SUCCESS STORY

Enhancing teaching and learning processes with AI at for the Institute of Technical Education

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hours of time savings per lecturer per year

The time spent on marking and administering assessments is taking a toll on the lecturers.

When an ITE senior lecturer was first introduced to Noodle Factory, she was looking to solve a specific problem: she and her colleagues were spending too much time administering and marking mock assessment papers, which were used to prep students for exams. 

Typically, they would administer open-ended quiz questions, collect students' responses, and manually grade these assessments. Once the grading is completed, the lecturers return students their grades and share feedback on their performance to ensure effective learning. 

With students' marks being so important,  the current process takes too much time. There's a need to shorten the turnaround time for lecturers to mark and provide prompt feedback, so students receive optimal learning. While lecturers are keen to cater more personalised learning for their students,their large class sizes of approximately 40 students per class make it impossible for lecturers to do so on their own.

Using AI to free up lecturers' time

With Walter, ITE lecturers could automate the time-consuming task of marking and tutoring.

Because Natural Language Processing algorithms are used, Walter can automatically grade open-ended questions by comparing the student responses against the lecturer’s set recommended answers. Traditionally, this was a very time-consuming activity when done manually by the lecturers. 

With more time savings, lecturers’ time and effort can be reinvested to students who require more support and tasks that require higher-order and emotional human support.

A reliable and efficient AI teaching assistant for lecturers

Based on the findings in a joint action research study by the institution, ITE lecturers found that AI Tutor Walter is highly effective for students’ formative learning and the instant grading of short-answer questions. 

Lecturers also found Walter to be a trustworthy, reliable and efficient AI teaching assistant that can provide relatively accurate marks and correction to students' work. 

Check out ITE's TV interview about Walter, our innovative AI teaching assistant, exclusively on Channel 8

Our findings revealed that in general, lecturers and students were open to adopting AI for teaching and learning purposes, in particular, for the purpose of formative learning, in personalised tutoring and immediate marking of short-answer questions

Excerpt from Action Research Study
Published by School of Business and Services, ITE College Central

Personalising and tailoring every student's learning with AI

Optimal and personalised learning to every student: 

Walter is an AI learning system that can adapt itself based on a student's subject competencies and allow students to advance through modules at various learning paces.

When learning with Walter, the AI tutor also follows up by giving instant feedback to ensure every student achieves optimal learning.

Optimised student-lecturer interaction: 

With AI tutor Walter, students can send their answers for review anytime for their lecturers' review. When the request for review is sent, Walter proactively reaches out to lecturers and lecturers can send custom follow-up prompts to students. 

AI for Quality Education

During the action research study, we found that: 

  • The AI tutor has enhanced the effectiveness of teaching and learning. In fact, 87% of ITE educators and students agree so! 

  • Students found the AI tutoring experience very engaging, with 84% of students finding AI tutor Walter useful and simple to use. 

We also found that educator productivity among lecturers increased.

  • Approximately 64% of lecturers experienced 50% to 75% time savings during the marking process. 

  • Time-savings from marking were ranked the most valuable benefit lecturers gained from the AI tutor as it helped with their work-life balance and enabled them to have more valuable interactions with students. 

In 2022, Noodle Factory and ITE signed a Memorandum of Understanding to mark the start of cooperation in the use of AI innovation for teaching and learning. ITE has also planned to expand its use of Noodle Factory's AI learning system for 4,000 of its enrolled students. 

School of Business & Services, Institute of Technical Education (ITE)

The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) is a post-secondary institution in Singapore devoted to providing technical and vocational education. Within its three Colleges, the School of Business & Services in ITE offers programs that equip students with the knowledge and skills needed for today's technological businesses. 

Subject(s): Business

Learning Audience: Vocational Education

Location: Singapore

Used AI for: AI Marker, AI Tutor

User Size: ~480 students