The hype around artificial intelligence has been considerable, with scarcely a single industry spared from its disruptive forces. For many years education has largely been oblivious to the new technologies that have entered the mainstream in other areas of life, but a new paper from Microsoft and IDC argues that it cannot escape the grasps of AI.

The paper was the result of a study of several hundred universities across the United States, and it found that just 17.5% of them are currently using AI at all.  Despite this relatively poor adoption to date, nearly all said they think AI will be vital to the competitiveness of their institution in the coming years.

The universities are largely targeting increased efficiencies and better student engagement in their application of AI, with an overall desire to make learning more accessible and inclusive as a result.

The barriers to adoption to date are numerous, but the institutions cite a lack of skills and the cost of solutions as the biggest. A lack of clear data strategy was also cited as a major reason as to why so few institutions had done anything meaningful with AI thus far.

Digital transformation

The paper follows recent research from the University of Missouri, which highlights some of the ways in which higher education is being affected by modern technology.

The paper found that often, the new technologies simply replicate pre-existing methods, which leave students as consumers of information.  The researchers believe activity-based learning, rather than lecture-based, would enhance student creativity and allow students to utilize the technology to develop their own ideas.

The researchers examined the use of mobile technology in classrooms across Europe.  The analysis found that the creativity of students was most enhanced when they used the technology in group settings to devise novel ideas or products.  For instance, the paper cites an example of students using an app to learn about the Berlin Wall via a virtual interface as a means of providing a richer immersion into the topic.

“This research is useful for professors to rethink how they design their existing courses,” the researchers explain. “We need to shift away from purely lecture-based learning where students are just consumers of information toward a more meaningful learning approach with technology where students are able to come up with creative and novel solutions in a team setting.”