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NUADU rozwiąże problem edukacji dzięki sztucznej inteligencji oraz grantowi z Narodowego Centrum Badań i Rozwoju

Każdy uczeń wymaga czasu

W przeciętnej chińskiej klasie znajduje się 48 uczniów, w singapurskiej trochę mniej – bo 35. Natomiast w Stanach Zjednoczonych klasa liczy 24 uczniów, a w Australii i w Europie – średnio 20. Typowy nauczyciel prowadzi takich klas kilka, a czasem – gdy naucza w więcej niż w jednej szkole – nawet kilkanaście. W ekstremalnych przypadkach daje to nawet 300 – 350 uczniów, którymi musi się zajmować jeden nauczyciel. Wśród tej grupy znajdują się osoby wybitnie zdolnie, nadpobudliwe, dyslektyczne, zamknięte w sobie, a czasem pochodzące z rodzin z nałogami. Zdarzają się też dzieci niepełnosprawne ruchowo i też umysłowo. Przybywa również uczniów mających problem ze skupieniem się i napadami agresji. Wszystkich uczniów (z tak różnymi potrzebami i możliwościami) trzeba nauczać i traktować indywidualnie. A co dokładnie składa się na proces nauczania? Diagnoza potrzeb, planowanie, wyjaśnienie tematu, ułożenie zadań praktycznych, ewaluacja (im częstsza tym lepsza), dodatkowe zadania wyrównawcze, ćwiczenia utrwalające i wiele innych mniejszych działań. Nietrudno zgadnąć, że czas i uwaga poświęcany wszystkim uczniom w takim stopniu, w jakim go potrzebują, powinien być liczony nie w roboczogodzinach, ale w stuleciach.  

Problem zauważają też autorzy badań „Meta-Analysis of Research on the Relationship of Class-Size and Achievement” (Glass and Smith, ED 168 129), którzy wskazali istotny związek wielkości klasy z osiągnięciami uczniów. Wg nich uczniowie w licznych klasach osiągają nawet kilkunastoprocentowo gorsze wyniki, niż ich koledzy uczący się w małych grupach. 

Innowacyjny projekt doceniony grantem

Zespół entuzjastów pracujących w NUADU usilnie szuka odpowiedzi, jak rozwiązać ten poważny problem. Myśli głównie o sposobie, który można włączyć w istniejące systemy edukacji.

Szkolnictwo nie jest w stanie przeobrazić się w szybkim tempie, Jeśli chcemy, aby szkoły się rozwijały, to musimy opracować innowacje, które da się łatwo wpleść w codzienne życie nauczycieli i uczniów. Jeśli będziemy oczekiwać od ludzi, że z dnia na dzień zmienią całkowicie swoje przyzwyczajenia i sposób pracy, to z góry skazujemy się na ich wielki opór.

Alina Guzik, Dyrektor Produktu NUADU

Takie podejście stało się zalążkiem opracowania pomysłu systemu, który będzie w stanie pomóc nauczycielom rozpoznawać potrzeby każdego ucznia i dostarczać im materiały oraz odpowiednie wsparcie edukacyjne w najlepszym możliwym momencie. Krótko mówiąc: rozwiązania, które można w równym stopniu zastosować w szkołach, jak i w domach. 

Skuteczne uczenie się to nie tylko dobre materiały i czas poświęcony na zapamiętywanie. Na cały proces składa się bardzo wiele czynników, w tym chociażby to, czy jesteśmy wypoczęci, pora dnia, miejsce, w którym się uczymy czy aktualnie odczuwany poziom stresu. Dlatego w NUADU do nauki podchodzi się holistycznie. Pracownicy platformy jako pierwsi na świecie zdecydowali się mocno osadzić rozwiązanie technologiczne w odkryciach z obszaru pedagogiki, neurobiologii i psychologii. Całość tworzą dzięki wykorzystaniu mechanizmów sztucznej inteligencji i uczenia maszynowego. 

