“How was your experience using our product?”
This is one of the most important questions a technology company can ask. Especially when the technology is helping students on the path towards higher education.
For the past three years at Kira, we have reported on the responses we’ve received from tens of thousands of applicants who have used the Kira platform.
In this year’s report, you can scan both quantitative and qualitative feedback from applicants, read more about how we use feedback, and why we report on it.
Year in review
As more and more programs add Kira to their admissions process, we had another record-breaking year in terms of applicant volume. Overwhelmingly, applicants continue to rate their Kira applicant experience as positive and leave great suggestions for us in the comments.
One thing last year’s data doesn’t show is that we implemented a significant change to Kira’s technology.
In late 2019, the Kira platform officially moved away from Flash video recording across all assessments. The move to HTML5 recording enabled Kira to become a more flexible and accessible platform for applicants and admissions teams.
Though Flash was a dominant platform for online multimedia content earlier in the decade, it is being phased out across the web in favor of the more modern HTML5. We also successfully launched new technical infrastructure to better support applicants in mainland China.
Given the new infrastructure and evolution of HTML5 in the fall of 2019, many applicants have yet to experience this improved version of Kira.
Looking ahead, next year’s applicant feedback will be our first full calendar year to report on the impact of dropping Flash from our platform.
By the numbers
Over 67,000 applicants left feedback on their Kira applicant experience from January 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020.
While the number of applicants who complete a Kira assessment increases every year, fewer applicants are leaving feedback. Given the number of completed applicants has risen year-over-year, this number came as a surprise to us.
In 2020, we’re updating the feedback survey in the hopes of attracting more users to leave their feedback and comments.
82% of applicants rated their Kira applicant experience either “Great” (4/5) or “Exceptional” (5/5)
This is a consistent rating from past years.
51% of applicants rated their Kira applicant experience “Exceptional” (5/5)
This is a consistent rating from past years.
The average rating overall was slightly above “Great” (4.3/5)
This is a slight increase from the past two years (Kira applicants rated their Kira experience at an average of 4.2/5.
1.5% of applications rated their experience as “poor”
This is a slight increase from last year (1.4% of applicants rated their Kira experience poor). While we were not able to bring this number down in 2019, we are confident with our move away from Flash, we’re on track to reduce this rating in 2020.
6.8% of applicants opened a support ticket while completing a Kira assessment.
Great news! This number has dropped slightly from last year and the year prior, meaning once again, fewer applicants required help from our support services.
89% of applicants who left feedback on support rated their experience as great. The options were great, okay, and not good.
By the comments
Reading daily feedback reports has always been a highlight for the Kira team. Let’s open up the black box and see what we learned from last year’s comments:
Applicants appreciated a different type of test
“I love this platform. It pushes students to do something out of the ordinary.”
“For me, it was a very nice challenge after 6 years of exams.”
"Easy to use and extremely innovative. Would love to see other universities implement this program!"
“I believe this was a great way for [redacted school] to use this platform and video assessment. The holistic approach is without a doubt one of the best ways to evaluate a candidate.”
We hear from admissions teams that Kira assessments help show a different side of their applicants beyond grades and test scores. It’s rewarding to hear from the number of applicants who feel the same way.
Applicants didn’t love Flash
We heard this feedback loud and clear and made phasing out Flash our #1 priority last year.
“You guys should stop using flash”
“Having to use Flash is annoying”
“Trying to get adobe flash to work was painful.”
We’re so happy to be Flash-free in 2020. We’re already seeing a significant improvement in feedback from applicants since making this change in 2019.
Applicants gave mixed reviews related to stress & anxiety
“The practice "I will do great on this assignment" helps people to get confident and comfortable and is a good self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“I think this online interview also takes away a lot of the nerves accompanies with Grad school interviews, and I feel it allows interviewers to see a real picture of prospective students by removing some of the "white coat" syndrome entailed in the interview process.”
“Using Kira takes away much of the stress from the actual interviews!”
“It's friendly, but I needed more friendliness, I was completely nervous while recording.”
“Make it less stressful, maybe?”
As we continue to learn from feedback about the experience, we hear from some applicants who find the experience stressful and others who are relieved in comparison to an in-person interview.
While there’s no perfect solution, we continue to keep an eye on feedback like this.
Applicants left helpful feedback on assessments for schools
“Some questions beg more than a minute for an answer but maybe that’s for the interviewers to set?”
