ChatGPT touched 100 million users two months after its launch to become the fastest-growing consumer internet application ever used. It took nine months for TikTok and two years for Instagram to reach this figure. This OpenAI was made available to the public in November 2022, and since then, through simple text prompts, it has been able to generate job applications, articles, essays, poetry, jokes, you name it!

There was a time when the education system was restricted to curriculum books and the library. As the years went by, computers entered the loop, and eventually, the internet created waves in the world of education. Soon enough, access to information became easier for students from all over the world.

Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a force to reckon with as it helps bridge the gap between teaching and learning. AI in education refers to using technology-enhanced teaching approaches that mimic human perception and decision-making to complete a task. However, the use of AI in education is not only meant to offload administrative tasks and save time, it’s mainly meant to improve student learning.

In all of this, what are the prospects held by AI in education for international students? In this blog, we’ll explore the potential impact AI has on international students, its benefits and challenges, and how they can leverage its usefulness while studying abroad. 

The Potential Impact of AI Education on International Students

When international students travel to study abroad in the hope of a promising future, they are often met with a certain set of challenges. These could represent their problems faced with language barriers and acclimatising to cultural differences. At this point, AI helps bridge this gap for international students.

Furthermore, AI can help enhance various other aspects of educational administration, learning processes, teaching, and the development of curriculum. It can revolutionise the learning experience by including applications designed for personalised experiences, predictive analysis, adaptive testing, and even chatbots.

However, while AI is changing how education is perceived and delivered to students, it cannot entirely replace human educators. It can provide valuable support and guidance, but universities will have to find a way to balance the use of AI while working on enhancing the way education is delivered to their students. Therefore, let’s further explore the benefits and challenges of AI and its use in education. 

AI’s Application in Education for International Students

“I see AI and Machine Learning as augmenting human cognition a la Douglas Engelbart. There will be abuses and bugs, some harmful, so we need to be thoughtful about how these technologies are implemented and used, but, on the whole, I see these as constructive.”

~ Vint Cerf, Internet Hall of Fame Member Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google

The application of AI in schools and colleges can significantly impact the way students learn. International students can truly benefit from the use of AI in the educational institute they choose to study abroad. Remember that AI education can not only help students learn but also improve the way teachers teach. 

Benefits of AI education for internationally mobile students:

• Teachers can analyse past performance and identify learning gaps that usually go undetected.
• Teachers can adapt content to address any learning gaps experienced by the student.
• Students can expect their queries answered and resolved within seconds rather than waiting for a human response.
• Students can get feedback and reviews with the help of AI to analyse whether they’ve fully grasped their subjects.
• AI provides the opportunity to learn through Gamification, Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR).
• Neurodiverse students struggling with conventional settings may benefit from AI-driven learning methods.
• Excluding students from the use of AI education can risk losing valuable insights and ideas. Using AI can help them develop creative problem-solving and innovative solutions.

Challenges of AI education for internationally mobile students:

• Developed countries lack proper AI facilities and infrastructure in their universities, colleges, and schools. This means they lack the availability of modern electrical equipment, ICT hardware, and other relevant necessities. As more and more educational institutes adopt AI for imparting education to their students, effective public policies should be created on this front. There is also a need for Governments to invest in building AI centres for research purposes, acquiring AI scholarships, and nurturing AI experts.
• The Government should also provide a quality and comprehensive data system to develop educational system management. In this process, educational institutions can produce AI-predictive and machine-learning possibilities to manage data collection systems.
• For international students to benefit from AI-driven education, teachers and professors need empowerment with AI training. Therefore, institutes have to work towards acquiring inventive management skills to oversee and conduct human and AI resources.
• Many institutes hesitate to adopt AI education as a means to help students learn. Their main concern is that this powerful functionality can also result in creating new data privacy and security risks. They are afraid that AI may automatically output incorrect or inappropriate information, have unwanted biases, and take credit through the representation of someone else’s work. Therefore, while adopting AI practices for education has become the next step forward, institutes would require a transparent data system to protect individual data, maintain the privacy of user’s data, and secure their rightful ownership.

How can students leverage the use of AI while studying abroad?

Professor Alex Steel, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Education & Student Experience, and Professor in the Law Faculty, at UNSW, talked about what students are looking for through AI.

“What AI will do to knowledge… We really don’t know which of these sorts of outcomes; is it good, is it bad, is it something that will just go away? So, we’re right in the middle of that at the moment. And it’s messy so the first question really, I think is to say – Well, what is it that our students want to know because we’ve got lots of ideas but what do they really want to know?”

This is what Professor Steel summarised in terms of what students want to know regarding the use of AI for educational purposes.

• Are students allowed to use AI? They don’t want to cheat but are panicking about what is allowed and what is not allowed through the use of AI.
• How can they use AI by the time they graduate and in their career?