Ich pomysł został doceniony przez instytucję rządową i jako jeden z nielicznych otrzymał finansowanie w wysokości ponad pół miliona euro z Narodowego Centrum Badań i Rozwoju, które wspiera powstawanie obiecujących innowacji. 

Nad powstaniem rozwiązania pracuje interdyscyplinarny zespół składający się z naukowców z różnych dziedzin nauki, analityków danych, wysokiej klasy programistów uczenia maszynowego i projektantów UX. Całość jest na każdym etapie konsultowana z nauczycielami i uczniami. Jakie dokładnie usprawnienia powstaną? 

Inteligentny planer edukacyjny

Opracowany produkt będzie rozkładał naukę w czasie, biorąc pod uwagę specyficzne potrzeby ucznia. Będzie dbał o takie rozplanowanie materiału, aby uczeń zdążył go przeanalizować, nauczyć się i utrwalić wiedzę przed wskazanym terminem np. przed datą egzaminu maturalnego.

Wiedza, której się nie zapomina

Gdy mamy przed sobą do opanowania dużo materiału, szybkie zapominanie tego, co już się nauczyliśmy jest dużym problemem. Dlatego też w ramach projektu powstanie inteligentny mechanizm, który pomoże przenieść wiedzę z pamięci krótkotrwałej do długotrwałej. W tym celu zostanie wykorzystana krzywa zapominania Ebbinghausa wskazującą okresy narażone na utratę wiedzy oraz system Leitnera – algorytm definiujący pięcioetapowy proces powtarzania treści, aż do ich całkowitego przyswojenia. W odróżnieniu od istniejących na rynku produktów bazujących na algorytmach opartych o sztywny zbiór reguł, NUADU weźmie pod uwagę unikatowe potrzeby konkretnych osób. W ich rozpoznaniu pomoże mechanizm sztucznej inteligencji. 

Wzajemna pomoc uczniów

A co w przypadku, gdy uczeń będzie miał trudność ze zrozumieniem tematu? System podsunie odpowiednie teksty, filmiki i prezentacje albo wskaże rówieśnika, który pomoże wyjaśnić trudne kwestie. W świecie, w którym nauczyciel ma ograniczony czas na wsparcie każdego dziecka, znaczenie pomocy międzyuczniowskiej bardzo wzrasta. 

Bot, który zmotywuje do nauki

Nauka to często długi, żmudny i pracochłonny proces. Wytrwałość i systematyczność w uczeniu się jest problemem dla wielu dorosłych a co dopiero dla dzieci. Na szczęście motywacji można trochę pomóc, dlatego tworzony system  będzie nagradzać m. in. za czas spędzony na aktywnym zdobywaniu wiedzy i umiejętności. Sprawę ułatwi wirtualny bot, który będzie zachęcał do pracy, wyłapywał chwile spadku motywacji i wspierał w drodze do celu. Bot-trener będzie również sugerować uczniowi zastosowanie różnych metod i technik uczenia się, co wesprze budowanie czegoś niezwykle cennego – samoświadomości.

Komercjalizacja

W pierwszej kolejności wdrożymy nasz innowacyjny produkt w takich krajach jak Singapur, Filipiny, Indonezja, Australia, Stany Zjednoczone i Polska. System (dzięki swojej modularnej konstrukcji) będzie wykorzystywany na rynku szkolnym – i myślę tu o szkołach podstawowych, średnich, uczelniach wyższych i centrum korepetycji – oraz na rynku domowym,  gdzie uczeń samodzielnie uczy się w domu, by zdobyć lepszą ocenę lub lepiej przygotować się do egzaminu. W tym drugim modelu to rodzic będzie głównym płatnikiem.

Marcin Wojnowski, Prezes i Założyciel NUADU

NUADU w czołówce najlepszych startupów edukacyjnych

Pod koniec 2018 roku NUADU znalazło się w grupie 5 finalistów (wyłonionych z ponad 300 projektów z 34 krajów świata) w programie Incredibles wspierającym innowacyjne spółki. Firma NUADU otrzymała również nagrodę od Polskiej Agencji Inwestycji i Handlu za dynamizm w kategorii Ekspansja Zagraniczna.

