The rise of AI in e-learning: benefits and tools

As AI starts to become regular programming in many industries, one area especially is set to benefit the most: education, e-learning, and training. AI tools are completely revolutionizing the way people learn and study. So, what kind of tools can teachers and trainers begin to harness today? 

• E-learning is a method of learning online. It’s sometimes called remote studying or online education.
• Online education is ripe for innovation, with numerous AI tools making learning and teaching easier.
• AI tools in e-learning now offer many benefits to both students and teachers, improving retention, automating administrative processes, and making content more accessible to students of all abilities.

What is e-learning?

In a nutshell, e-learning is a way of learning using digital technology, allowing students to study outside of traditional classrooms or boardrooms. The sphere of e-learning (sometimes called online or remote learning) includes online courses, video calls, virtual classrooms, VR tools, YouTube videos, and much more. 

Online learning really took off after the COVID-19 pandemic, where so many people were forced to switch to online study during the quarantine. But now, it’s here to stay. One of the big advantages of e-learning is that it lets students learn at their own pace and from any place with internet access, making education flexible, more affordable, and accessible. 

Moreover, e-learning often incorporates interactive elements like discussion forums, quizzes, games, and live chats, making it a dynamic and engaging way to learn. In fact, young people may even prefer to learn online than in person because it’s easier to engage and more comfortable to do from spaces they’re happy in.

The benefits of AI in e-learning

If the Covid-19 pandemic was the beginning of the online education revolution, then AI is when it really took off. AI tools, like ElevenLabs, ChatGPT, Midjourney, and so many more that we’ll explore below, are bringing completely new ways for students and teachers to interact with their content, create e-learning experiences, and improve retention and engagement.

One major benefit of AI in e-learning is the ability to personalize learning. AI tools can analyze a student’s progress and adapt the content to their needs, ensuring they focus on areas where they need the most help. This means students can learn more efficiently and effectively and enjoy better engagement with content that is perfectly suited for them and their current ability — no more being bored with content that they don’t yet understand.

Another huge benefit of AI in online learning is the ability to get instant feedback. AI can provide immediate responses to quizzes and assignments, with no need to have lengthy grading times or burn out teachers! As a result, students know right away how they are doing and what they need to improve. 

Talking of teacher burnout, AI supports teachers and trainers by fully automating administrative tasks like grading and tracking student progress, giving them more time to focus on teaching and preparing their lessons.

Another benefit of AI is how tailored the content can be using AI tools to the learner. One example is through the ease of generation in multiple languages. In the USA, roughly 21.6% of people don’t speak English as a first language, meaning having learning available to them in multiple languages makes learning and understanding much easier. 

This can be achieved through multilingual text-to-speech or dubbing tools, like the ones ElevenLabs offers – check the text-to-speech out below for an example of it in action.

But possibly the biggest benefit of AI tools in online education is the power AI has to make learning fun. And when learning is fun, it’s more effective. Things like interactive storytelling, dubbing, sound effects, gamification, all are powerful ways to make students remember easier and participate more. 

AI isn’t just for kids, either. Gamification, interactivity, and multilingual options are all great tools to keep adult learners engaged, too, making those compulsory corporate training courses a little less dull and a lot more memorable.

The best AI tools for e-learning

So, with all that in mind, how can you put it into practice? In this section, we’ll dive into answering the question, “What are the best AI tools for e-learning?”

Most impactful AI tool: ElevenLabs

First up, and number one on our list, is the powerful text-to-speech generator ElevenLabs. While ElevenLabs is not specifically an educational tool, there are so many potential uses of its technology that any list would be incomplete without it.

ElevenLabs’ revolutionary technology transforms text and voice inputs into human-like voice output. Whether you transform a boring PDF file into your own e-book using the ElevenLabs text-to-speech functionality or dub a recorded video lecture into a multilingual video, it’s all possible. 

Let’s explore a few use cases below.

Dubbing

For many teachers, accommodating multiple languages is a challenge. Many students may speak English as a second language, making understanding complex learning topics difficult.

Beyond the classroom, international corporations spend millions of dollars each year translating their training videos into multiple languages to suit their international workforce. 

But AI is about to change all that. Now, with just a few clicks, videos can be dubbed completely in 29 different languages. Moreover, the dubbing quality is exceptional, meaning students can listen to the lecture in a perfect version of their native language, skyrocketing engagement rates and improving comprehension.

