Human Connection Is at the Heart of Learning. What Role Should GenAI Play?

Since ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022, it’s been hard to avoid the topic of generative AI (GenAI) in gatherings of educators or school administrators. As a CEO of a global education company, I’m frequently asked for my take on it. How will it change your business? What does it mean for the future of education? Will the role of the teacher change? All good and reasonable questions.

Let’s not forget that AI has been around a while. For years, if not decades, the technologies we use have become smarter and more efficient through advancements in various types of AI. Our own McGraw Hill ALEKS, used for mathematics and chemistry instruction in grade school and higher education for more than two decades, leverages an ever-improving type of AI called machine learning to make accurate predictions about what each student is ready to learn next.

So why the explosion of interest in this new form of AI, GenAI? I believe at the root of this is uncertainty and anxiety about change. This is a completely rational and justified reaction. Open a newspaper or turn on cable news and you’ll hear reports on how GenAI will make certain jobs obsolete, how students are using ChatGPT to write their essays, or how it can generate art, photos, video and more. It “will eventually reshape everything,” one Forbes headline declared.

We should all take a deep breath.

No doubt there will be more angst — and more action — on GenAI in education in 2024. As a leader in digital education, how do we think about using GenAI effectively to drive meaningful learning outcomes for students? And how do we do that in a way that can allay the fears of educators, school and college administrators, and others?

At McGraw Hill, a steering committee comprised of product developers, engineers and data scientists from across our business is guiding our thinking on GenAI and its role in the future of our business and in education. They’ve helped me crystalize my own thinking and vision for the future.

Yes, GenAI is going to change the way we work and help us continue to improve the types of technologies we create to help students learn and teachers do their jobs. We’re only just beginning to explore the boundaries of what’s possible. But GenAI is not a panacea. It is another arrow in our quiver aimed at helping students succeed.

As we begin to work with GenAI over the long term, three core tenets have emerged as well as two important items to watch out for:

Tenets to guide us:

1) GenAI is a tool—one of many—that can be combined with other technologies, data and content to create powerful learning solutions.

The power in GenAI (just like the power of AI more broadly) is how it interacts with other platforms and content. The future of technology in education is not GenAI by itself; it’s supported by the many tools at our disposal, elegantly assembled by those who understand learning objectives for students and how learning happens.

At McGraw Hill, we are fortunate to have access to trusted, vetted content, as well as data from billions of interactions that learners have with our technologies. Combine that with GenAI in a responsible way that provides transparency to our educators and students, and I see exciting potential.

2) Leverage GenAI to deepen human connections, not replace them.

Learning is fundamentally social. We saw that firsthand during the pandemic, when remote instruction replaced in-class interactions and student learning suffered. As such, we are looking for uses of GenAI that allow educators to be more efficient and effective in the classroom. GenAI can exist in the background, enable more productive in-class discussions, and nurture a stronger relationship between educators and students.

3) This is only the beginning.

GenAI is still very new and rapidly evolving, and we are only at the beginning of harnessing its potential. With an internal Steering Committee to guide our work, we have clear workstreams, new applications of GenAI in development and pilots in use already, but we know we’ll continue to learn more and the potential for AI to transform education becomes clearer over time. One thing we do know is our students are now growing up in a world where GenAI will be a tool they are expected to understand and use, similar to previous technology developments. As a trusted partner to educators on responsible use, it’s incumbent on us to help educators and students to use GenAI productively.

But consider this:

1) The need for reliable content has never been greater.

GenAI isn’t perfect. AI-based tools can create content that’s misleading, biased or factually incorrect. Administrators, educators and students are generally aware of these flaws, and the technology needs to continue to improve to earn their trust. According to a recent survey conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of McGraw Hill, only 20% of students and 14% of instructors described GenAI as “trustworthy and accurate,” but nearly half said they would use it if the content were vetted by a trusted source.

Still, educators and students are open to exploring how the technology could bolster learning comprehension. As GenAI’s role in education grows, so will the need for content, tools, and resources that are transparent, equitable, accessible and reliable.

2) We must ensure content creators are treated ethically and fairly.

Content creators are of course fundamental to education. The expression of their original ideas are helping to fuel innovation in GenAI, but their work should not be used without proper credit and/or compensation. Groups like the Software & Information Industry Association and the Association of American Publishers are leading efforts to ensure there is intellectual property protection for authors, publishers and other content creators in relation to the use of content by GenAI. This is necessary in the interest of fairness and in order to maintain appropriate incentives for their efforts.

As a provider of leading-edge educational solutions, we’re proud of our longstanding relationships with best-in-class authors, photographers, videographers and illustrators. And we remain committed to a content creation ecosystem that’s fair and ethical.

Human connection is the ‘linchpin’

As we continue to make progress toward our vision of personalized learning, it’s important to remember that individual instruction should be about the individual. Technology, including GenAI, can help make education more personal.

But on its own, it’s not enough — it needs educators and administrators at the helm. Because for all its promise, technology can’t deliver the kind of value that humans can. Luke Williams, a senior lecturer at Central Washington University who recently co-hosted a webinar with us about AI for instructors, told us “Human connection will always be the linchpin that holds together the learning environment for students. They sign up for courses in large part because they believe that educators and other students will add value to their learning experience. Without that relationship, we would all just learn [independently online]”.

“But that’s not how most people choose to learn,” he continued. “We need and value the support, accountability, insights, storytelling, and curation from a human being who has lived these concepts and skills out in the real world.”