When I worked in learning and training in the corporate world, the focus was on blended learning – the combination of the use of face to face and online learning, including learning management systems, to maximise impact on knowledge, skills and capabilities.
The tutoring arena for independent tutors like myself has evolved with online classroom providers such as Pencil Spaces, Classin and Lessonspace and my plan to move to new online classrooms was delayed with my visit on the first TTA Trade Mission to China last September, and I am excited to research and update my online classroom solution this summer, as a number of my friends and colleagues have already done. This includes Artificial Intelligence (AI) opportunities to improve efficiency and increase quality, beyond my current use of ChatGPT, what I see as blended tutoring. I first started tutoring online back in 2012 when the broadband infrastructure was upgraded in my area and online as part of the blend was really pushed forward with the Pandemic albeit I was already fully online prior to that.
A recent view on the impact of AI was from an excellent demonstration by Jim Riley of tutor2u showcasing tutor2u’s Examiner AI. and I strongly believe this will form part of blended tutoring going forward.
This is in testing phase at the moment. Automation marks the student questions, both providing a score and feedback. No marking system will be perfect, though having said that Examiner AI appears to have been rigorously programmed and is being adapted, with a full focus on comparing AI with very experienced senior tutor2u examiner marking and the initial results seem very positive with a strong degree of accuracy. Having worked on large scale multi-million pound IT projects from a learning perspective myself, whilst I am not technical, I can sense the significant amount of technology, learning assessment criterion and huge number of senior examiner person hours effort that has gone into this, and Jim provided a flavour of this in answer to my question.
I am starting to use tutor2u’s Examiner AI with students, initially business though also economics when available. During the testing and tweaking process there will always be times when updates are being done and so I await to use this for A-level Economics Edexcel Syllabus A and AQA. I have started using this for Business – both A-level Edexcel and AQA are developed. I scored an Edexcel a-level business 20 marked essay at level 4  16/20. AI scored it at 18. The AI feedback was overall good, with the odd area that could have been further explored. When I mention blended tutoring whilst I am sure there will always be challenges with assessment (whether AI or human), for me examiner AI is one system that I will use and promote with my students as part of blended tutoring to further enhance my services.
Examiner AI subjects covered are Business, Economics, Geography, History, Law, Politics, Psychology, Sociology and Health & Social Care – you’ll need to register and check what questions are being released for testing.
Its simple to use:
a) Input your question
b) As required input / attach the case study
c) Input/Copy in the student answer and select mark
d) You receive the mark back and feedback within approx 30 seconds (it depends ..)
Dependent on the question and tutor2u firming up their pricing, it may cost somewhere in the region of 3pence per answer in the future.
All part of blended tutoring, as we tutors look for technology to enhance our services.
Interestingly the corporate training industry has evolved with the rise of online, and adapted to provide even better client services, Escalla being a great example of this. I am sure tutoring will do the same – blended tutoring …..