No matter what program you are in, all university students have encountered courses with lengthy readings, making the amount of material to digest overbearing. I’ll admit I have managed to get through most of my classes by mastering the art of skim reading, but even that in itself hasn’t saved me much time nor enabled me to grasp the entirety of the course content. Luckily, there is an artificial intelligence up in the works, AI Notes, which could truly benefit the learning success of students.
AI Notes is a web application designed to extract keywords and information presented in a document and to formulate them into simplified study notes. It is also able to generate study questions, and with the offline feature, you can take your notes on the go and edit them to your liking. The software was developed by Georgios (George) Rambos, alongside colleagues Maxim Tolkatchev and Nicholas Gilca, all of whom attend Ryerson University.
Over the winter break, I had the opportunity to speak to George to gain further insight into the development of AI Notes and its benefits. George is currently a 4th year student at Ryerson majoring in Health Science and minoring in Computer Science.
The idea originated in George’s first year of university when he was struggling with a difficult health and law course, and, having ADHD, George found it very overwhelming to keep up with the course material. He admitted his professor would make lengthy notes on the course content that just weren’t very accommodating for his learning style. Thus, he spent countless evenings with his parents and classmates who quizzed him on his knowledge. Knowing his parents or a study partner couldn’t always be available, Geroge sought out to develop a software that could automatically scan and condense written material, while still being morally oriented as well as interactive. AI Notes has helped George overcome his struggles and enhance his learning experience, and now it’s something he’d like to share with the community. “I originally did it for myself”, stated George, “I just wanted something that could get me through my own notes in my own classes because I hated reading with a passion.” For someone like George, who has ADHD, it is difficult for him to read and concentrate for a long period of time.
George implies AI Notes features are designed in a way to enrich learning. Aside from notes, the system composes questions which aid in prompting and can provoke students to recall what they have read, which enhances our working memory. The same way it is easier for us to remember information in terms of “chunks”, the artificial intelligence groups material into legible formats anyone can retain.
It is also able to accommodate those with dyslexia as well, by organizing material into a reader friendly format but, hopefully one day, George would like to be able to integrate text-to-speech and speech-to-text. Content display is crucial. The typography, specifically Roboto, has been proven to help those with dyslexia and even those who are visually impaired.
Even if you do not have a learning disability, AI Notes is truly beneficial for everyone. The software is able to pick up on crucial information which the human eye can easily miss. So even if you are not the greatest note-taker, or lose focus while reading, AI Notes can certainly assist you.
While skeptics may be quick to question how they are supposed to learn the material if they’re not reading it themselves or making their own notes, AI Notes certainly is not meant to be the easy way out. Rather, AI Notes is a tool that can enhance learning and the overall experience of attaining and retaining knowledge.
In regards to what’s next, George and his colleagues are in the process of expanding the application to include speech-to text and text-to-speech. Primarily they are seeking to put the application onto a larger platform by reaching tutors, teachers and educational institutions who could incorporate the use of the software into their classroom.
For more information and access to AI Notes, visit https://www.ainotes.org/.