Recent advancements in artificial intelligence technology are integrating “smart” features into online textbooks, allowing students to interact with the material through personalized explanations, interactive elements, and built-in AI tutors.

Students now have access to new programs to enhance their learning, comprehension, and processing techniques.

The University of Iowa has policies in place about AI; they include having low, medium, and high-risk cases while using AI. The university also has a page located on the UI website giving examples of AI for students and staff to try and learn more about it.

VictoryXR is introducing innovative ways to integrate virtual reality and AI into learning. The company’s platforms allow students to interact in a synchronous yet virtual environment. Educators in the program are given training and 3D objects to teach a variety of subjects to their students.

“But now everybody has an instructor inside their computer, and they can receive this explanation in ways that are just very impressive and very accomplished,” Steve Grubbs, CEO of VictoryXR and UI alum, said.

Grubbs said jobs taught now will be needed drastically less in three to five years. Coding or practicing law are two jobs that will be heavily completed by AI technology, he said.

“That will really send shock waves through the system because you have this entire infrastructure that is set up to teach people how to do things that they will no longer need to know how to do,” Grubbs said.

Grubbs believes the role of the teacher will be redefined but not removed. While technology and new teaching methods will change the role of teachers, they will still be essential.

“If an AI is able to deliver that information and explain it and teach us about that information, then the role of the human teacher will be changed, and humanity still needs its human humanness, so even though an AI may be able to deliver information and teach about that information, it will be a long time before it can do it with humanity,” Grubbs said.

AI is revolutionizing learning, but not everyone is convinced it should be used in classrooms, including Stephanie Haase, a biology professor at the UI.

“[AI] can be used at a point to write questions that you can use to test your knowledge, some of which are better than others, so I think that is a really good potential use for it,” Haase said.

Haase has tried to use CoPilot, an AI-powered assistant available through Microsoft 365 that helps users with tasks like writing, searching, and coding to see what it can do to help with homework. She said it was able to answer a given question but could not show her how to get the answer, which is less conducive to student learning.

Haase doesn’t believe AI can help with engagement because it often leads to a more passive approach, letting AI handle things and only reviewing the results later. She argues this isn’t as engaging as actually interacting with a real person.

While she doesn’t believe AI can help with engagement, both Haase and Grubbs believe that AI is great for helping people who want to translate a piece of text or lecture into the language most valuable to them.

Haase added that AI is an excellent tool for students who take notes online. Students can put their notes into the program and and receive questions posed to help them process or even go more in-depth in areas where they may be confused. With essays, AI can check places where the writing is lacking and where it should be evaluated.

Kylah Hedding, a journalism professor at the UI, said students need to learn how to use AI correctly rather than using it to skip steps or cheat in class.

“It’s not going away, and we can’t remove it, so we need to figure out how best to incorporate it,” Hedding said.

Hedding agreed that AI tools can be positive for study aids or learning definitions.

“[AI] can be super useful when you know where the problem is, but you need to learn some of the basics of things before the AI is going to be actually super useful for you in terms of writing and developing arguments, where you can recognize where the AI is hallucinating incorrect information,” Hedding said.

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Hedding said when she told her students to edit the writing that AI had created, they all realized that what it had generated wasn’t good, and the students’ work was much better.

Hedding said she does not believe AI will encourage critical thinking at all. In fact, she believes it will do the exact opposite.

Grubbs disagrees and believes it will give people an advantage and another opportunity for responses and increasing education options.

“One of the great things about AI is that it can ask you questions, [it can] listen to your answer, and then tell you if you got it right, if you were close, and provide feedback,” Grubbs said.

Rather than just memorizing or using AI to generate an answer and move on, VictoryXR has created a product where students can debate AI on a particular topic to become more knowledgeable.

Although there are a lot of pros to AI having these advantages, there are still problems that may arise.

“There’s a lot of ways that AI will contribute to critical thinking, but at the same time, sort of like the invention of the garage door opener, nobody has to get out of their car anymore and go lift up the garage door. And so nobody does, even though it might be healthier,” Grubbs said.

Grubbs believes AI tutors and textbook advancements are unlocking a big future.

“A lot more is on the horizon,” Grubbs said.