The California Community Colleges system is expanding access to an AI platform from an education technology company called Nectir AI.
Eighty-four community colleges participated in a pilot program last year, according to reporting by Axios. And now the technology is expanding statewide.
Here’s how it works...
Educators upload course materials and lectures that the AI learns. They can also set certain rules — like whether it can pull in outside knowledge, or should only rely on uploaded material.
Then, students can use the chatbot as a kind of personal teacher.
Not everyone is convinced that classrooms need more AI.
A study from MIT published earlier this year found that students who used AI writing tools underperformed in critical thinking and felt less ownership over their work.
But Nectir AI does have guardrails. Educators can personalize it and can even prevent it from just giving students the answers.
When the program is fully rolled out, more than two million community college students across California will have access.