Co więcej, w ostatnio opublikowanym raporcie „Map of the Polish AI” NUADU wskazano jako firmę (jedną z niewielu) zmieniającą oblicze światowej edukacji. W spółkę wierzy również Microsoft, który promuje ich platformę edukacyjną w ramach projektu School of the future – Szkoły przyszłości – inicjatywy przeobrażającej szkolnictwo z wykorzystaniem najnowszych technologii.

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NUADU plans to solve educational problems with AI and a grant from the National Center for Research and Development

Every student needs time

There are 48 students in the average Chinese classroom, 35 in Singapore, 24 in the United States, and 20 in Australia and Europe (Rampell, 2009). Teachers typically have at least a few classes, and in some cases, when teachers work at more than one school, they may have up to a dozen of them. In extreme cases this can quickly escalate to a teacher being responsible for the education of 300-350 students.

It’s important to recognize that this student group will come from a diverse range of backgrounds, all with different learning, mental and physical abilities. Every student has unique needs, particularly concerning how they are taught and treated in the classroom.

So, what exactly does the teaching process look like? It’s safe to say there are multiple elements: planning lessons, doing the actual teaching and explaining of new topics, assigning practical exercises, evaluation (the more frequent, the better), as well as providing compensatory tasks, and a host of other daily activities. It’s not difficult to assume that the time needed to provide students with sufficient individual attention, on top of an already busy schedule, could be calculated in centuries – not working hours.

Educational research has shown a significant relationship between class-size and student achievement. In fact, it has been known for some time that there are major benefits from reduced class-sizes: “a student who would score at about the 83rd percentile when taught individually would score at about the 50th percentile when taught in a class of 40 pupils”, and the difference in being taught in a class of 20 versus a class of 40 is an advantage of 6 percentile ranks (Glass & Smith, 1979).

Class-size and personalized attention to learning is vital for students to reach their potential, which is where NUADU comes in.

An innovative solution for education

Our team of enthusiasts at NUADU is working hard to develop an effective solution that addresses the challenges of the most complex problems in education, and how we can successfully incorporate this solution into the current education system.

Education is not able to change rapidly. If we want schools to develop, we must create innovations that can be easily incorporated into the daily lives of teachers and students. If we expect people to change their habits overnight, we’ll condemn them to their great resistance in advance.

Alina Guzik, Director of Product and Innovation, NUADU

This approach has become the nucleus to develop a powerful solution that will be able to help teachers recognize the individual needs of each student, and provide them with materials and appropriate educational support, exactly when they need it. A solution that can be applied equally in schools and at home.

After all, effective learning is not only about suitable materials and time spent memorizing it. The whole process consists of many lifestyle factors such as sleep, stress, the time of day, and the place we learn.

NUADU has taken these factors into account and has a holistic approach to our solution. Our employees were the first in the world to embed a technological solution with discoveries in the fields of pedagogy, neurobiology and psychology. While our product utilizes artificial intelligence mechanisms and machine learning, we understand the importance of factoring in the logistics of being a human – and the diverse effects this can have on creating an effective learning solution.

NUADU’s innovative solution has been recognized by government institutions and is fortunate to have received funding of more than half a million euros from the National Center for Research and Development in Poland.

A multidisciplinary team consisting of scientists (from various fields), data analysts, high-level machine learning programmers, and UX designers is working on the creation of the solution. The whole process also involves consultation with students and teachers at every stage.

Intelligent educational planner

The developed product will distribute learning materials in advance, taking into account the specific needs of the student. It will lay out the work so that the student can easily familiarize themselves with it, learn, and consolidate knowledge well in advance of the indicated due date, e.g. before an assignment or exam.

