Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the landscape of higher education, impacting both research and the classroom. AI tools are becoming indispensable for streamlining repetitive tasks, creating engaging learning experiences, and fostering innovation. Implementing an AI toolkit can benefit all aspects of academic life, including research and teaching, while also boosting student engagement.
Here are some of the most helpful AI tools:
Promote Self-Learning of Foundational Knowledge
HitWit.ai is an AI-powered self-learning tool designed for personalized learning sessions. It allows users to dive deep into various content types, such as documents and videos. The tool uses a multimodal AI mechanism to create mind maps and charts, making the learning process more visual, and employs spaced quizzes to enhance retention. The interactive, conversational approach positions the AI as a tutor to help identify knowledge gaps.
Unlike conventional teaching, HitWit.ai emphasizes a user-guided learning path and tracks progress with scores.
Create, Personalize, and Engage
How can we make learning more interactive and engaging? Captivating visuals and virtual models can grab students’ attention. Platforms such as Canva and Gamma AI can help design visually appealing presentations, posters, and infographics. Other AI image generators like EdCafe AI, NightCafe, Rabbithole, Scribeli AI, Ideogram and Leonardo can also be used.
Tools like Napkin, Notion AI, Map-this.com and Chat GPT help create mind maps and graphic organizers. Other tools like Graphy help visualize data with charts and graph generation to help spot data trends and changes.
The following AI image prompt generators are noteworthy for their ease of use, customisation, and versatility:
- GravityWrite: User-friendly
- PromptMania: Free, simple interface, and easy prompt generation without technical knowledge
- AI Text Prompt Generator: Straightforward, but requires some adjustments for optimal performance
- Prompt Hero: Designed for users familiar with AI image generation, offering prompt templates and examples
- PromptPerfect: Advanced with optimization tools, but with an associated learning curve
AI Assistants for PDFs
ChatPDF, ChatGPT, and Adobe AI Assistant enable users to easily read, compare, and question PDF files interactively. These tools are excellent for extracting knowledge insights, making comparisons, and identifying knowledge gaps. TextCortex is a complimentary AI PDF reader that allows users to upload PDF, PPTX, and DOCX files to their workspace, facilitating a multi-file chat feature.
Generate Videos
Students retain information more effectively when they engage multiple senses. AI tools such as Hedra AI and Synthesia create talking avatars to enhance learning. Hedra AI animates images or descriptions into avatars, while Synthesia generates interactive video lessons, simplifying complex topics. Instructors can use these tools for course introductions or for explaining biological processes like mitosis.
For example, an instructor could create a course introduction video or explain a scientific concept using Synthesia. Synthesia can bring presentations to life by generating a virtual biology teacher who walks through slides made with Gamma AI. AI avatars can be customised to look like an educator, who can narrate short explainer videos that break down concepts with examples. They can also provide assignment feedback with gestures and visual aids.
In diverse classrooms, these avatars can improve accessibility by delivering lessons in multiple languages for non-native English speakers.
Streamline Administrative Tasks with Custom GPTs
Administrative tasks can take time away from teaching and research. AI tools such as Google Gemini, ChatGPT, MagicSchool, Khanmigo, Monsa AI and OpenAI help streamline these duties. OpenAI’s paid version enables custom GPTs to generate custom or reusable prompts that can provide specific feedback to students on assignments and create quizzes, worksheets, lesson plans, images and discussion questions.
Visualize Concepts
AI tools like Midjourney and Stability AI enhance student engagement by generating images to visualize complex concepts. A biology instructor could use Midjourney to illustrate a species’ evolution under environmental pressures, sparking discussions about survival advantages. Students could use image generators to design and visualize fictional species adapted for extreme environments.
Employ Your Own Personal Editor
Websites such as Futurepedia and Adademiq.io, along with specific tools such as Perplexity and Storm from Stanford University, offer a variety of free writing resources. Writing tools like PaperPal AI, Trinka AI, Writefull, Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Hemingway Editor and Wordvice AI proofreader can assist with academic and technical writing.
Review Relevant Papers in Seconds
Conducting thorough literature reviews is critical, but can also be time-consuming. For example, a researcher exploring artificial neural networks could use Connected Papers to visualize how different studies are interconnected, ensuring a clear overview of the field. Platforms such as Semantic Scholar, Research Rabbit, Litmaps and Connected Papers can help researchers quickly identify relevant papers and understand relationships between them. Other programs like Mendeley, Zotero and EndNote can help manage references. Rayyan is a free web tool and mobile app designed to help researchers who are conducting reviews and knowledge synthesis by speeding up screening and study selection.
Urbi Ghosh is a faculty member at CSU Global.
