We are in a time of unprecedented developments in the field of technology. Indeed, many things that until now have seemed to be nothing more than fanciful thinking or science fiction are now realities in our everyday lives, including AI, and VR.
Of course, such developments will impact our lives in many ways, including the way we learn and interact in a university setting. You can even find some of the most compelling ways in which technology is impacting university-level education in 2025, below. Read on to find out what they are.
Learning personalised by AI
AI, or artificial intelligence, is a type of technology based on large language models or LLMs. They work by reading vast amounts of information online or provided, and pick out patterns and words within them. They can use these patterns to make predictions, and they get better the more that we train them.
AI is already being used in educational institutions to personalise the learning provided to individuals. The main advantage of doing this is that university learning becomes less of a one-size-fits-all activity. Instead, it is customised precisely to a student’s current level and skill set, to build on this.
The way AI can achieve this is by assessing a student’s current level and then presenting them with questions and tasks that address the specific skills they need to develop or the specific knowledge they need to acquire.
Although it’s worth noting that most of these types of personalised learning are done on a one-to-one level, rather than in a classroom situation. This may cause some issues in a higher education setting in terms of groups and lectures, but it could be helpful for personal study.
3D printing
Another way in which technology is being utilised in university-level education right now is via 3D printing. 3D printing is a new technology that was developed in the 1980s. The idea behind it is simple in that it uses the approach of a traditional printer that creates an image line by line, but applies it to a 3D printer.
What this means is that most 3D printers use plastic filaments (although some do use metal or resin) that heat, extrude and shoes thin rows, building up a 3D shape as it goes. One of the major advantages of using 3D printers is that incredibly complex and interlinked shapes can be created with relative ease.
Additionally, 3D printing is a great way of making prototypes to test their efficacy, without having to go through the traditional cost of manufacturing, which often requires the cutting of dies and making of molds.
3D printers can create objects in 3 dimensions because they utilize digital 3D models as patterns, which the printer can follow.
The ways in which 3D printers can be used to great effect in a university setting are many. The first is in the creation of models for specific university-level academic subjects. For example, architecture students can 3D print scale models to check their designs.
Another way in which 3D printers are being used to great effect in a university setting is in the field of manufacturing and design. This is because such printers can be used to easily create real-life versions of students’/researchers’ designs, advance their practical work, and allow for more thorough testing.
Central software hubs
Technology is also having a massive impact on university-level education in the form of products like Ellucian Banner for higher ed, which is a central software hub. These types of central software hubs are centralised computer systems which is used to control a range of different aspects required to successfully run such an institution.
Such aspects include payroll for staff, academic reporting, operational reporting, student records and time tabling. By using a central software hub to make sure that all of this information is in one place and is easily accessible by both students and staff, a great deal of time is saved. Additionally, it makes it much easier for everyone to share information as necessary and even to collaborate for a better outcome.
Remote learning / Virtual campus
Since COVID, the idea of virtual learning has been somewhat normalised. However, it’s important to remember that before this time, most people’s preference was for in-person classes.
Yet this is no longer the case. Indeed, many higher educational institutions offer remote learning options and some even have fully virtual campuses, which allow students access to all the information, lectures, and support they need to complete their course.
The key benefits of using remote learning in a university setting include making it easier for all types of people to be able to access this level of education. For example, those with mobility issues can learn from the comfort of their own home, and those located outside of the country in which the university is situated can still access their program.
Even those with additional responsibilities that may have traditionally acted as a barrier to accessing higher education, such as being a parent with young children or being in full-time work, can be reduced. This is because remote learning classes can be recorded and caught up on online within the student’s personal schedule.
Automation of grading and feedback
Any teacher knows that while every student is their unique individual, the feedback students receive on their work across a class tends to be repetitive. What we mean is that there are only a finite number of ways that students can improve their work, because these improvements will be based on the markscheme by which they are all evaluated.
It is this standardised marscheme that presents the perfect opportunity for automation via the use of AI for both grading and feedback. Indeed, an AI can be taught what to look out for in a student’s work, allowing it to give them an accurate grade.
An AI can also then use the markscheme given to work out where the gaps in their knowledge and skills are and set them an improvement target that will help them reach the next level. All with minimal teacher oversight, saving them a great deal of time and effort in one of the more challenging aspects of teaching.