“I would like to be provided with practice questions with topics that were more similar to the actual interview questions.”
We pass feedback like this along to the school. Every year, we share anonymized comments from applicants to help each program improve their assessment for next year.
Because applicants do not want to hurt their chances at entry, admissions teams rarely get honest feedback directly from applicants on their process.
Applicants left us design ideas, too!
“I think the home check-in page could use a redesign”
Sounds good. We’re actually releasing a new look for this page this summer!
And even the occasional, unusual feature request...
“The platform is perfect but if it could put some filter to make the people who use the platform look more pretty it would be better.”
We appreciate this feature request, but you look great as is! No filter needed.
Reports from other years
Kira Applicant Experience Report 2022
Kira Applicant Experience Report 2021
Kira Applicant Experience Report 2020
Kira Applicant Experience Report 2018
Kira Applicant Experience Report 2017
After last year’s scandal, the world of admissions and enrollment expected a shake-up in 2020.
And it was shaken. But by something far bigger than the scandal.
The global coronavirus pandemic has changed nearly everything about our lives including our admissions and enrollment processes.
We asked 250 schools about their admissions teams’ response to COVID-19. We asked admissions professionals about their concerns, their fears, and their tips for getting through this time. 50 representatives from admissions teams responded to our survey. 83% of respondents hailed from North America, 13% from Europe, and 5% represented schools in Asia.
Here’s the report on admissions in a pandemic.
Report on Remote Admissions
Changes in practices and processes
Far and away, the biggest change admissions teams have adopted this cycle was to extend deadlines. 81% of the admissions professionals we surveyed extended their deadlines for at least one phase of their admissions process.
Beyond extending deadlines, more than half of respondents have made at least one other change, including more flexibility for international students, one-on-one phone chats with candidates, and optional deferrals.
You can see the breakdown of new practices schools have introduced below:
Only two respondents indicated that they have made no changes due to COVID-19 to their admissions process.
Admissions’ wishlist for further changes
When asked what they’d like to see change, 32% of respondents were hoping to see phone chats between candidates and faculty members added to their school’s response to the virus.
A quarter of schools indicated that expanding flexibility around tests and assessment options is needed.
Concerns about next year
Unsurprisingly, the number one concern on admissions teams’ minds right now is filling classes.
More than half of the participants expressed worries that they would not be able to fill their classes due to travel restrictions (58% concerned), uncertainly about financial commitments (54% concerned), or students deferring their enrollment if their program is online come September (54% concerned).
62% of admissions teams indicated they were concerned about their inability to predict yield and melt.
Top challenges in the admissions office
When asked an open-ended question about their teams' biggest challenge right now, our respondents left a wide range of responses. The top themes included enrollment and yield management, dealing with the uncertainty of the pandemic, and student visa issues.
On the bright side, the large majority of respondents expressed less fear about losing their own jobs (16%) or their team members being reduced (30%) due to lay-offs or reassignment.
Right now, it seems, admissions teams have even more work than they already did!
Usage of the Kira Talent platform
Survey participants who use the Kira Talent platform had a variety of different reasons for using Kira during this time. The most common responses were improving retention, ensuring program commitment, and rewarding scholarships.
9 tips from admissions officers on tackling work from home
To wrap up our survey, we asked for tips and tricks on working in admissions at this strange time. Unsurprisingly, our admissions community came through with so many great suggestions.
1) Stay in touch with your team
“Find ways to keep connected with your team. Take an hour each week (every other) to break away from work and "hang out". Play a game, talk about life, break up the monotony.”
“Meet with your peers frequently via Zoom or instant messaging.”
“Create a faculty community in the online space. Have weekly team meetings.”
Looking for some help connecting with your team?
Check out Jackbox Games for virtual silliness, this how-to article to make your own team trivia night, and a bunch more virtual activities.
2) Double down on personalization
“Connect with the candidates, this is always true, but even more so now. Meeting one on one when possible is great, most of all, personalize because everyone is feeling the social distance. Connecting even remotely and reducing cultural distance and creating a sense of proximity is key for recruitment at the present time.”
“Offer virtual coffee chats."
“Have video calls with incoming students to help relieve stress about the situation.”
With more and more students considering the possibility of deferral in the fall, every candidate connection counts for filling your class next year.
3) Listen and be flexible to students’ needs
“Communicate extensively with your pool of applicants and also listen to applicants' needs. Provide flexibility and options.”