Improving how we retain information

When we have a lot of material to master, the main problem is quickly forgetting what we have already learned. The NUADU project will create an intelligent mechanism that will help transfer knowledge from short-term to long-term memory. For this to work, the Ebbinghaus forgetful curve will be used, indicating periods exposed to loss of knowledge, as well as the Leitner system – an algorithm defining a five-stage process of repetition of contents, until their complete assimilation. In contrast to existing products based on algorithms which are based on a rigid set of rules, NUADU will take into account the unique needs of specific people. Their recognition and personalization will be supported by artificial intelligence.

Encouraging students to work together

So, what if a student has difficulty understanding a topic? The system will provide relevant material in the form of text, videos and presentations, or suggest a peer who could help them learn. In a world where teachers have limited time to support each child, the importance of inter-student connection can help dramatically. This could also encourage students to help each other learn and share knowledge.

A bot that motivates you to learn

Creating a product based on science is often a long, tedious and difficult process. Perseverance and regularity in learning is a problem for many adults, let alone children. Fortunately, motivation can help, which is why the NUADU system will reward students, for example, for the time they spend actively learning or gaining new skills. This will be supported by a virtual bot that will encourage students to work, improve their weaker skills and support them on their journey to achieve their goals. The bot will also suggest the use of various methods and learning techniques that will support building something precious – self-awareness.

Commercialization

In 2019 we aim to implement our innovative product in Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, the United States and Poland. The system, thanks to its modular construction, will be used by schools including primary and secondary, tutoring centers, and universities, but also suited for time spent learning at home – whether it be studying to improve their grade or prepare for an exam.

Marcin Wojnowski, President and founder of NUADU

NUADU recognized as a global leader in EdTech

At the end of the last year, NUADU was selected as one of five companies out of 300, from 34 different countries, in the Incredibles Program, which supports innovative companies across the globe. The organization also received an award from the Polish Investment and Trade Agency for dynamism in international expansion.

Moreover, the recently published report ‘Map of the Polish AI’ indicated NUADU as one of four companies changing the structure of world education. Microsoft has also shown it believes in the company, by promoting the NUADU educational platform as part of the Schools of the Future project – an initiative that is transforming education around the world.

Sources:
Rampell, C. 2009, ‘Class Size Around the World’, Economix, New York Times, https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/class-size-around-the-world/
Glass & Smith, 1979, ‘Meta-Analysis of Research on the Relationship of Class-Size and Achievement’, ED 168, 129, Laboratory of Educational Research, University of Colorado

Authors

Alina Guzik
Director of Product and Innovation NUADU
Michał Korpys
Chief Product Officer NUADU
Marcin Wojnowski
CEO NUADU
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NUADU Smart Edu solution to benefit from Smart Growth and Regional Development EU funding

Assigning tasks and content to students in a predefined, manual way is not enough if you want to ensure they have a proper learning environment. That is why NUADU is going to design a unique, innovative solution that helps to improve results and enables a personalised learning environment for every student.

Title of the project: “NUADU Smart Edu – a system that improves students’ learning results thanks to personalised learning paths based on scientific research in neurobiology, psychology, education, machine learning, and AI.”

Beneficiary: NUADU Sp. z o. o.

Cost of the project: 3,520,541.72 PLN

EU funding: 2,582,850.72 PLN

Description: As part of the project, NUADU will develop an innovative NUADU Smart Edu solution. The applicant plans to develop a solution that will comprehensively support the learning process. Its most essential functionalities are:

  • an intelligent education planning algorithm that supports the personalisation process;
  • a system that enables pair or group work to help students improve their learning outcomes through collaboration and mutual support;
  • a review and knowledge consolidation system based on the analysis of students’ activity that helps them to permanently memorise what they learn;
  • a system that increases motivation and systematicity, based on gamification and a “bot” coach.

Assigning tasks and content to students in a predefined, manual way is not enough if you want to ensure they have a proper learning environment. That is why we are going to design a unique, innovative solution that helps to improve results and enables a personalised learning environment for every student. For the first time, AI will be used to such an extent to support the improvement of educational outcomes, with technological solutions firmly embedded in human science discoveries.

