Education company Visang to develop AI-based digital math textbook

By Kim Joo-heon Posted : March 5, 2024, 15:57 Updated : April 25, 2024, 14:30
[Getty Images Bank]

SEOUL -- South Korea's Visang Education has partnered with Mathpresso, the operator of artificial intelligence-driven learning platform called "Qanda," to develop an AI app-based math textbook. This solution will suggest questions tailored to each student's academic proficiency and offer hints when they get stuck. 

Qanda, boasting approximately 90 million users, rapidly provides explanations within five seconds after a student snaps a photo of a challenging math question and uploads it. The platform utilizes optical character recognition (OCR) technology to extract vital information from handwritten text images, enabling seamless conversion into machine-encoded text.

Visang has announced its plan to leverage Mathpresso's OCR technology to create the AI math digital textbook. The two companies will collaborate to integrate a large language model (LLM) into the textbook, bolstering its capacity to offer hints when students encounter difficulties. "We will provide a highly personalized learning experience for the public education sector by combining our AI technology with Visang's expertise in textbook development," Mathpresso CEO Lee Yong-jae said in a statement on March 5.

South Korea's education ministry unveiled its scheme to introduce AI digital textbooks starting in 2025. After adopting the AI service in four subjects for selected grades in 2025, the system will be expanded to encompass almost all grades and subjects.

In 2011, the education ministry embraced edutech by distributing tablet PCs to schools in remote rural areas. Since then, many schools have integrated digital textbooks into student learning, with some incorporating augmented reality and virtual reality headsets to enrich the educational experience. According to market research firm Grand View Research, the global edutech market size is projected to skyrocket to $348.4 billion by 2030 from $142.3 billion in 2023.

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