Learning success with its own AI learning buddy – IU personalises education with artificial intelligence

«Our AI-based learning buddy is a milestone on the road to modern higher education. It represents our core belief that we can fundamentally change education for the better through the use of technology and enables us to think learning in a completely new way: students can now ask their individual questions online and receive an answer immediately – no matter where they are and when they are learning. This brings us a big step closer to our mission of making education as individual as possible,»

says Dr Sven Schütt, CEO of IU International University of Applied Sciences.

Syntea acts as a sophisticated, personalised AI learning assistant that responds to learners› needs and preferences. Syntea provides answers to individually posed questions about the learning material in a matter of seconds, which are checked by teachers in a short time. In doing so, the AI learning buddy takes into account the learning speed of the students and adapts to their learning rhythm. In addition, the AI records the learning progress of the students through questions, enabling them to identify and close their knowledge gaps in a more targeted manner.

«Syntea is one of the first solutions in the world to offer AI-based teaching at a high level and across many degree programmes. This concerns both the underlying generative AI technology and the dialogue-based, natural interaction with Syntea. As a personal learning buddy, Syntea accompanies our students efficiently through their studies and takes their needs into account,» says Quintus Stierstorfer, Director Synthetic Teaching at IU, who is largely responsible for the development of Syntea.

In the current Syntea version, the following two functions are available to students at IU: Question-Answering (Q&A) and Pre-Assessment.

Q&A: Around-the-clock answers to academic questions

Question-Answering (Q&A) provides students with verified answers to their questions about academic content around the clock in an anonymous and private learning environment, allowing them to learn flexibly.

Syntea refers in its answers via a link to the corresponding chapter in the online script. Students thus have the opportunity to immediately dive deeper into the topic. In addition, teachers can add further relevant content, for example further links, to the checked answers.

Syntea immediately recognises questions from fellow students that have already been asked in a similar way and can directly provide suitable and already verified answers. The AI learning buddy uses natural language processing (NLP) in its answers to understand and use words as humans do.

The next step of the Syntea roll-out will be the introduction of further functions such as the Socratic Dialogue, in which students can enter into a natural dialogue with Syntea to stimulate active learning and critical thinking. In this process, students can ask specific questions themselves or be asked questions by Syntea to lead to knowledge gain. The Future Skills service also offers students the opportunity to choose from a range of individualised training aimed at future skills required in the labour market. Syntea is to be developed in the long term into a continuous learning support service – a personalised learning buddy – that actively encourages and motivates students to pursue their learning goals.