The market needs such a solution because, among others, it addresses one of the most severe problems today’s education faces – the inability to devote as much time and attention to students as they need.

The target market for the product will be the global educational technology market – particularly in Poland and South-East Asia – that shows an annual growth of several dozen per cent. The main target audiences of the project are governments and local self-governmental units, educational publishers, distributors of teaching aids and integrators of digital solutions for schools, head teachers in schools and tuition centres, and parents. The stakeholders and end users of the solution are teachers and students.

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Adaptivity: from Stone Age to AI

Adaptive learning and machine learning are not techniques that have emerged over the last few years with the spreading of computers and smartphones. The beginnings date back to the 1960s and Arthur Samuel from IBM, who developed the first chess training program.

But if we take a look at the wider definition of adaptive learning with the technology section excluded, adaptive learning being an educational system that analyzes students’ performance in real time and modifies teaching methods based on these data, we will notice that there is nothing radically new about it. In fact, it describes the very kind of work that a teacher performs or should perform when working with students. In such a system, the teachers apply their intuition, professional experience and knowledge of the students. The pedagogue’s experience will always have a huge impact on the child’s educational success; however, on the one hand it will be only based on the teacher’s personal abilities, and, on the other hand, is time-consuming and difficult to implement in the classical (school-paper-based) learning model. Only the use of technology may enable its wider use.

At the moment, we can find many products that offer adaptations to the individual abilities of the student. The most-used solution is tailored to their abilities and skills by proposing individual learning paths for students. We can group them into several types:

Students create paths manually

In products of this type, a student who wants to master the subject they is interested in has ready access to all materials and selects relevant fragments relying on their own knowledge of what they wants to learn, thus creating a personalized learning path on their very own. This solution allows the student full personalization of the learning paths because they choose only those things which seem important and necessary.

The obvious disadvantage of this solution is that it only offers partial knowledge if a given student works individually, without consulting a teacher or a tutor. In addition, not many students are fully aware of their educational needs and how to compose their own learning path. Therefore, an alternative solution is to engage the teacher.

Teachers create paths manually

In this product type, the teacher manually creates individualized paths for individual students or groups of students, deciding which exercises they should do as well as the level of difficulty or what presentation materials they should familiarize themselves with, and in what order.

This method, despite being very beneficial from a didactic point of view, nonetheless implies a huge amount of work and time on behalf of the teacher. Although grouping students with specific abilities and skills together allows to save a certain amount of time, such grouping is once again based on the teacher’s experience and in-depth knowledge of students, which in practice is not possible for teachers with dozens of students to take care of. Therefore, another idea for the student and teacher is to rely more on technology to work and prepare ready-made paths that both teachers and students can use.

Predefined graph of dependencies

Solutions of this type offer a system that proposes to students various educational paths that they can follow while learning. Typically, they are organized as predefined sets of sequentially arranged exercises and knowledge presentation materials. The system draws paths for a student using the rule-based method with a decision tree, where decisions are made depending on the results of a given pupil. Thus, a student gets access to the very materials that should fit them and ensure a learning process that corresponds to their skills and abilities.

However, this method is far from flawless as well. The main disadvantage of this type of solution is the incomplete personalization of learning paths and the fact that the links between fragments of material are predefined — in other words, developed by a specific person based on their personal knowledge, and said paths do not change even if they are ineffective for a particular student or group of students.

Additionally, such solutions are usually limited only to mathematics or chemistry, for which the creation of connections between fragments of material comes somewhat easier. In some e-learning systems, the decision to choose a specific path and a set of content for a given student is based on the results of the initial diagnostic test performed by the student after entering the system. This is a good method to test a student’s level of knowledge; however, it is often limited to detecting said student’s knowledge gaps and offering material to eliminate them without providing opportunities to develop other skills that a student could improve.

