Key points:
- The Virtual TA facilitates self-paced learning for students
- Redefining accessible, AI-powered global higher education
- When adopting AI, colleges shouldn’t override human connections
- For more news on AI and learning, visit eCN’s AI in Education hub
During the ASU-GSV Summit, Google Public Sector and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan (Michigan Ross) announced the launch of an advanced Virtual Teaching Assistant (TA) pilot program–featuring an AI agent built with Google AI technologies–designed to transform higher education learning for students and empower educators with valuable insights.
The agentic AI Virtual TA, developed by Google Public Sector and Michigan Ross, is powered by Google’s Gemini, providing students with 24/7 access to support and self-directed learning.
Serving as a sophisticated AI learning assistant, the Virtual TA can be customized by educators to incorporate nuances of specific curricula. The Virtual TA facilitates self-paced learning for students, provides on-demand explanations of complex course concepts, and guides them through problem-solving, acting as a practice partner. The agent is designed to foster critical thinking by never giving away answers, ensuring students actively work towards solutions.
“As a critical partner to leading education institutions, Google Public Sector is proud to pioneer this personalized learning approach to improve educational delivery, provide early identification for intervention, and help educators solve some of their most pressing challenges,” said Chris Hein, Field Chief Technology Officer, Google Public Sector. “The Virtual TA is a prime example of how a customizable, Gemini-powered solution can advance the future of learning and help train the next generation workforce.”
The Virtual TA has been piloted in a range of courses at Michigan Ross and other institutions, including financial technology, operations strategy, operations analytics and statistics. Early results of the pilot program indicate greater student engagement and deeper insights into the learning patterns of students for instructors. In fact, the Virtual TA provides real-time analytics on student engagement, summaries of commonly asked questions, feedback on the AI agent’s effectiveness, and more.
“By partnering with Google Public Sector, we’re integrating today’s leading technology to improve the educational experience for our students,” said Jun Li, Michigan Ross Professor of Technology and Operations. “We’ve seen early indications of success in leveraging the AI-powered Virtual TA and look forward to further using this tool to advance learning.”
Michigan Ross will incorporate insights from the Virtual TA pilot into a research study across a wide network of leading higher education institutions. The study will involve approximately 9,000 students, 72 courses, and 26 schools, and will develop guidelines on optimally deploying the technology in diverse educational settings. This rollout will be one of the largest deployments of an AI agent for the education sector – with a goal of better understanding how colleges and universities can adopt AI for learning.
Learn more about how Michigan Ross is advancing AI research to improve student learning and provide business professionals with the skills needed to use AI effectively in their jobs here. More information on how Google Cloud’s AI technology is accelerating digital transformation for government agencies and educational institutions is available here.
This press release originally appeared online.
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