Researchers from UWL School of Computing and Engineering win British Council grant
Intro
In April, researchers from the University of West London’s School of Computing and Engineering began a joint research project with the Prince Sultan University in Saudi Arabia to develop a computer-aided learning platform, ‘Intelli-Student’. The project aims to support and strengthen online teaching and learning, backed by a £43,000 grant from the British Council’s UK Saudi Challenge Fund.
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The year-long project is led by UWL Senior Lecturer in Computer Science Dr Ikram Ur Rehman (Principal Investigator) and Portfolio Lead for Academic Partnership Dr Nasrullah Khilji (Co-Investigator), with a team including three researchers from Prince Sultan University, a postdoctoral researcher and a PhD student from UWL.
Intelli-Student uses artificial intelligence (AI) paradigms to measure and improve on student engagement during online teaching and learning sessions, something that many universities offer as part of distance learning degree courses.
Student engagement in online teaching and learning can be really low, which is why the British Council was particularly interested in our project,”
Dr Ikram said, adding that this was the first time that UWL has been awarded this grant.
Intelli-Student can identify and classify participants’ emotional states, providing real time feedback on engagement levels to the person teaching the session. The platform will be tested on students at UWL and in Saudi Arabia to develop and define its capabilities further. Dr Ikram explains:
It can point out the need to change strategy to better motivate and engage students at the time, rather than waiting for module evaluation feedback. Along with analysing participants’ facial expressions, students will use the chat feature, which allows our multi-modal algorithms to pick up on the language they use.”
Going forward, the project has larger goals in alignment with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 4: inclusive and equal opportunities of education for all.
The long-term aim is to create a global virtual classroom where people who cannot easily travel to an urban facility can access education from their homes. It could also be adapted for areas like nursing education, where there is currently a shortage of trainers, for healthcare applications or educating young people.
Working with AI, this project will ensure teaching methods can be more effective for blended learning or online teaching. Our aim is helping students both in the UK, Saudi Arabia and globally benefit from more effective online teaching,”
Dr Khilji adds.
The Intelli-Student project is supported by a UK-Saudi Challenge Fund grant from the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships programme. The programme builds stronger, more inclusive, internationally connected higher education and TVET systems.
The UWL project team would like to thank Dr Jana Sulikova, Development Manager for the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at UWL, for supporting its application from start to submission and post-award formalities.
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