Professor Steel further adds on to say that we should all be encouraged to use AI but with a certain amount of caution.

So, the use of AI is seen as a possibility for learning, but how can international students use it while studying abroad? Let’s discover a few essential ways to do so:

• Learn different ways to use AI: AI opens doors to engaging ways of learning. These include ChatGPT, Bard, Midjourney, AR, VR, Gamification, etc. Each tool has a certain set of abilities that students can use to their benefit. However, while these tools are offered as resources, one must limit themselves to using them for information and not for doing work on their behalf.

For instance, a potential international student using open AI to formulate and draft an essay for college admission abroad is deemed unethical. Instead, the AI tool can be used to help the aspiring candidate develop ideas to write their essay instead of writing the essay entirely.

Christopher Hathaway from Advantage Ivy Tutoring says, “These bots are just systematically looking for the next best word that fits into a sequence statistically. Add to that the fact that they’re effectively pulling from the same material repeatedly, and so that really impacts authenticity and originality.” Hathaway also pointed out that applications submitted by non-native speakers are finding it difficult because their admission essays are being flagged as AI-written. 

Open AI Platforms (Chat GPT / Bard):

Internationally mobile students can use these open AI tools for the following purposes but with a pinch of salt:

o   Language practice and translation as students engage in conversation with tools like Bard and ChatGPT.

o   Concept clarification

o   Research Assistance and Brainstorming Ideas

o   Test Preparation and Writing Support 

Gamification:

In the context of Gamification, it provides an engaging manner for students to learn.

For instance, in a study published in February this year, accounting students were a given game-based learning method to which many of them had the following to say:

o   “Mobile games can help you learn to use without being limited by a computer”

o   “You can discuss with your friends and classmates at any time, without the limitation of use time, you can start learning and use at any time when you are free”

o   “It’s very interesting, I can also fight monsters when I study accounting, I’m interested”

The teacher who designed the game said, “Some students install the game on different mobile phones and increase their own practice, hoping to break the level perfectly, which makes me very happy and reflects the learning effect of the game.” 

AR and VR:

Similarly, AR and VR offer a set of advantages for students to learn effectively. For international students who need to learn a new language as they pursue studying abroad, many universities are adopting the use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).

For instance, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia uses AR/VR in a set of programs for their students. Students in the Computer Science study program can select research areas including virtual and augmented Environments, Robotics and Perception, AI and Machine Learning, Ubicomp and wearable Computing, and Geometry, Graphics, and Animation.

• Learn to use strong critical thinking skills: Possessing robust critical thinking skills can help you ask the right questions and develop the right sense of curiosity while leveraging the use of AI.

For instance, always double-check new information with caution, like checking the source, relevance, authenticity, and date of the information. Be open to considering more than one point of view, keeping personal opinions and biases aside. Be an active listener to get a clearer picture of diverse perspectives on the same information that you are learning. Question your biases, preferences, and beliefs. Try and see if you can gather more information on your subject. Practising these tactics can help you develop the ability to think from a critical standpoint, and thereby, develop a stronger knowledge base for yourself as an international student.

• Be open to new experiences of learning: Don’t be afraid to mess up while you figure out new approaches to learning something interesting. Don’t be afraid to ask more questions if it means to quench your doubts.

In conclusion, AI may not only promise a future for students but for educationists as well. Teachers can have more time to focus on areas with students that AI cannot address efficiently. It may markedly reduce the cost of education for international students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. It is also important to note that AI will advance and complement teaching methodologies.

FAQs

•   Can AI be used to improve the educational system?

Indeed, AI is not integrated in several ways to not only improve the education system but also complement new and improved teaching methodologies. 

•   What are the dos and don’ts of using AI for my education?

Dos:

o   Make sure you understand your objectives for using an AI tool while studying.

o   Initially, use AI on a small scale to gain more confidence before scaling its use in every subject or course.

o   You may use AI to help generate ideas, after which you can pick from there and scale it on your own merit.

o   You can use an Open AI tool to help devise a study aid for you.

Don’ts:

o   Be sure not to completely rely on AI to do everything for you. For instance, using AI to complete your essays, assignments, and other critical tasks. This is an unethical practice and should be avoided at all costs by any student.

o   Do not completely rule out the human experience of learning, which means continue to use books and libraries, and seek the help of your professors.

o   Do not expect AI to give you all answers authentically. After all, it is a platform that learns as information is fed to it, which means you may receive information limited to whatever the AI tool has learned so far. 

• Will the university where I travel to study abroad use AI?

This depends on the university you apply to and get accepted. You may look towards Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of California in Berkeley, and many more globally renowned educational institutes in other countries. Reach out to our Academic Counsellors to assist you in finding a suitable study-abroad destination and university for you.