Funded by a £43,000 grant from the British Council’s UK Saudi Challenge Fund, Intelli-Student uses artificial intelligence (AI) paradigms to measure and improve on student engagement during online teaching and learning sessions.

The project has been led by UWL's Dr Ikram Ur Rehman (Senior Lecturer in Computer Science) and Dr Nasrullah Khilji (Portfolio Lead for Academic Partnership), alongside three researchers from Prince Sultan University and a postdoctoral researcher and PhD student from UWL.

Five colleagues from Prince Sultan University came to London and together we presented the progress made on the project as well as considering the next stages. We also had keynote speakers from other UK universities discussing virtual learning and the role digital technology is playing in transforming education,”

says Dr Khilji. The idea behind Intelli-Student is to support academics in keeping students more engaged when teaching online classes, he explains:

It is about using technology to give the lecturer indications that the students are actively participating.”

Developed by a PhD student, alongside SCE academic staff, the prototype platform has been tested with the help of students in London and Saudi Arabia. Dr Khilji adds:

The British Council Challenge Fund Grant is about ensuring that technology and expertise is being shared between developed and developing countries. We've conducted three trials with 50 students, and our report is being submitted to the British Council at the end of the month.”

The workshop was a great opportunity for students studying areas including cyber security, artificial intelligence and computer science and other pathways to get involved and find out more about virtual learning.

They were interested to discover how education is being transformed and how hybrid approaches, blended learning and online virtual learning environments are impacting both staff and students.

Our platform is a remarkable achievement but there are challenges of course, not least because we are talking about technology which is changing very fast,”

Dr Khilji says.

The next step for the Intelli-Student project team is to look at how the platform can be further developed for commercialisation.