Vice President, Marketing Communications
Every student learns to read at a different pace, and ensuring they have access to the right reading materials at the right time is critical for literacy growth. This is where generative AI (GenAI) is revolutionizing educational content development, making personalized learning more attainable.
What is GenAI and how is it used in educational content development?
GenAI is a type of artificial intelligence that creates new content—such as text, images, and music—by analyzing patterns in existing data. GenAI is being used in a number of ways in education, one of which is producing engaging and relevant educational content at different reading ability levels. Specifically, GenAI is aiding in:
- Creating practice reading content at different reading levels – AI accelerates the process of generating tailored reading passages for diverse student needs.
- Developing test items to best assess students – AI enables the creation of texts calibrated to specific reading levels, improving the accuracy of adaptive assessments and providing a more granular understanding of student abilities.
When content and assessments are measured within a structured framework, educators can ensure that students comprehend what they read and grow in their abilities. However, efficiently producing content with this level of precision has been time-consuming and tedious. GenAI offers an immediate head start, making it possible to produce reading materials and assessment passages with the press of a button. But there’s a catch. How do you apply objective measurement?
For those hesitant to embrace GenAI, there are risks in delaying adoption. Organizations that resist integrating AI into content development may struggle to keep pace with evolving student needs, falling behind innovators who are streamlining their workflows and improving student engagement with AI-powered solutions.
Sprint or Stroll: How quickly are educators and edtech embracing GenAI?
Educators are increasingly experimenting with AI tools to create instructional materials, including reading passages tailored to different student needs. Many have turned to tools like ChatGPT to adjust text complexity, but there’s a limitation: ChatGPT does not accurately provide Lexile measures. This can lead to inconsistencies in text complexity, making it unreliable for instructional use. We previously explored this issue in a blog post, Can ChatGPT Really Create Lexile Measures? Nope. Even ChatGPT Agrees!
In the edtech and publishing sectors, the adoption of GenAI varies. Some content developers have embraced AI-driven tools to enhance efficiency, generating customized reading materials faster than ever. Others remain cautious, citing privacy, copyright, and security concerns, and prefer traditional, human-only content creation methods.
Concerns about AI-generated content are understandable, but it’s important to dispel these misconceptions. AI does not replace human expertise; rather, it supplements it by streamlining repetitive tasks, allowing content developers to focus on creativity and instructional design. AI can be used responsibly to maintain high-quality educational content while saving time and resources.
Transform Content Development: How MetaMetrics is Leveraging GenAI
One of the most frequent questions we receive is how to write at specific Lexile levels using existing content, rather than generating entirely new content, a limitation for traditional AI text generators. Many content developers would like to produce reading passages on the same topic—for example, photosynthesis—but need these passages written at different Lexile levels to support classrooms with students with a range of reading abilities. The process of writing text at different reading levels can be time-consuming and iterative, but our new Lexile GenAI functionality streamlines this task, eliminating the guesswork and boosting productivity.
With the new Lexile GenAI functionality, you can auto-generate content to fit specific Lexile ranges using your existing materials. By using a source document, users can adjust readability without losing the essence of the content, ensuring the right balance between content complexity and student ability. The Lexile tool also allows users to select key vocabulary words to include in the generative passage to ensure important concepts remain clear while adjusting the rest of the passage for readability. Additionally, MetaMetrics ensures data privacy, restricting user-submitted material for model training, and maintaining security standards.
Our new Lexile GenAI functionality offers significant advantages for content creators and developers. It boosts productivity by providing real-time analysis of text and ensuring that content complexity aligns with student reading levels. Less time spent on repetitive edits means educators and developers can focus on content quality and student engagement. In our pilot, content developers using our GenAI feature increased efficiency by 36%, needing to draft over 1/3 less iterations to achieve their desired Lexile level.
Navigating Responsible AI Use: Things to keep in mind when using GenAI to develop and measure educational content.
Before embarking on your educational content journey with GenAI, it’s crucial to consider key safeguards to ensure its responsible use. While the benefits of AI are transformative, adopting it without proper oversight can lead to unintended issues. Here are a few key considerations to keep in mind:
- Ensuring accuracy and fact-checking: AI models can introduce errors in generated content, so human oversight is essential.
- Education experience and content curation: AI-generated content should complement, not replace, expert-driven instructional design.
- Addressing bias and ethical concerns: AI systems must be monitored to avoid unintended issues in reading materials.
GenAI is not just a trend; it is bringing to life the vision of creating more personalized educational content for everyone. Let’s discuss how MetaMetrics can help you leverage GenAI with Lexile measures so you can develop reading materials that target the right reading ability more efficiently. Please get in touch.