AI learning paths

All the above-mentioned methods have two basic disadvantages, namely that they either fail to offer exactly matched learning paths, or that they require a lot of work. These problems can be prevented thanks to a system which, by collecting data from a given student and other users and processing them with the help of sophisticated algorithms based on mathematical models, probability and statistical reasoning, will suggest to the student appropriate materials at the appropriate time and in just the right order. Scientific research on teaching methodology, nervous system physiology, and pedagogical methods provides solid data on the learning process that should be implemented in such a system — after all, it is used to teach human beings, not machines.

On the other hand, it is very important to be able to see the results of the students’ interaction with the system and modify the rules in real time. This is possible due to the huge number of online learners, based on whose performance the system can determine what works and what does not work thanks to the power of big data and analytics. It can also learn what behaviour patterns are the most effective. The use of AI also allows a holistic approach to learning covering aspects such as diagnosis, gaining theoretical knowledge and practical skills through exercises, as well as maintaining motivation and regularity. In addition, a virtual AI-based tutor is never tired, has no prejudices, and does not build student feedback based on a personal attitude towards a given student. Such a teacher is always available ready to respond to any change in a student’s behaviour, and capable of anticipating possible risks.

In NUADU, by creating an adaptive learning system with AI support, we endeavour to take into account all the mentioned advantages and disadvantages so as to create a perfect system that will be a great support for students and teachers alike. Therefore, the whole solution is planned to be reliant on something other than modern technology per se — namely. a plethora of scientific discoveries made in such fields as didactics, neurobiology, and psychology. We want to use what is most valuable in the most important theories of learning, such as Behaviourism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism. Our idea is to support the complex learning/teaching process via employing educational diagnosis, creating individual learning plans, gaining theoretical knowledge, and building practical skills. We also want to give students the opportunity to fill in the gaps in knowledge and skills and consolidate gained knowledge effectively.

Summary

A system offering individualized learning paths for each student matching what they should learn at any given moment could be an ideal solution supporting learning and teaching, but what is the reality now? The truth is that such solutions are at an early stage of development, and though our knowledge about learning is growing, it is still in its infancy. Despite the fact that the future looks really promising, we still have to wait for it to come — most likely, for such a system to be created by NUADU.

Read More:

  1. http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/ibm700series/impacts/
  2. Clark Quinn, Ph.D, https://www.litmos.com/blog/articles/the-realities-of-artificial-intelligence-and-adaptive-learning
  3. Mitchell T., Machine learning, McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1997
  4. http://www.ecns.cn/2018/04-12/298915.shtml
  5. https://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/adaptive-learning-in-the-classroom-and-beyond
  6. Patsy Moskal, Donald Carter, Dale Johnson, 7 Things You Should Know About Adaptive Learning — https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2017/1/eli7140.pdf
  7. http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/05/14/adaptive-learning-are-we-there-yet.aspx
  8. https://thejournal.com/articles/2014/05/14/adaptive-learning-are-we-there-yet.aspx

About the author

Wojciech Wiśniowski is a biotechnologist — with an emphasis on “technologist”. A tech geek, always happy to spend a fortune on state-of-the-art gear to stay ahead of the curve. A devoted product manager and product owner with over 10 years of professional experience in discovering the impact made by modern technology and the possibilities it offers in enhancing and facilitating the learning and teaching process. And he is always delighted to share his passion with others.

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LUMA Ventures invests in education

We are pleased to announce that Luma Ventures has invested in the Gdynia-based company NUADU.

The Company just raised PLN 4.5 m for further product development as well as expansion to foreign countries.

Source: http://lumainvestment.eu/news/luma-ventures-invests-in-education-33

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NUADU is helping educators personalize assessment with a powerful AI solution

eLearning Inside News recently reached out to one of Poland’s leading edtech startups, NUADU, to learn more about the company’s AI-based educational assessment platform.

Source: https://news.elearninginside.com/nuadu-is-helping-educators-personalize-assessment-with-a-powerful-ai-solution/