Researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison say they are getting closer to designing a system to deliver the ideal lesson plan for each student, through a process they call “machine teaching.” If the idea of machine learning, a popular area of artificial-intelligence research, is to let computers learn from data to detect patterns and better deal with large data sets, machine teaching looks for the best way to share particular information with a student, says Jerry Zhu, an associate professor of computer science at the university who is leading the project. Eventually, the approach could create the best lesson for a particular student, Mr. Zhu says. “We are really building upon what the cognitive community knows about learning, and in particular what we need is a cognitive model that’s computational and individualized,” he says.

August 12, 2015 ・ From Chronicle of Higher Education