While it is still unclear exactly how the rise of generative artificial intelligence will change higher education, it is expected to have a far-reaching impact on how students learn, professors teach, and employers hire. Masu. New technologies will also have a significant impact on assessment and testing companies.
One of those companies, Educational Testing Service, the testing giant that administers the SAT, gathered 200 researchers, employers and educators in Washington on Thursday for a conversation about “Responsible AI and the Future of Skills.” Ta.
They came together to discuss the growing demand for alternative qualifications, the emergence of AI, and the technology's potential to change the way people learn and test skills in the classroom and workplace.
ETS CEO Amit Sevak opened the event by saying that in a recent ETS survey of nearly 17,000 adults aged 18 and older across 17 countries, 78 percent of respondents said they had no certificate or license. He pointed out that he believes that “continuous skill acquisition” such as acquisition of skills will continue in the future. It's worth as much as getting a college degree in 10 years.
Learners are challenging “the traditional notion that a degree is a sufficient indicator of what you can do,” Sevak said. He believes that future employees will be looking for new avenues to prove their competency in the skills employers are looking for. Employers, on the other hand, value not only technical skills but also skills such as communication and teamwork.
Sevak and other speakers argued that AI can meet that demand. He believes the technology can create a more “personalized” learning and testing experience and provide students with valuable feedback while learning. Towards that end, the event will feature HireUp, a tool designed to assess skills that employers value (such as “innovative thinking” and “effective communication”) and identify areas where students can improve. Several AI assessment tools developed by ETS were demonstrated.
Sevak said the future lies in assessments “enabled by responsible, cutting-edge and practical AI.”
Developing “lasting skills”
Various panels revealed what skills today's employers are looking for in applicants, and what role AI can play in enhancing and evaluating those skills.
Lydia Liu, vice president of research at ETS, said during a panel discussion on soft skills, or “endurance skills,” that the types of skills that can be tested by AI are expanding. For example, when testing a student's oral communication skills, the focus is usually on aspects such as grammar and word choice. This is because it is easy to measure, but there are also “nonverbal aspects” of communication that are difficult to assess.
“Thanks to AI, we can now see body language and leverage multimodal assessments, including eye-tracking analysis, facial expression analysis, and capturing gestures and postures,” said Liu. says. “Many classroom assessments, at least those used for summative purposes, do not really allow for continuous, immediate feedback to the learner.”
Libby Rodney, chief strategy officer at market research firm Harris Poll, added that soft skills will become increasingly valuable to employers as AI can perform many different types of technical tasks.
“Do you have people who are good communicators, creative, and collaborative?” she said. “In some cases, these things are going to be more important than technical skills, because technical skills are going to be automated over a 10-, 20-year timeline.”
Various faces of AI
In a later panel discussion, Kara McWilliams, vice president of product innovation and development at ETS, discussed the various ways she believes universities, K-12 schools, and employers can harness the power of AI. did. This technology can be used, for example, by university admissions officers to sort applications and by employers to screen applicants and tailor professional development opportunities to individual employees based on their needs. can be used for. AI can also predict which students will work well together on group projects for instructors, she said.
However, she stressed that these types of tools need to be developed and made equitably available.
“I always like to remind myself of the learners and educators we serve: They don't have equal access to the technology they need to take advantage of the tools we provide,” she says. said.
Derrick Anderson, senior vice president for the future of education at the American Council on Education, added that he hopes AI will make it easier to give students credit for prior learning.
McWilliams doesn't think big changes will happen overnight.
“Systems are hard to change, especially education,” she says. “I think it’s about making small movements.”
But employers are ready for change, suggested Johnny C. Taylor, president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management and the day's final speaker.
What keeps human resources professionals “up at night,” he said, is not finding “the right person with the right work ethic and the right skills” to fill a position.
Meanwhile, he said, employers are “actually weeding out talent” by “using degrees as a proxy for smarts.” While degrees are valuable, “they are not the only way to determine who is talented and who is not.”
He believes that AI will soon automate tasks traditionally performed by university graduates, and says, “We need to reskill them for the jobs of the future.”
