SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Aug. 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In order to reinforce the goal of better use of technology to support education, Stefanini, a $1B global IT provider, announced today that the company partnered with Saint Paul. The two companies are offering a disruptive platform in Brazil that allows students to clarify doubts anytime of the day, from anywhere using artificial intelligence (AI).
“Our professors train the AI tool to answer questions on class content,” said Marcos Paulo Sanchez, superintendent of digital and IT at Saint Paul. The Financial Times listed the institution among the best in the world at least five times.
The project started with accounting, followed by innovation and creativity. Now, students with a background in administration and finance will have access to the tool, which is capable of answering questions as well as teaching concepts and techniques related to the course. As a result, more than 20,000 students are able to turn to the platform for learning. “The new expectation is to extend the access to more than 100 courses in three years,” said Sanchez. “The digital transformation is what moves us. We are not discarding professors. It is actually the opposite. It is a new way that the professor works with us since they are the ones who train the system."
On top of offering extensive content and precise answers, the platform allows the student to follow their own development in the course and share their experience on a social platform made exclusively for students. “We want to put the student in control of the learning,” said Sanchez. For Filipe Cotait, director of technology at Stefanini Scala, the platform shows that Saint Paul is an innovative and disruptive institution. Saint Paul is the only school in the world to utilize AI in this way.
The “24-hour professor”
Stefanini Scala is responsible for the implementation of the IBM Watson technology and for the creation of the chat, which allows students to ask the “24-hour professor” questions. “In the beginning, I confess that I was skeptical about the possibility of AI learning the content, but the results were a great surprise,” said Sanchez.
This project is part of a continuing education program called LIT, which works similarly to a Netflix membership offering access to vast content and allowing students to direct their education toward specific interests. In general, the platform called Paul includes more than 1,500 problems and solutions, 7,000 books, and 10 MBA programs. As students complete their digital coursework, they earn certificates to confirm their subject knowledge. If the student prefers, they can study through the platform and attend physical classes to obtain an MBA diploma from Saint Paul, for one-fifth of the price of a traditional MBA.
The platform is also capable of identifying strengths and weaknesses in each student and offers a personalized educational path. Furthermore, it is able to draw out the student’s personality through their writing and social interactions. Above all, it is democratic. The membership costs $26.50 a month (R$ 99 reais), which allows millions of Brazilians to have access to quality education.
Get to Know Paul
- Development: Created with IBM Watson technology and implemented by Stefanini Scala, a Stefanini affiliate.
- Training: Before Paul could teach, it needed to learn. Saint Paul professors programmed the platform to explain and answer questions about accounting, innovation, creativity, administration, and finance.
- Cognitive Computing: When a student asks a question, Paul uses language processing to understand the question and offer one of the answers previously prepared by the Saint Paul professors.
- Non-answered Questions: If Paul does not know the answer, professors are available to help in person. Afterward, the questions and answers are inserted into the platform for a continuous process of improvement content guardianship.
- Personalization: Paul is able to capture insights about student personality and suggests the best ways of learning.
About Stefanini:
Stefanini (www.stefanini.com) is a Brazilian multinational with 30 years of experience in the market, investing in a complete innovation ecosystem to meet the main verticals and assist customers in the process of digital transformation. With robust offerings aligned with market trends such as automation, cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) and user experience (UX), the company has been recognized with several awards in the area of innovation.
Today, the company has a broad portfolio of solutions that combine innovative consulting, marketing, mobility, personalized campaigns and artificial intelligence services for traditional solutions such as service desk, field service and outsourcing (BPO).
With a presence in 40 countries, Stefanini was nominated for the third consecutive year as the fifth transnational company more internationalized, according to the Dom Cabral Foundation ranking of 2017.
Editorial Contacts
Carla Ferber (Carla.ferber@stefanini.com)
Vanessa Morais (Vanessa.morais@stefanini.com)
+1 248 263.8612