“Our Recruitment Officers are reaching out to all newly admitted students who to date have not confirmed their admission and trying to help in any way they can.”
“The key this year will be maintaining quality standards while offering as much flexibility as possible. It’s critical to assess all parts of the application holistically.”
“Flexibility in platforms, not everyone can use Skype or Zoom.”
More than ever before, applicants who may not meet all requirements need to be considered on a case-by-case basis.
We recently heard from a candidate who had completed a portion of their application from a parking lot where they could connect to wireless internet.
Considering an applicant’s context is critical.
Read: "How to Consider Context and Intersectionality in Admissions."
4) Be proactive on COVID-19 updates & communications
“Maintain updated instructions and FAQs related to COVID on a main webpage to decrease repeat questions from applicants.”
“Keep informed on updates so students can be provided with answers.”
If you’re personally finding COVID-19 news overwhelming, that’s completely understandable.
Open up a discussion with your colleagues to see if you can take turns owning COVID-19 communications across alternating days and weeks.
5) Have fun with technology
“If you're using Zoom like many are, find fun virtual backgrounds to add variety to your day.”
Opening a Zoom meeting with a fun background can definitely be a great icebreaker. Canva has some great templates to create your own Zoom background, whether you want to create a mood for a meeting or show of your campus!
6) Make a schedule for the day (and don’t skip your breaks)
“Plan out your hours. Plan free time to relax or do sports.”
“Set clear hours of work. It's easy to work all day because of convenience.”
“Try to adhere to your normal schedule as much as possible. That includes dressing nicely for work and taking scheduled breaks. This will help maintain routine and normality during this unique time.”
(No comment on pairing sweatpants with a suit and jacket though.)
Many of us make a schedule for the day, but we’re quick to work through our breaks and lunches to make up time on other projects.
In the moment it feels like a good idea, but those brain breaks help you be more creative and productive in the long run!
7) Set up your space
“Use dual monitors and, if working with a laptop, get a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Get comfortable.”
“Make sure your equipment is working properly before any meetings.”
For most of us in higher education, home isn’t a primary workplace.
If you have been using an “alternative” desk set up, you’re most likely feeling the back and neck pain already. Here are some stretches for relieving that working-from-home pain.
8) Move around – and don’t forget to blink!
“Get up every 20 minutes, create a schedule, don't forget to blink. Take care of yourself.”
Worldwide Google search queries about “eye strain” are up nearly 100% compared to this time last year, and even, six months ago.
9) Above all, take care of yourself and your families!
“Make sure you don’t neglect your mental health”
“Find the right balance with work/personal life in the same place - a typical day no longer runs straight through; there might be big pauses where you're managing your children, feeding them, helping them with their online school work.”
“Find a dependable source of beer and use it extensively :)”
This experience has been really hard for each of us in different ways.
Please, take care!
All of us at Kira can’t wait to see you soon.
About the study:
This study was conducted by the team at Kira Talent in May 2020. Data were collected anonymously in the form of a survey sent to a variety of Kira's academic admissions partners. Participants were given a list of multiple-choice and open-ended questions about their admissions processes. It was completed by fifty participants.
Admissions application fraud is back in the news this week. And with a vengeance.
33 parents have been charged with paying their kids’ way into top schools through consultants who bribed college staff and fabricated application materials.
Fraud is a real issue. It’s just not always celebrities who get caught and make headlines.
Back in 2016, we heard from more than fifty schools on their opinions and concerns about admissions fraud.
We found that 88% believed application fraud was prevalent among schools other than their own. Schools know about this issue, even if it isn’t talked about regularly.
The reality is that college admissions is so competitive and, honestly, so broken, that some students (and in most cases, it is the parents of students) will do anything to get the right ‘brand name school’ for their kid.
Related: Nightmare in the Admissions Office: Parents’ Edition.
Examples of fraud can range from plagiarizing admissions essays and hiring someone to write a test for you, to fabricating extracurricular activities or athletic abilities.
Why do students cheat?
There are several reasons why students cheat to get into college, but the number one factor is pressure.
There’s an intense societal pressure to go to a big name school or a competitive program in the U.S. and internationally.
In many instances, that pressure comes from family members. At prep schools, it may even come from teachers. And, of course, the media glorifies attending elite schools.
It's no surprise that these factors make students feel like they need to attend the 'very best.' The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation identified that 49% of corporate industry leaders and 50% of government leaders graduated from only 12 selective colleges and universities.
