Did you miss the UBTech conference earlier this summer in Las Vegas? Not to fear! We captured every keynote and breakout session for attendees via Mediasite, and now, all those videos are available to you.
Keep checking back here on our blog in the coming days and weeks as we highlight some of our favorites. Today, we present to you a keynote about the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and higher education and how instructors can leverage it to enhance teaching and learning.
Senior Associate Dean for Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing Charles Isbell said: Yes, when people hear AI there’s the fear that it will take jobs away. But it’s also here to help. During his keynote, Isbell presented a case study about his college’s famous Online Master of Science in Computer Science course.
It’s offered in collaboration with Udacity and AT&T and is a completely online degree program for $6,600 ̶ it’s the same as the traditional program but considerably less expensive. The college wanted to make the program, which began in January 2014, accessible to anyone and attract more students who want to pursue computer science degrees.
The program went on to be a tremendous success, creating this virtual community of thousands of students all over the world that they need to support. AI has played a significant role.
“It turns out if you’re clever enough you can come up with ways to automate even answering essays and short answer questions. You apply well known AI techniques, well known machine learning techniques. You can actually understand and assess how students are growing and how they’re learning across your lessons,” Isbell said of applications like AI-based tutoring and assessment.
He continued: “What you’re able to do is use the students themselves as a way to check and understand each other, rather than having to hire a TA for every five or 10 students.”
Watch his keynote to learn more.
If you can’t wait another day to see more, here’s the complete UBTech 2018 Mediasite Showcase. https://ubtech.mediasite.com/mediasite/Showcase/ubtech18. You’ll need to log in to view the content, but it’s free.