Watch this demo to see dubbing in action.

Sound Effects and Text-To-Speech

Imagine transforming any boring PDF document into your own personal e-book, complete with sound effects and a famous narrator. Imagine turning your Spanish homework into a Spanish song to help you remember those tricky conjugations! Imagine transforming a boring corporate fire safety video into a memorable demo, complete with sound effects and more.

All this is possible with ElevenLabs, which provides tools that make learning so much more enjoyable than a flat lecture and traditional learning formats.

Projects

Well, that’s all great. But there’s no way our teachers have the time to do all this! 

But ElevenLabs doesn’t just generate great output; it’s also so easy and streamlined to use. With the Projects feature, turning a doc into an audio file takes literally a few clicks, and managing long-form projects is simple and fast.

See for yourself in the demo below.

From video translation to voice cloning and sound effect generation to even singing (watch this space!), there is so much ElevenLabs can do to add creativity to your learning, which is changing the way people engage with content and make connections. Try ElevenLabs out for yourself when you create a free account here.

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However, ElevenLabs is only an audio generation platform, and you’ll have to rely on other tools to generate content that includes images or is written. To be used as part of your AI toolbox, however, ElevenLabs is an unmissable addition.

Synthesia

If you’re looking for AI support in generating videos, then Synthesia is the place to be. With all kinds of video editing tools available, Synthesia is best at generating AI avatars that can speak and engage with your audience, teach them things, and look professional.

Synthesia’s easy-to-use interface and straightforward platform make it simple to get started with and easy to include in any educator’s workflow. We especially like Synthesia for corporate learning videos and training.

The only downside is that Synthesia specializes in the visual and that audio files are lacking. They often have a robotic overtone, which makes listening jarring. However, it’s easy to use a realistic ElevenLabs voiceover on the Synthesia platform, which makes it still a great choice for trainers and educators worldwide.

LearnUpon

Best for corporate training, LearnUpon is a fantastic tool that makes generating corporate learning content easy. With an extensive platform that is based around each of the individual courses and has space to include text-to-speech audio files, uploads, documents, and more, it’s an all-in-one platform that stands out when it comes to e-learning options.

Our favorite tool is the way that the LearnUpon AI is able to analyze learning material to create a bespoke assessment in a few clicks — a huge time saver when it comes to generating methods to check learners’ progress.

However, LearnUpon can be quite pricey, and it’s only best for corporate enterprises who have a large budget for spending on training and development. For small businesses, individual trainers, and school teachers, LearnUpon is a little out of reach.

Quizizz

For those smaller businesses, then, Quizziz is a fantastic AI tool that supports learning by developing tailored AI learning pathways based on the real-time performance of a quiz.

How it works is that the answers are graded based on their difficulty. At the beginning of the quiz, the learner is presented with the easiest questions, and only shown the challenging questions if they answer the easy question correctly. This provides a dynamic quiz based on their ability, helping them to perform better and identify opportunities for improvement.

However, this AI tool is best suited to those who manage large class sizes and many learners at different levels. It’s great for schools and colleges but not so good for corporate training, where achieving a certain level is mandatory. As an AI tool, however, Quizziz is a great piece of kit that schools can use to support their students.

Slidesgo

The hardest part of teaching? Generating those presentations year after year for different classes! Many teachers spend their evenings and weekends prepping for their next lesson, which means tedious hours spent looking at a presentation, fact checking, and making sure that the spacing is just right.

That’s where Slidesgo comes in: an easy-to-use generative AI tool that makes presentations simple. With easy templates, teachers can generate the presentation content and the presentation itself in just a few clicks by adding information into the generator and then making edits as appropriate in the output.

The best part? It’s free! All you need to do is create an account, and you can download a limited number of slides for free. If you want to go over your limit, though, you will have to pay for a subscription.

Final Thoughts

AI is disrupting every industry, and the world of education is no exception. Now, students and teachers can enjoy innovative AI tools that help them adapt the content to their needs, experience personalized learning pathways, and transform learning into a genuinely fun activity.

AI isn’t just for schools. In the corporate world, AI like ElevenLabs is turning videos into multilingual content with just a click of a button. 

And in the future? Many predict that this is just the beginning. AI is likely to enhance so much more in our schools, in our workplaces, and in our daily lives. If that’s the case, then it’s critical that the education system adapts.

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