A few months ago when I was still a student, I dreaded online classes. I know myself, I hate reading and if I didn’t actually attend a physical class, that’s it, I would not read afterwards. I always thought online classes would make me lazy since I would not be required to pay attention.
A school in France knows this – that online classes students hardly pay attention and starting September 2017, Paris Business School will be Nestor Software on their online classes platform.
Nestor is an AI-powered, facial recognition software that uses “emotion recognition systems” to measure students’ attention. The software developed by LCA Learning uses students’ webcams to analyze eye movements and facial expressions and determine whether students are paying attention to a video lecture.
According to the developers of the software, the purpose of the software is to collect data that will hopefully improve the performance of both students and lecturers. If you thought you could still sleep during your online lecture, too bad because Nestor will formulate quizzes based on the content covered during moments of inattentiveness.
Yup. Let that sink in. Your quiz will have questions of the moments your mind drifted off to think about Trump.
This would probably be the most hated software in Kenya. I know of students who do online classes just to avoid classes – not with Nestor.
In addition to facial recognition, the software can integrate with students’ calendars to suggest possible study times and track their online behavior to pick up on patterns. For example, if a student spends their weeknights on YouTube, Nestor will suggest that they use that time to study’ instead.
Haha. I can already hear students taking it up on the streets “peacefully demonstrating” against the use of this software, say, if it was to be used in a certain Kenyan university.
Here’s an awesome idea, why don’t you share this article with students and see what they think? I would never take up any online class, let’s be honest.
Below is a video that demonstrates how the software works:
