AI & Education: A Year in Review
The top five use cases & most popular tools among educators at the end of 2023 - the year than Gen AI shook-up education
Almost a year after Generative AI came onto the scene, more and more educators are using AI in their day to day work.
This week I ask: after a tumultuous year of existential questions about if and how we, as educators, should use AI, what’s the current state of play? What are the most common use cases among educators, and how has AI changed how we work (if at all)?
To answer these questions I’ve surveyed hundreds of educators - here’s a summary of the results.
Use Case #1: Content Creation
By far the most common use case for generative AI is using it to generate course material, text, images, videos, images, voiceovers, video/audio production, etc.
The most popular tools for content among educators include:
ChatGPT 4: New multimodal features are used for drafting scripts and using them as the basis for content creation.
Dall-e: Used for image generation, particularly in creating visual content for self-paced lessons and course materials.
WellSaid Labs: Used for creating text-to-speech voiceovers, particularly for training videos and audio content.
Synthesia & Colossyan: Tools for video creation, helping in the production of educational videos and course content.
Use Case #2: Brainstorming & Ideation
Many educators use AI daily as a sidekick to help them to generate creative ideas, seek new perspectives and structure their thoughts. This helps educators to shake-up their practice and develop innovative learning approaches and creative solutions for how to teach the subject in a way that’s both engaging and effective.
The most popular brainstorming & ideation tools among educators:
ChatGPT 3.5 & 4: Used for brainstorming & providing feedback on ideas.
Claude: Used for providing feedback on existing content & session plans.
Download a PDF version of the report here.
Use Case #3: Research & Analysis
In the last three months especially, more and more educators are using AI to review and iterate their classes.
They do this by inputting existing qualitative and qualitative data (e.g. survey feedback; LMS data) and working with AI to both analyse it and implement data-informed improvements.
The most popular research & analysis tools among educators include:
ChatGPT, Bing & Bard: All of these AI tools are used to analyse both qualitative and quantitative data such as survey feedback and LMS data.
Use Case #4: Writing & Communicating
Many educators use AI daily to make them both more efficient and effective at writing & communicating. Common use cases include co-creating scripts and lesson plans, using AI to mimic their own or someone else’s writing style and - of course - translation of course materials.
The most popular writing tools among educators include:
ChatGPT, Claude & Bing: for writing from scratch or editing notes.
SmartCat: for translations.
Use Case #5: Task Automation
Another common use case for AI in education is the automation of repetitive tasks, like note-taking & summarising. Many educators, for example, are using AI to record learner feedback sessions and classes and using AI to summarise and theme data and suggest improvements.
The most popular task automation tools among educators include:
ChatGPT: for basic tasks like text summarisation.
Fathom: for recording, transcribing and analysis classes and/or learner interviews to streamline the analysis process.
What Can’t AI Do?
Of course, AI has its limitations. But what are they? Often answers to this question are incredibly high level and vague, so I also asked educators: what have you found challenging while working with AI over the last year? Here are the two most common answers:
Structured Prompting (and Patience) is Key
“Working well with AI is hard. It’s a steep learning curve and you need to dedicate a lot of time to experimenting with good prompting to get it right.” Check out my post on structured prompting for educators!
Understand AI’s Limitations
“AI is great for streamlining functional parts of the educator’s role. However, some parts of my job take me considerably longer if I work with AI. For example, even with structured prompting it’s not great at writing objectives, suggesting activities etc. Working with AI on tasks like this I get a lower quality output than I do working solo.”
TLDR: AI needs you!
I'd love to know if and how you're using AI. Join the related conversation on LinkedIn here.
Happy designing and happy holidays,
Phil 👋
PS: Interested in AI? Why not start the year by honing your AI skills and getting ahead of the curve by applying for a place on my bootcamp and/or signing up for my Learning Futures newsletter?
PPS: You can download and share a PDF version of this research here.