No abstract

The global pandemic has caused much disruption to higher education, but especially that of student-teacher relations as students and teachers struggle to adapt to emergency remote teaching. As the pandemic restrictions ease globally, students and teachers see an opportunity to reconnect. But the development of artificial intelligence in education (AIed) is perceived as a potential disruption to student-teacher relationship. Hence, teachers have understandably viewed AIed with suspicion and with a sense of inevitability. However, teachers should not treat AIed as ‘the enemy’. Working collaboratively with AIed could enhance student-teacher reconnection efforts, and by recognizing where AIed should take the lead and where the human teacher should take the lead in building that relationship, the fear that AIed would disrupt student-teacher relations can be dispelled.

With the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), much has been made of the use of AI in education. Central to that is the idea of an Automated Response System (ARS). Current adoption of ARS’s in education has been mainly in the realm of administrative tasks but is likely to move into the support of teaching. ARS can be used as a supplement for teaching as it provides instant feedback, and 24/7 support. Having a highly accessible, 24/7 ARS can help relieve some of the burdens placed on teachers, especially in a post COVID-19 environment, where teachers expect work to intensify, rather than simplify. In this paper we present a work-in-progress that proposes what features an ARS for education should have, how these would be useful and how these features help teachers assist students meet their learning outcomes in a holistic manner.