Virtual Assistant: A Great Force Multiplier for Students

The increasing use of technology is changing the way students learn and absorb information. Conversational tools are improving student interaction and collaboration and are acting as a game-changer in the edtech world.

FREMONT, CA: What will education and learning look like in ten years from now? Answering this question may seem difficult. In the coming years, the way students learn might not change, but the tools learners use definitely will. Students learning by engaging with experts, would see a drastic influence of technology as a great force multiplier. Rather than a teacher being the only help in and outside the classroom, students have started calling technology for assistance. Today, education doesn't stop inside the classroom because students have access to teachers and resources through the web at any time. With technology, learners can be digitally tutored any time, with online collaboration.

Technology is enabling new ways of living along with bringing newly challenged to educational institutions. Among various techniques, the use of an artificial intelligence-driven virtual assistant for student support provides an efficient tool for learning. The incorporation of virtual agents or chatbots offers support whenever the student needs it without losing the warmth and efficiency that they expect. It sounds nice! Doesn't it? Imagine a virtual assistant that wakes up a student up for class and guides to the classroom, notifies to upcoming examinations, schedules study times, and automatically inserts classes and events into the smartphone calendar.

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Most of the virtual assistants available in the market include standard features including campus applications, events, maps, tours, directory, and so on, making it beyond just being an information tool. Designed with student engagement in mind, virtual assistants allow the student to interact fruitfully with information, pulling classes into students' calendars, and even connecting students with peers to study groups. Yes, technology is welcoming students to the next generation of learning, with the virtual personal assistant.

• Teaching Assistance

A popular application of artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant is intelligent tutoring systems. It can provide a personalized learning environment to the students based on their responses and how they go through the learning content. Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence is used to teach the students by transforming a lecture in a series of messages that resembles a standardized chat conversation. The bot can also continuously assess the level of understanding of the student and provide with the next part of the lecture accordingly. Students are often requesting on the internet for assistance in doing their assignments or other learning activities. There are persons available online to assist them in completing their tasks.

Nowadays, virtual assistants are being used to do this, thereby simplifying the hectic schedule for both students and teachers. These virtual platforms can provide personalized feedback to the students and analyze their learning needs and recommend learning content accordingly. There are specific chatbots available in the market that presents a particular topic to students in the form of text, images videos, or a combination of all of these. After learning a specific topic, students can take quizzes and submit the results to their teachers. This allows educators to monitor the students' performance too easily. 

• Student Engagement

The student community is well accustomed to technological advancements of the digital age. They are fluent with the idea of instant messaging platforms. If students want to communicate with each other, research on study topics, or find help, they can turn to virtual assistants for assistance. This is enhancing the learning process and engagement of students in a subject. Teachers and students are using instant messaging to connect to the classroom, departments, and various other learning activities. This will make it easy for students to find information about their assignments, projects, due dates, or any other important events. Tech innovators have already developed a chatbot that helps students, school groups, and teachers by providing them a secure platform to communicate. The students are using it to ask questions from the class, and teachers are using it to communicate with students and answer their doubts.

• Feedbacks

For students, it is essential to improve the learning process. Performance feedback given by virtual assistants is an opportunity for students to identify gaps in their learning and do better. It also helps to identify areas where they need to make extra efforts.  With virtual assistant platforms, teachers can also provide feedback to the students, along with assigning assignments, assessments, and evaluation tests. This process is becoming more engaging with chatbots. Artificial intelligence-driven assistant interacts with students and asks questions like on course improvement, and what is working well and what is not. This allows students to explain themselves without inhibition. Once the bot analyzes these feedbacks, it compiles the points that are mentioned by most students and send it to teachers. Thus performance feedback becomes more accurate and efficient.

• Instant Source of Help

Each year a considerable number of students visit the college website or administration to inquire about the admission process, scholarships or course fees. Most of these queries are repetitive, and virtual assistants can come to assistance here. It is effortless to convert this time-consuming process of replying to each inquiry into an automatic one. This can save the time of the students and reduce the burden for institutions. Above all, the students will not have to wait in long queues for getting what they want, instead, they can participate in instant chat with virtual assistants.

• Better Support

Student support is one key aspect of education. Educational institutions are paying attention to this aspect and are providing complete information to students and communicating with them on time. Virtual assistants can offer immense value here by helping the students from the admission process to delivering all kinds of assistance in the course of learning. Given that, virtual assistants are acting as campus guides and helping students in all learning activities, including scholarships, hostel facilities, library to list a few.  Virtual assistants are also supporting would-be college students by providing personalized, text-message based outreach and guidance for each task they need in the new campus.

The inclusion of virtual assistance is also covering necessities that go beyond academic ones. Think about bullying, either physical or virtual, or career orientation. A virtual assistant can help to hinder the bullying. It has its value in career orientation too as it can advise about to the students who are about to finish studies and want to pursue higher studies or find job opportunities. Indeed, learners are not the only potential beneficiaries of the possibilities of virtual assistants.

Today's is a generation who never stop. Technology has enabled the students to get everything instantly at their fingertips. Be it sending a message, searching a place, or finding online assignment help, everything is done with just a few clicks. In the coming years, the advanced technologies, including virtual assistants, might play more prominent roles at colleges and universities. Hence, educational institutions also need to speed up their student communication process to keep track of the fast-paced student community. As a result, immense growth of the education sector, beneficiary interactions between the students and the teachers and a superior classroom environment is what is no more fictional. 

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