Is AI coming for your job?

IS AI COMING FOR YOUR JOB?

Mark Gash thinks not.

The last 12 months have been pretty eventful, right?

AI, previously only mentioned in nerdy conversations about how Terminator’s Skynet would one day rise up to destroy humanity, decided 2023 was the year to turn science fiction into science fact. So far, its intentions have seemed fairly benign - it’s empowered lazy marketeers to pump out a month’s worth of ‘Top 5 things you need to know about SEO’ blogs in 10 minutes and written a million variations of school kids’ coursework on the Treaty of Versailles. So in terms of education - and by extension, e-learning - it’s definitely had an impact, but is it really the threat to our way of life that some people have been touting? Or is it here to help?

Around May last year, once the ChatGPT cat was out of the bag, there were sensationalist news stories about how pupils were using AI to cheat at every possible opportunity. Of course, they were - they’re kids. If I’d had ChatGPT when I was 16, I would have done the same instead of trying to peer over Rea Dickinson’s shoulder to copy her answers in History. Teenagers, and let’s face it, humans, will always find ways to do less work, and that isn’t always a bad thing. We’re a long way from living in a utopia where AI does all the grunt work whilst the whole of mankind sips Pina Coladas on a beach and sings Kumbaya, but surely that’s got to be on the cards somewhere down the line?

In the meantime, we need to find ways to ensure that AI is used responsibly rather than get whipped up into a frenzy that it’s going to steal our women (insert your own preferred gender here, this is an equal opportunities article) and our jobs.

So, with that in mind, let’s take some deep breaths, let go of our James Cameron-inspired fears and look at how AI is going to improve the e-learning experience for all.

Automation of mind-numbing tasks

Put your hand up if you like making assessments and marking them. Nobody? That’s what I thought.

Let AI assimilate all of the course information and resources, then set it the task of creating and grading quizzes, tracking student progress, and offering personalised feedback, based on your own knowledge and criteria of the subject. Sure, you can dip in and check that the AI’s work is up to your standards, but you’ll soon feel confident enough to just let it get on with things, freeing up your time to hone your instructional design craft and develop engaging content for your learners.

Personalising the learning experience

If you’re a teacher delivering courses, you might have a fairly good grip on the knowledge level of your individual students, allowing you to tweak your learning for each one. With an LMS, you can set different cohorts of people on different learning paths, but this still takes a degree of manual effort. If you’re a training manager at an organisation with hundreds or thousands of staff, tailoring learning based on your knowledge of individuals becomes a lot trickier, if not impossible. But what if AI could analyse unique learning data from individuals and design personalised learning and training pathways to suit their needs and interests? You still create the content using your knowledge, skills and expertise, but AI ensures that it’s delivered to the right people in a way that suits how they learn.

And talking of content creation...

You know how AI can re-write your angry, incoherent emails to clients into sounding calm and professional whilst still managing to get across the salient points? Imagine what it can do with your learning content, creating variations on the same subject, each designed to appeal to an individual. And we aren’t talking just text - AI will be able to use e-learning authoring tools to create engaging videos and unique activities for every learner you have. Incorporating gamification, virtual reality, and interactive technologies, AI gives you the tools to create training content that aligns with the interests of the learner, keeping them motivated and engaged and leaving them wanting more. However, this is just the beginning. As AI continues to evolve, we can expect even more innovative applications that will redefine how we learn and how we create learning content. Pretty soon, the only limit will be the breadth of your knowledge and your imagination.

So where’s the threat?

Ironically, if we all lose our jobs because of AI, it will be on us for not setting boundaries and managing it properly. AI is just code - we need to ensure it’s programmed correctly.

And not just the high-level development of software before it gets filtered down to our user level - we need to ensure that the content we feed it is on-point and how we deploy it within our organisations is fair and ethical.

It really goes without saying, but any AI must be unbiased and treat all learners equally. It must never discriminate based on race, gender, or other characteristics.

AI is only going to be able to create amazing, personalised learning if it has access to masses of data on individuals. Many people get twitchy about their data, and rightly so, meaning students deserve to know how AI is being utilised in their e-learning journey. Transparent communication about data collection and usage ensures trust between learners and those using AI to deliver training. Data protection has been rammed down our throats for a good few years now, and anybody in e-learning is well aware of its importance, as well as the consequences a data breach can bring. We just need to ensure that plays by the same data protection and privacy rules that we do.

So enough with the naysaying, running for the hills and hiding in caves - AI is here to stay. If you’re looking to deliver e-learning that pushes all the right buttons for individual learners, the future is bright. It’s time to forget your fears and shake hands with the Terminator.

Hasta la vista, baby.