“Julian”, designed by Walden University, is an AI tool that revolutionizes the classroom experience.
What can Julian do?
Julian contains multiple features that make it compelling: chat functionality, paraphrase activities, and more. As the students complete questions generated by a state-of-the-art technology called BERT, they receive instant feedback on where they can improve. Another interesting aspect of Julian is its ability to formulate knowledge notes, improving consolidation of syllabus content by acting as reference material.
How has it been used?
Already, Julian has been tested on early childhood studies and sociology students. This was intentional — to show how AI is not limited to subjective fields such as math but can also be integrated into interpretation-based courses. According to the students, Julian has streamlined the learning process by strengthening and building upon their foundation. It has also been found that the efficacy of each feature is dependent on the stage of the course. For instance, the AI notes were significantly more beneficial at the beginning of the term.
From here, researchers are continuing to enhance the AI and hope to increase the testing group size next time, in order to gain more feedback.
Why is this useful?
Technologies like Julian are especially integral amid the pandemic, where teachers must adapt to online teaching. With this in mind, AI tutors may help pinpoint how teachers can adapt their teaching styles to better suit their students’ needs. All the while, the chatbot functionality of AI-tutors creates an environment where students are comfortable making mistakes, thereby fostering resilience along the way.
With Julian, students will find greater joy in learning, whilst becoming creative and critical thinkers who are ready to succeed in the real world.
Image Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxd9Pc1JpzQ
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Written by Amanda Y