Can Digital Technology Be The New Answer to an Old Problem?
These are challenging times for Higher Education. Decreasing student enrolment, increasingly squeezed finances, a cost-of-living crisis, maintaining the quality of educational provision, and the transition to a digital learning environment to list just a few. Asking the same questions, of the same individuals, will simply result in the same answers – and there has never been a more pressing need to involve new thinking.
One of the primary challenges of higher education is how to include those pupils (and academics) who have traditionally found it difficult if not impossible to access a university education. While significant progress has been made both across the sector but also within particular institutions, the university population is still far from being a mirror of the make-up of the UK, and this means that large parts of the population aren’t able to be part of the conversation, let alone dictate the topic.
Income has always been a barrier, made harder by the introduction of university fees and a bumpy economy, but it’s not the only one. Ethnicity, gender, social background, parental education, neurodiversity and disability – are all factors, and while HE has been making huge efforts to overcome some of these barriers, progress is slow, and at times, glacial.
And let’s not forget that the same factors that often exclude individuals from higher education apply equally to exclusion from higher paid work – noting that the latter may well be a direct outcome of the latter.
Two factors however are changing that and if adopted more widely, have the ability to transform it: Digitisation and AI.
Digital technology is democratizing access to education. There is the obvious reduction in the costs of attendance by enabling remote learning, which means pupils don’t need to factor in the costs or difficulty of living away from home. But there are other changes to: for example the ability to personalise learning, allowing students to study ‘on demand’ leveraging a non-intensive, modular approach to learning that can reduce pressure and stress. These same factors don’t just remove cost barriers, they mean universities can attract AND retain a far more diverse student population. Put simply, it makes the mental leap from “impossible” to “potentially” to “possible” far more manageable for those who might previously have dismissed the idea of attending university.
This is a global phenomenon – with cloud based learning platforms and virtual reality meaning that a high-class education can be accessed anywhere for a fraction of the cost.
AI (although arguably one of the aspects of digital technology) stands out from the others; its ability to remove barriers and also identify potential problems AND opportunities is exponential. At its most simple it can reduce the administrative burden freeing up recourses and staff time for activities that focus on students. Universities in the US are already using AI to provide 24/7 ‘digital tutors’ that identify gaps in learning and recommend additional development and reading. It’s not that far removed from Amazon’s personalised shopping: “You’ve studied this, you might want to learn about...”. However, this is just side show. These tools are ideal for supporting neurodivergent individuals, both in terms of simplifying communication and by offering flexibility in how new information is presented and consumed.
However, this is just side show. Without doubt the main event its ability to overturn human bias AND tailor provision to the individual.
AI is already being used to screen applications, mark work, and allocate resources without bias, based purely on information and not on gut feelings. It can also support learning – providing tools like speech recognition, screen reading, and digital prompters without extra cost for the university.
AI can also play a pivotal role in screening candidates – running part of the process via online or automated interviews. This removes the pressure of face to face or in person conversations, creating an experience that feels like those from gaming and digital environments, and can allow candidates to flourish who might otherwise have struggled.
One of the biggest challenges can be failure – and ironically success. Again, AI is already being piloted in the US to identify pupils who are failing, or are more at risk of failing, allowing the University to intervene early, and provide additional support and resources. It is equally good at identifying brilliance – spotting that a pupil has answered some aspects of the exam brilliantly and that therefore a strategic intervention from teaching staff, might transform that pupils’ prospects.
It isn’t all good news however – several red flags have been raised about the reliance of AI on existing data; decisions are only as good as the data provided, and this places a real onus on the institution to make sure that it’s record on data hygiene is beyond reproach.
AI also risks undoing some of the good work done over the last decade by institutions to widen the curriculum – to bring in other voices and thinking. Bias has long been demonstrated in digital tools and ChatGPT is no different: they reflect the thinking of their creators – currently that means they may be slanted towards “norms”. Universities have to educate pupils to spot this – rather than blindly rely on what ChatGPT throws up. That sid, critical thinking and analysis of sources has always been a crucial part of any academic education, so perhaps it is just recognising that this still applies in this new digital environment?
Digital technology, and AI very much at the forefront of that, can overcome barriers that HE institutions have struggled with for a generation or more. But only if we continue to treat them with the same critical faculty that has been applied to every other development in the sector – and ensure they remain a gift, and not a trap.