As tens of thousands compete for limited spots at these schools, some families find ways to pay to cut in line, so to speak.
The impact of admissions fraud
For the students who get in as a result of admissions fraud, the shortcut only has short-term benefits. They may have a false sense of accomplishment and be, unfortunately, less prepared for success in the classroom.
Take, for example, students who use fraudulent language test scores. Once they arrive on a campus where those language skills are being tested, they may not have the support needed to navigate their education.
And for everyone else, admissions success by fraud furthers the inequality for first-generation or lower-income students who don’t have access to the same financial resources.
As students are being groomed for the perfect college admissions story as early as kindergarten, it’s hard on their mental health, their families, and their overall happiness, and in the end, there are so many other great colleges and universities out there.
Related: Easing Anxiety: Bringing Mental Health Awareness into Admissions
Fortunately, there are organizations out there working to change the system.
In 2016, Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Making Caring Common Project released a report called Turning the Tide which called on school’s to rethink admissions practices.
One of the core reasons for Making Caring Common’s initiative is because the narrow definition of ‘achievement’ established by college admissions practices puts undue stress on students and motivates them towards selfish behaviors. Sound familiar?
Admissions fraud cases, like the one we’re seeing among Hollywood stars, are unfortunate, severe symptoms of the college admissions rat race. And as CNN’s David Perry puts in, it’s just “the tip of the iceberg.”
What we’re doing at Kira
Fraud is one of the major issues we strive to tackle at Kira Talent. We offer schools a holistic admissions platform that collects supplementary materials, like essays and recommendation letters, as well as timed video and timed written assessments.
Students can practice using the platform and reviewing their responses infinitely leading up to completing their timed video responses, but once the real assessment begins they are given limited prep time and they are not told the question in advance.
Simulating a live interview, the assessment challenges students to think on their feet and give a genuine answer that has not been coached or consulted.
Kira responses can help schools validate the students’ authentic content, oral and written communication skills, which has become more a sub-benefit to the real reason we created this company: To give students a chance to tell their story.
Next, read: The Stark Reality of Admissions Application Fraud: Kira Fraud Report.
Last month, I was in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the 9th annual G(irls)20 Global Summit where the ideas and recommendations of 26 brilliant young women were amplified on the global stage.
I could not have been more excited and proud to have played a role in such a critical event. Working at Kira, we create education technology, so it is such a treat to work with this organization specifically in support of girls education.
At the G(irls)20 Global Summit, young women from around the world spent a week in Buenos Aires for leadership training, social enterprise development, and mentoring from female leaders in the business and public sectors.
The Summit is modeled after the G20 Summit and culminates with a Communiqué approved and delivered to G20 Sherpas that features recommendations on policies and programs that will enable young women globally to fully participate in their local economies.
While at the Global Summit, I was fortunate enough to moderate a panel on financial inclusion featuring Silvia Morimoto, Country Director, United Nations Development Program, Patricia Blanco, Partner, Bain & Co., and Veronica Silva, CEO Apprendo and KAIROS Society Fellow.
The central question being: What barriers still face young women in the G20 countries that prevent them from fully taking part in the formal economy and how can the G20 leaders finally tackle these barriers?
The solution? They called upon each G20 government to:
- Incorporate financial literacy programs into the formal education system and create a regulating body to monitor the increase of financial autonomy of women and girls.
- Increase technology infrastructure to advance digital financial literacy programs in areas that lack infrastructure necessary to access financial services, with special attention towards access to internet in rural areas.
- Increase investment in corporations and civil society organizations which focus on financial literacy for illiterate women and girls in areas with limited digital access, with a special emphasis on marginalized communities.
In addition to financial literacy, the communique covered a wide variety of pillars with the other four being:
- PROVIDE SAFE ACCESS TO INCLUSIVE PARTICIPATION IN DIGITAL SPACES
- FOSTER ACCESS TO STEAM* EDUCATION AND CAREERS FOR WOMEN & GIRLS
- IMPLEMENT STRONG LEGAL MECHANISMS TO PREVENT AND ELIMINATE GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
- ADVANCE ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION IN RURAL COMMUNITIES THROUGH BOTH FORMAL AND INFORMAL MEANS
*STEAM is an educational approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics
In the past, Kira has been a proud partner of the G(irls)20’s Bootcamp for Brains program in Toronto. Now, we are thrilled to continue our support for this incredible organization by being part of the Global Summit. Onwards and upwards to the 2019 Global Summit in Tokyo Japan!
