#highed

“If you think about online courses where there may be hundreds of students, it’s currently very difficult for a professor or instructor to maybe get a good grasp on how students not only are performing, but are feeling about the material…as they’re lecturing or a video’s playing,” she said.

“Virtual avatars and chatbots…have the ability to assess that on an individual level, and if the student seems stuck then maybe you can replay part of the video. Or if a student seems bored, it can indicate to the instructor that it’s time to move on to new material.

“Adaptive learning leverages basic AI algorithms to personalise learning and deliver content that students need. They’re learning about students as students learn, which is helpful in informing educators and providing them with datasets to analyse and understand the needs of individuals and their classes as a whole. The possibilities are endless.”

Meanwhile, the next generation of learning management systems (LMS) – also referred to as VLEs – was a topic “entirely new to the Horizon project”, according to Ms Adams Becker.

LMS is a category of software and web applications enabling the online delivery of course materials as well as the tracking and reporting of student participation.

Although they have been in use in higher education for some time to manage and administer online and blended courses – and as a portal for students to access syllabuses, submit assignments or check grades – some experts believe that they are “limited in capacity” and “too narrowly focused on the administration of learning rather than the learning itself”, the report notes.

“Next-generation LMS refers to the development of more flexible spaces that support personalisation, meet universal design standards, and play a larger role in formative learning assessment,” the report states.

Ms Adams Becker said that the technology would enable educational leaders at universities to “unbundle” all the components of the learning experience and allow them to repurpose content and educational apps in “unique and compelling ways”.