Future Of Emotion AI In The Education Sector

The on-going Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted sectors across the globe, and one of the worst-hit is education. Overnight, all educational institutes were compelled to shift to a completely virtual mode of learning, which was only a minor part of classroom learning until March. While an increasing number of EdTech firms are offering online learning solutions to students, the challenge remains in acknowledging and responding to the emotional nuances of students in a similar manner to that of face-to-face interaction.

The challenge

The present online mode of imparting education finds both teachers and students struggling to achieve the expected outcome, mainly due to communication gaps. Where in-person learning provided a plethora of feedback which bolstered the exchange between teachers and students, it has now been replaced with uncertainty. The human faculties in recognising facial and auditory cues and extracting essential information had been largely overlooked until now.

This is where Emotion AI can be a real boon to the education system. With the ability to collect and analyse student response data, the physical student-faculty engagement can be successfully replaced. There is also much scope for developing curriculum that is targeted to improve the learning experience using the same technology.

Potential of Emotion AI

There is a huge potential for the Emotion AI in the education industry, especially given the rise of online education post-COVID-19. A Gartner research states that 37% of companies have implemented AI post #Covid19 outbreak, and now schools are also interested in the technology.

Understanding Emotion AI and application in the Education industry

Emotion AI has two components - Emotion Recognition and Emotional Response. Emotion recognition is the capability of machines to build a repository of emotion responses taken from different setups. Use of facial and voice recognition helps to signify the students’ response in the virtual classroom scenario on parameters such as focus areas, hesitation etc. On the other hand, an emotional response is the effective computing and application of the subfields of emotions that are recognized.

Emotion AI can play a significant role in boosting the ability of educators to detect, identify, measure and respond to varied student learning behaviours. The collated data can also provide teachers with meaningful feedback and prompt response to make alterations in teaching methodology. It can help in gauging the attention level of the student and deciphering which part of the content the student finds difficult to understand. Secondly, through voice recognition, we can identify stress signals in the student’s voice data which can alert the teachers to make reiterations and clarifications. These are some nuances that teachers are familiar within a traditional classroom environment and now, with everything moving to the virtual medium, Emotion AI can help increase the efficacy of the long-distance teaching process.

Powered with technologies such as eye-tracking, facial coding, and UX testing techniques in Emotion AI, educators can reform their content to maximise the student’s learning. AI-driven emotion analytics and algorithms can also help teachers gain insights into the emotional intelligence, learning abilities, and behavioural skills of each student. The technology can observe and process student’s learning patterns and help in customizing the curriculum accordingly.

The models of education have been outdated for quite some time, and COVID-19 has been a catalyst to this realisation. There is a rising demand for online teaching tools, remote learning platforms and creating smart digital environments for learners. Thinkers, Policymakers, and Educators in a post-COVID-19 world can bring real, long-lasting change by incorporating Emotion AI into their platforms. Emotion AI in education is an innovative concept, a powerful technique for learning that can be personalized for each student uniquely. 

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Ranjan Kumar

Guest Author The author is Founder and CEO, Entropik Tech

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