More about G(irls)20:
Launched in 2009 at the Clinton Global Initiative, G(irls)20 places young women at the centre of decision-making processes. Through our signature programs, Global Summit and Girls on Boards, we make strategic investments in young women through education and training, building networks, and access to unparalleled opportunities at home and abroad. While advocating for change at the global level through the annual G(irls)20 Global Summit, we are invested in changing the status quo for women at decision-making tables in communities across Canada by placing Girls on Boards.
Visit http://www.girls20.org to learn more about the Summit and our other programs.
Earlier this month, Kira Talent surpassed 100 client reviews across the Gartner Digital Markets review network (Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice.)
With an average of 4.5/5 stars, we are so thankful and thrilled.
Thank you to all our wonderful clients who took the time to share your experiences with Kira.
From those of you who we’ve known for years to the new faces who joined for their first cycle just a few months ago, your endorsements mean the world to us! And your recommendations on how we can improve are super useful for our team as they prioritize and build out new features on the platform.
Your authentic reviews are also helpful to any other admissions teams who are considering if Kira is the right fit for their schools. (The only thing better would have been to hear your thoughts in a timed video response, am I right?)
All of this to say, THANK YOU from all of us at Kira!
Part II: How Machine Learning Can Transform Higher Education. This is the second in a three-part series from Kira on machine learning and looking ahead at its role in higher education enrollment. Read Part I here.
With machine learning, higher education and ed tech companies have an incredible opportunity to work together to improve the way students explore, enroll, and move through higher education.
In my last article, I wrote about machine learning; what it means, and why we should embrace it (or at least how we’ve already been embracing it without necessarily knowing, and should continue to do so).
There are many ways, of course, that machine learning is helping our day to day life go from good to great.
But when you really think about how transformative machine learning can be, I believe the most noticeable improvements will happen in industries that are inherently difficult to disrupt like education, healthcare, and government to name a few.
Why? These are the foundational building blocks of our society and even the smallest amount of innovation produces results in an order of magnitude more impactful than other industries.
What does higher education look like today?
Well for anyone who has gone to college in the last decade or two, it starts like this:
- You attend a college fair, a campus visit, or conduct research online.
- You are directed to some sort of common application for a number of programs that you may or may not know anything about.
- You fill out various forms (sometimes repeatedly) with standardized information about yourself that you then send off to multiple schools.
- At some point in time, you either a) hear back that you’ve made it forward to an interview or need to fill out more information or b) you just open your inbox or mailbox to find an offer of acceptance.
- You accept the offer, receive a bunch of documents, get your textbooks, go to a few socials, show up on campus and sit in class with 200-400 others in a fixed course schedule, ready for what the next few years will bring you.
- This culminates in “graduation” where you inevitably repeat the painful search process again, this time with infinitely more options and infinitely less information about what you should be doing with your life and where you should be doing it.
Not so bad, right?
Well, we think it actually could be so much better.
Despite the relatively small enhancements schools and new technologies have made to bring this whole process “online" from the days of paper applications and non-digital textbooks, nothing has really changed. This process has not become any smarter.
Aside from the two percent of people who have known their career paths with complete certainty since age five, the rest of us may find those early adult years somewhat painful in trying to navigate the complex “modern” education system.
Here’s how machine learning could disrupt this experience for applicants
Imagine a world whereas a student stepping on to campus for your first day of class, things look a little different.
- You already know this is the right program for you. Your skills (both technical to soft) have been thoroughly assessed in advance giving you a curated list of the ideal programs for both your existing skills and the ones needed for your desired career path.
- You show up on campus already knowing your classmates through a series of digital interactions as well as their strengths and weaknesses and their aspirations, knowing where you fit in the balanced classroom.
- Despite what program you picked, you receive a personalized curriculum of courses that will continue to adapt over the next four years based on your learnings, progress, interests, and change in skills required for your career path.
- Over the course of your personalized learning journey, you receive annual evaluations on the evolution of your skills, not just from one professor but from your collective projects, exams, courses, and group work among all courses.
