How Pearson's AI assistant can help teachers save time

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a factor in education, from ChatGPT’s college-specific large language model (LLM) to new generative AI-powered writing coaches. Apple and Google offer AI training resources for students; Georgia Tech even has an Nvidia AI supercomputer students can use. 

However, educators themselves haven’t picked up the tech as quickly as their students have — something textbook publisher Pearson hopes to change. 

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On Thursday, Pearson released an AI assistant for instructors to help them create personalized assignments for their students and save time prepping course materials. The instructor tool will be released this August in Pearson’s MyLab and Mastering teaching and learning platforms, which enable instructors to design courses, assign homework, and track their students’ progress.

As Chris Hess, Pearson’s director of AI product management, demonstrated to ZDNET, a math teacher could ask the AI tool to create an assignment with 10 easy and medium-difficulty questions. Pulling from a chapter of a Sullivan algebra textbook, the tool sorts through the section’s 429 questions and suggests the optimal 10. 

The process takes a minute or two — Hess said Pearson is working on latency — after which the instructor can ask the tool to adjust the difficulty, replace questions, or save the assignment with those selections. 

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Hess explained that rather than searching through hundreds of questions manually, instructors using the tool can get back time to prep lectures or complete other deeper work. With continued use, the AI tool will also personalize responses to an educator’s preferences, making course management more efficient. 

“You can imagine longer-term how this could evolve into something even more special,” said Hess, who is also a former biology professor. “Maybe we suggest specific items to add based [on] how students performed on the previous assignment,” he explained. Another possible development could let teachers ask the tool to copy and update a course from last year and make it adhere to their upcoming lecture dates. 

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“As student usage of generative AI surges in higher education, many instructors report lacking an understanding of how AI can support their teaching,” the company stated in the release, noting the gap between student and instructor implementation.

In the release, Pearson cited a survey of 2,654 US college instructors that found “38% felt little to no confidence in their ability to incorporate generative AI into their instructional practices,” although 36% said using gen AI to create course materials would be helpful. Pearson’s own research confirmed more students than teachers are currently using AI “to help them study more efficiently and get good grades,” according to the release. 

Similarly to many AI tools, the goal of Pearson’s assistant is to reduce administrative workload and create more time for the elements of teaching that can’t be automated, like working directly with students or giving more attention to specific topics as needed. Other studies have also found that educators are warming to the idea that genAI can offload some of their manual tasks. Considering how many challenges teachers have faced in the last few years, the tool could be a welcome help. 

Pearson emphasized its commitment to deploying AI responsibly in educational environments. “Pearson’s application of generative AI is backed by learning scientists, vetted by subject matter experts, and based on content from Pearson’s library of higher education materials,” the company stated in the release. 

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Pearson started introducing gen AI study tools for students last year, including for the company’s eTextbooks “to provide personalized step-by-step guidance, content summarization, and explanations for challenging concepts,” the release explains. These tools will also be available for 50 of Pearson’s titles this upcoming fall semester.