DPM Heng Swee Keat Visits AICET
On 12 Mar 2025, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Heng Swee Keat, visited the AI Centre for Educational Technologies (AICET). He was joined by Mr John Lim, CEO of the National Research Foundation.
It is not commonly known, but the AICET was initiated by DPM during COVID under the Fortitude Budget in 2020. Singapore was then in the midst of a global crisis. One key thrust of our national strategy was to “invest” ourselves out of the crisis so that Singapore would emerge stronger. Online learning took centre-stage during COVID. DPM decided that it would be timely to invest into applying AI and new technologies to improve education, and AICET was consequently formed.
During the visit, A/P Ben Leong, Director/AICET, took the opportunity to update DPM on the Centre’s progress since 2020. He shared how AICET adopts a “pedagogy first” approach to developing and deploying technology. He highlighted that innovation in education is challenging not so much because of technological limitations, but by the limitations in existing pedagogy. AICET does not simply build educational software. One of our core objectives is to invest in new and better ways to teach with AI/technology.
The AI solutions developed and deployed by AICET include:
- Softmark: An online examination marking tool that is currently equipped to mark 60 to 70 NUS courses and 45 to 55 MOE subjects. Softmark helps teachers speed up the marking of more than 45,000 scripts annually;
- Coursemology: A gamified learning management platform that is currently used by some 45 NUS courses and 30 MOE schools and more than 8000 students annually;
- Codaveri: An automatic programming feedback tool that reduces the grading workload of existing tutors and is able to provide students with real time guidance in coding;
- Cikgo: A 24/7 tutor for adaptive learning that leverages LLMs to capture the affective components of teaching;
- ScholAIstic: An LLM-based role-playing tool that creates quality learning experiences that are authentic and scalable; and
- Koditsu: An AI-powered technical interview training and assessment platform.
As A/P Ben reflected on the AICET journey, he noted that the key obstacle in the effective adoption of AI in education is public education and change management. To address this gap, AICET formed a new Pedagogy Consulting Team that works with closely with NUS faculty to ideate and implement AI-solutions to improve learning outcomes. Formed in July 2024, the Pedagogy Consulting team is currently working on 9 projects across different faculties including Social Work, Nursing, and Law.
We presented the Law faculty use case where undergraduates practised courtroom skills by interacting with a chatbot, programmed in the ScholAIstic platform, to perform multiple roles (e.g. witness, judge and opposing counsel). This courtroom simulation created an authentic learning experience that allowed the students to cultivate courtroom skills, which would have been otherwise more difficult to acquire using traditional role-play. Thus far, more than 500 students have benefitted from AI-enhanced education at NUS under these 9 projects. AICET is currently also working with MOE schools to develop ways to exploit LLMs for K-12.
Lastly, A/P Ben shared with DPM the outreach and publicity efforts that AICET has been engaged in to put Singapore on the AI world map. In addition to engaging with many local stakeholders, AICET has hosted many groups of overseas visitors, and built networks with strategic global partners, like Tsinghua University Institute of Education, Hong Kong Baptist University and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. Members of AICET have also been invited to give keynotes at a number of international fora in 2024.
DPM was heartened by the work of AICET, and encouraged members to broaden the Centre’s reach by working with other IHLs and organisations. In addition, DPM also suggested that AICET explore doing more in the space of adult learning and on-the-job training.
We thanked DPM for taking time out of his busy schedule to visit AICET. AICET is committed to delivering the highest standards of software engineering development and pedagogical consultancy so that we continue to raise the quality of AI-driven education not only in Singapore, but beyond.
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