Morehouse College students might walk onto campus this coming fall and be greeted by an AI TA.
Certain professors at the HBCU in Atlanta will be adopting a digitized, animated, AI-powered version of themselves that can answer class questions at any time.
That can help professors clear up their schedules outside of class time. And it could certainly help students get the answers they need when they are pulling an all-nighter and cramming for a test (which never happens in college, right?!).
Students will access the TA through a simple web URL on a Chrome Brower, said VictoryXR’s CEO and co-founder Steve Grubbs. VictoryXR built the technology behind the AI platform. The AI TA can be used to re-teach material when a student misses class and is designed to handle basic office hour questions.
“Most professors will be able to build [the TA] on their own using a simple intake form. However, for these initial AI TAs, VictoryXR is guiding and assisting through the process,” Grubbs told Hypepotamus.
VictoryXR was introduced to the team at Morehouse College during the pandemic, according to Dr. Muhsinah L. Morris, Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at Morehouse College. Since then, the two organizations have been working to bring more AI-based learning opportunities to students on campus.
That included creating the first “Metaversity,” which helped with asynchronous learning during the pandemic when in-person learning was limited.
Morris told Hypepotamus that the students are “excited” and that they “feel seen” because the university “cultivated a tool just for them” with the launch of the AI TAs.
Students across multiple departments are expected to get the chance to learn from the AI TAs.
“Since I am in the education department, it will definitely be used there to help train pre-service instructors on how to wield this technology as part of their teacher toolkit. The history department is definitely going to be using it as the chair, Dr. Ovell Hamilton is also a VR pioneer and the Assistant Director of the Metaversity now,” Morris added. “Also, the Student Success Center run by Dr. Derrick Bryan is considering utilizing them to increase the capacity to aid students in alignment with what the professors are teaching. Other professors will be selected based on interest. We want to determine whether increased. access to information will increase student success based on grades, time engaged, and feedback from them. This is an opportunistic reality happening in real time for students. We are increasing the capacity for professors and for students.”
