring
- Adaptive personalization for each student.
Exact Path is an educational tool offering personalized learning paths for students from kindergarten through grade twelve in math, reading, and language arts. It tailors lessons to individual needs, enhancing comprehension and progress and partners with 100+ countries worldwide to design, implement, and sustain the programs that deliver on this shared promise of learning acceleration for every student.
Edmentum Exact Path was recognized at the 2024 EdTech Awards for the best Adaptive Technology Solution
Its features include
- adaptive assessments
- interactive lessons, and real-time progress tracking
- ensuring targeted and effective learning experiences.
Century Tech utilizes cognitive neuroscience and data analytics to construct personalized learning plans for students. In turn, these personalized plans reduce work for instructors, freeing them up to focus on other areas.
It was founded in 2013 by Priya Lakhani OBE. The company’s current estimated annual revenue is $14.8M/year, with 51-200 employees.
Here are some of the main features:
- Accelerates learning and improves student engagement
- Reduces workload for teachers
- Actionable data insights
DreamBox Learning offers personalized math education, adapting to student proficiency. It enhances engagement with interactive lessons and real-time feedback, catering to individual learning styles.
It was founded in 2006 by Lou Gray and Ben Slivka.
Its features include
- Adaptive learning paths
- Gamified activities
- Data-driven insights for educators to monitor progress effectively
Knowji is designed for language learners, and it uses various methods and concepts to help students learn faster. Was founded in 2009 by Emmie and Nick Thomas
The AI teaching tool keeps track of every word’s development and can forecast when users are most likely to forget it. It accomplishes these goals by employing an algorithm for spaced repetition, which helps pupils learn more effectively over time.
Features of Knowji:
- Multiple learning modes
- Customizable and adaptable
- Images and example sentences
What you should know
It is important to note that emerging tools within the artificial intelligence space while appearing to bring ease and reduce workload, may present serious risks to integrity and accuracy.
There is a need to be deliberate in navigating the challenges of generative AI tools as they get more integrated into the educational sector.