Personal WhatsApp AI Teaching Assistant

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the existing poor educational experiences of millions of students in Africa who were dealing with challenges such as limited or no access to computers, the Internet, and qualified teachers. In 2019, the average student-teacher ratio at the primary education level in Sub-Saharan Africa was 38:1 which is higher compared to 13.5:1 in Europe. The lack of enough teachers makes it challenging for students to have adequate learning support such as educational question-answering and formative assessments to gauge their learning progress.

In prior work, we developed Kwame AI, an AI teaching assistant delivered via a web app to enable African students to get instant answers to their science questions. In this work, we plan to develop, deploy, and evaluate a WhatsApp-based AI Teaching Assistant for personalized question-answering and assessment. We plan to extend Kwame AI to (1) enable test-taking and (2) be more accessible via WhatsApp. Next, we plan to deploy it in a pilot study in Ghana in collaboration with teachers and evaluate its helpfulness, engagement, and usability. This work has the potential to enable the provision of scalable, high-quality education to millions of people across the African continent.

Contact: Dr. George Boateng

Partners:

Kwame AI