Nov 01, 2016 07:14 AM EDT By Jane Reed, UniversityHerald Reporter

Online education and resources are essential to today's professionals. Which is why IBM and Pearson Education are working hand in hand to employ IBM's Watson to students using Pearson Education's coursewares.

Last week, in an Educause event in Anaheim, California, the two companies announced that they are opening a venue for students to ask questions within their chosen learning programs. In turn, Watson's smart language capabilities are going to supply the answers to those questions.

During the Educause event, both companies explain that the use of cognitive computing and neuroscience to transform learning is successful. An experiment done by Satya Nitta, an IBM Researcher, indicates that a course on artificial intelligence used Watson to act as a teaching assistant. All questions related to the course have already been fed. It includes all the questions Watson had ever been asked in an online forum. The person answering the question was not human. It was a virtual tutor. The use of such technology for online education can be useful. But studies indicate that online learning has low retention rates because of the lack of teaching support.

This new courseware hopes to address that by providing faster answers and feedback. Called Jill Watson, Jill delivers answers to questions with 97% certainty. Pearson education is going to attempt to recreate it.

The courseware content is already ready. Both companies have already reviewed the content. It is ready for use. Watson will analyze student responses to provide information and help uncover misconceptions.

Pearson once discussed using Artificial Intelligence to help students. According to Campus Tech, it is called "AIEd." The company explains that artificial intelligence can be used to offer students the educational experience they need. It will be much more personalized and engaging for the users. But they insist that the use of such technology will not replace teachers. Teachers are still considered to be the most important factors to a greater education.

Find out what other experts think about using artificial intelligence as a tool:

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