AI is changing the world of e-learning content creation at a pace that few might have expected just a few years ago. Fortunately, we’ve long been on top of the content creation game, and in this post, we’ll help you understand how AI can shape your e-learning content creation process.
We’ve already seen major AI-driven changes in the way businesses approach their training needs and how people learn and develop skills and knowledge. And like any new technology, AI brings many benefits for business along with concerns around its potential downsides.
To assess whether AI is an aid or a threat (or a bit of both) in e-learning content creation, let’s consider both sides of this particular debate.
Forms of AI, such as ChatGPT, can only work with the content its been trained on. Its capabilities for conjuring up original ideas remains limited. As humans, we have brains capable of original thought and recognizing when written content produced by AI doesn’t fit the bill.
Because AI tools such as ChatGPT can process vast quantities of data so quickly, in the space of a few seconds, AI can brainstorm ideas and give you a list of keywords much more quickly than a round-table brainstorming session. All content creators face writer’s block sometimes, and AI can be an effective and efficient way to eliminate the dread of the blank page.
If your e-learning modules need research into the topics you want to address, AI can provide that quickly. And as courses become more specialized, AI could become more useful to you in the research process. But as always, be aware of the age-old information technology saying: “garbage in, garbage out.” Always sense check what AI produces for you. You have no control over where AI looks for answers to your questions, and it might be picking up garbage.
This is an area where educational practitioners see major benefits of using AI in e-learning content creation. One of the most time-consuming aspects of teaching is producing or amending lesson plans and learning materials for students of differing ability levels.
Similarly, producing materials that can cope with individual learning paces takes time. Adaptive learning programs can track students’ progress, show patterns of engagement, provide data on preferred learning processes, and produce individualized learning schedules. Manual information gathering by teachers to understand a student’s progress at that level takes time and experience.
Good learning resources have always made learning fun. AI can take the most popular elements of gaming and video game design and incorporate them into learning resources. This is a rapidly growing area of e-learning.
It has been shown that ChatGPT can cite academic papers that don’t actually exist because it is trained to predict which word will come next in any given scenario. So, by taking the two most commonly cited history professors and the most commonly cited titles of history papers, it can quote from and cite a non-existent source.
AI has also produced false accusations by scraping newspaper articles. Its process is, in this respect, its downfall. Human-generated e-learning materials are much more likely to be error-free, and if your business has a team of editors, you can train them to pick up errors in ways that AI won’t.
So, we’re back to “garbage in, garbage out.” If you want to use AI to produce e-learning content, make sure a pair of human eyes checks it thoroughly. That, of course, takes time and resources, and you need to budget that into your project. If you don’t use AI, there’s likely to be less to check.
You know your market and audience best. You know what style of writing makes learning a great experience and the tone that makes your content engaging. You know people.
AI only knows data. It knows what people think, but it doesn’t know how they think. You know how people think, so use that in your e-learning materials. Take a look at our blog on promoting your e-learning content for more great ideas on audience engagement and market knowledge.
Every word and image that goes into your content creation, be that e-learning, marketing, web pages, or corporate reports, becomes part of your business’ reputation and brand. It’s your business’ voice and personality that need to be apparent in your e-learning content, not the generic, slightly robotic voice that derives from AI-generated content.
Focusing on what you can do that AI cannot do will help you understand how best to incorporate AI into your e-learning content creation while retaining those aspects of human-generated content that distinguish you from your competitors and maintain your unique selling point (USP).
Originality and creativity are intrinsic aspects of humanity, and both are hugely important in the creation of e-learning resources. This is where humans triumph over AI every time, so it’s a good area to focus your attention.
Courses that are shallow or generalized will be easily replicated by AI at no cost to the consumer; but the deeper, more original and creative materials produced by real people will enhance your brand and add much greater value to your business. They will also be more difficult to replicate by AI, reducing the likelihood of your hard-earned intellectual property being infringed.
Work on the ethical and legal issues around AI content generation is increasing as AI usage becomes more common. So again, focus on the aspects of your work that are better generated by people than AI to maintain your edge and brand voice.
The world of e-learning content generation is changing rapidly. Some aspects of this change may threaten your e-learning products, but some can assist you. Getting that balance right is crucial to the successful creation and sale of e-learning resources.
AI has useful tools for many areas of content creation, but it shouldn’t fully replace real writers. The best way to engage with your customers is through content written by real people with an assist from AI. If you’re ready to take your e-learning content to the next level, speak to our team in the writing business. Our highly experienced business team has a wealth of resources to help you.
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