AI has rapidly shifted the education landscape and at VitalSource, we believe using AI as a tool to create impactful, scalable learning experiences grounded in learning science research is the way forward. AI can expand the reach of proven learning methods to millions of learners, and with our experience researching learning science, we have a sincere understanding of the responsibility to use AI thoughtfully and with rigorous evaluation.
AI Guided by Learning Science
At VitalSource, we are committed to creating innovative, impactful learning tools that are backed by learning science research. Our learning science research is rooted in the Doer Effect research from Carnegie Mellon, and our replication of this research motivated us to develop our Automatic Question Generation system to scale those results. Our experience building a mature AI question generation system and years of studying its performance guide us to use AI thoughtfully, responsibly and with rigorous evaluation.
The Importance of AI Principles
AI technology is evolving rapidly but our philosophy on the responsible use of it and how to best serve learners and industry partners remains constant. Whether developing teaching and learning tools for faculty and students or improving systems for administrators and partners, our principles guide our approach to our application of AI.
We agree with this statement from the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence “In the end, AI reflects the principles of the people who build it, the people who use it, and the data upon which it is built.”
Accountability
VitalSource is accountable for its use of AI, from decisions on how to apply AI to ensuring quality, validity, and reliability of the output. VitalSource maintains oversight of the output through human review, automated monitoring systems, and analyzing the performance of the AI tools in peer-reviewed publication.
Transparency and Explainability
The AI used to power learning tools in the VitalSource platforms will be identified and documented for all stakeholders. The AI rationale, approaches, and outputs used will be explainable for stakeholders and the AI methods for learning features will be described in efficacy research evaluating those features.
Efficacy
Leveraging AI in our learning platforms will be applied in ways that support student learning, with a strong basis in the learning sciences and rigorous research analyses on the efficacy of the AI tools used by learners.
Responsible and Ethical
VitalSource applies an ethical approach to the application of AI, considering fairness to users, avoiding bias, and applying a learner-centered approach to the design of AI tools. VitalSource will be responsible for ensuring our use of AI complies with legal requirements and regulations, as well as aligning to standards put forth by leading standards organizations.
Data Privacy and Security
VitalSource is committed to protecting the privacy of users in any context, including AI; personally identifiable information is never included in our AI features. Similarly, VitalSource is committed to the secure delivery of publisher copyrighted content. All content will be protected from unauthorized exposure to model training and will only be used with third party AI models with express permission.
Corporate Governance
VitalSource is committed to training its employees on these AI principles. VitalSource has adopted an internal governance policy on the use of AI for both developing new features or products as well as the appropriate use of AI as part of one’s job function.
Insights from our Learning Science and AI Experts
Read these blogs from our team of learning scientists and AI experts.
