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Cengage, the U.S. higher education division of the global edtech company Cengage Group, has announced the beta launch of its new GenAI-powered Student Assistant. This innovative tool, designed to personalize and empower student learning, will be tested by more than 5,000 higher education students during the upcoming fall semester.

The Student Assistant is integrated into Cengage’s online learning platform, MindTap, and is engineered to guide students through their learning journey. The Assistant enhances students' understanding and application of course material by providing access to relevant resources at critical moments, offering tailored feedback, and facilitating deeper connections with key concepts. Importantly, the tool is designed to support academic integrity by guiding students to arrive at correct answers on their own, rather than simply providing answers.

The development of this tool follows two years of extensive research by Cengage, which involved over 3,000 faculty members and 200 students. This research aimed to identify classroom challenges and explore how AI could be harnessed to improve learning outcomes. The result is Cengage’s patent-pending GenAI approach, which leverages intelligent language models and Cengage-owned content to create a discipline-specific learning assistant.

The Student Assistant is carefully trained to prioritize pedagogical goals and is confined to knowledge within specific course areas, ensuring both accuracy and relevance. Instructors and students play a key role in refining the Assistant, ensuring that it upholds academic integrity, minimizes bias, and maintains an appropriate tone. As GenAI technology continues to evolve, Cengage’s innovation team is committed to using the most suitable large language models (LLMs) for each discipline, ensuring that the Student Assistant offers a focused and effective learning experience.

Initial testing will focus on four courses where AI assistance is expected to be particularly beneficial: Principles of Management, Organizational Behavior, Lifespan Psychology, and Principles of Economics. Throughout the beta phase, Cengage will evaluate student engagement, learning outcomes, satisfaction, and overall value for both students and educators.

Cengage plans to expand the availability of the Student Assistant to more courses in Spring 2025, further integrating this cutting-edge tool into its educational offerings.