- Finally, as you approach graduation and begin your job search, you realize it's actually not a “search” at all. Based on your continued evaluation and feedback, a list of employers with open positions to match your skill sets and career ambitions is brought directly to you. But who says it's just about working for someone? Maybe your path will be a little more unconventional, think entrepreneur, novelist, or farmer. So on top of just seeing the available “jobs” you are also presented with a list of others who made similar choices, shared similar interests, or excelled in similar ways as you upon graduation from your institution and where they ended up one, three, and five years down the line.
Wow.
The effects of this type of "new world" education system are that the whole process, from the time you are 18 and have no idea what you want to do in life to the time you are 30 and finally comfortable in a career path is condensed from 12 years to roughly half of that.
Imagine avoiding the painful years of your 20s desperately trying to find your place, who you are, and what you should be doing.
With that, it’s really important to note: As we move through a process of designing and building a more intelligent education process, we need to always remember that admissions is both a science and an art; and, it’s inherently human.
The importance of the human touch in the process
In his talk at the ASU-GSV summit this week, Joseph Aoun, President of Northeastern University and author of Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, reiterated that a focus on the humanities, a creative mindset, and empathy will equip the next generation in the AI revolution
Human touch is going to remain the most valuable aspect of any role that involves interacting with other humans. In an industry like education, we can focus our efforts on ensuring more time for meaningful human interactions every step of the way.
Building algorithms to help inform admissions decisions must be done extremely thoughtfully and with the utmost care. At Kira, we care deeply about helping schools mitigate subconscious reviewer biases in the admissions process.
So, when it comes to developing algorithms, the same level of commitment to leveling the playing field is needed in the engineers, data scientists, and strategists that build these systems.
RELATED: Technology is Biased Too. How Do We Fix it?
The next decade will be defined by the progress of machine learning in our society: It is inevitable and it is already happening.
So, how will you start preparing to embrace machine learning at your institution?
In Part III, you’ll hear directly from our product expert at Kira about what steps your school can take now to begin preparing for the ML revolution.
At Kira Talent, we’re heading rapidly down a path of releasing the industry’s first, truly holistic admissions management software.
We’re exploring machine learning as we charge towards making higher education admissions “smarter.”
Higher education is an industry craving transformation. As machine learning and AI are tossed freely around in tech, like “cloud-based” and “mobile-first” were less than a decade ago, it's important to understand what organizations mean when they use these terms.
When we hear these terms, we might think of the Terminator, Blade Runner, or the Matrix. We might have images of automation, our jobs being replaced, or robots that roam around freely in the streets.
But the reality is far less scary.
There is a difference between machine learning and artificial general intelligence (AGI) AKA the robots that roam around freely performing any intellectual task that a human can do. We are many years if not decades away from that.
However, whether you know it or not, your current day-to-day life is already augmented by machine learning. You just might not see it or know where to look.
Think of how Amazon seems to predict what you want to buy. Think of how Facebook can already predict which of your friends or family is in a photo and don’t even get me started on Netflix.
When fed with an incredible amount of data about you, or people like you, machine learning algorithms begin to identify patterns through actions and make predictions on future actions.
Data scientists and software engineers develop these machine learning algorithms and then can feed their algorithms all of this data to process. Software programs you use every day can be “trained” or “taught” to new ways to present and analyze data - much like methods, you might use as part of a team when sorting all the information you have on hand before coming to a conclusion. The insights machine learning serves up help superpower the solutions we rely on with predictive knowledge.
Hence, the term “machine learning."
Next, let’s address this other word we hear (and say) a lot, smarter:
What’s most incredible about machine learning algorithms is that they never stop learning. Constantly evaluating patterns in the data they’ve been fed and re-assessing the prior insights they’ve served up based on outcomes, they become “smarter” over time and (unlike many of us) they learn from their mistakes and improve accordingly.
An everyday example of feedback loops that machine learning is already powering is the predictive text feature of our smartphones.
When you first get a new device, you may fumble with the touchpad, having to teach it the names of your friends or colleagues, school and other acronyms you use all the time... but, over time, you notice your phone generating phrases, terms, or names you often use in relation to the other words you’re typing.
Safe to say, machine learning presents an extraordinary opportunity for every industry and most industries have already adopted new machine learning powered technologies.
Now that you understand a bit more about machine learning, jump to Part II to discover all the ways machine learning will transform higher education over the next 5-10 years.
Kira Release Notes highlight the latest features and recent product improvements so you can stay up to date on what’s new and what's changed in the last quarter.
Kira Release Notes highlight the latest features and recent product improvements we’ve made, so you can stay up to date on what’s new and what has changed in the last quarter.