According to the news release, educators will be able to tailor virtual TAs to their curricula. For students, virtual TAs will explain course concepts, guide them through problems and serve as a study buddy. The TAs are trained to foster critical thinking and not give answers away.
“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,” Chris Hein, field chief technology officer at Google Public Sector, said in a public statement.
The news release said educators receive anonymized analytics on students’ interactions with the virtual TAs in real time, including commonly asked questions and feedback on the agent’s effectiveness. After piloting the TA across a variety of courses, including statistics, financial technology and operations strategy, the team found students were more engaged, and instructors gathered deeper insights into students’ learning patterns.
UM’s pilot program will contribute to a research study involving 9,000 students across 26 schools. The study aims to help colleges and universities understand how virtual TAs can be useful and develop guidelines on deploying them in diverse educational settings.
