How Artificial Intelligence Can Support Online Learning

April 25, 2025 byConnections Academy

5 min to read

A high school student is typing on his laptop

While opinions around using AI in education might have been a mixed bag only a few years ago, its value as a tool for learning has become clearer as its use has become more and more widespread.

AI for students has blossomed into a wide variety of specifically designed apps and platforms that make it easier to check work, organize thoughts and information, promote personal organization, and break down complex concepts and ideas in ways that are worded more simply —without losing the detail. This built-in accessibility makes AI a partner for teachers and parents alike and may be a particular value-add and seamless addition for online students who are already accustomed to technology as an integral part of their school day.

How to Use AI for Studying

AI is great for automating repetitive or routine tasks, so using it to do the tedious parts of studying like creating quiz questions. However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when using AI for homework.

Most important to note is that AI programs like ChatGPT pull from the Internet, so its sources can include sites and media that are inaccurate or meant to mislead—sometimes making up information altogether. You should always check any information you get from AI against reputable sources.

Secondly, AI can be a slippery slope from using a chatbot to collect your thoughts and letting it think for you. Learning Coaches should think of AI for students as a tool that’s there to assist them, like a calculator, rather than something that exists to do the work for them.

Best AI Tools for Students

There are many different ways to use AI for schoolwork.

Time Management and Note Taking

Efficiently managing your time is crucial for staying on top of due dates and keeping students from feeling overwhelmed. General AI tools can help prioritize tasks by creating a timetable or priority list to follow or even become your timer for study sessions. If you hit a snag, it can easily reconfigure your schedule or offer tips for staying on track.

Note taking and management apps like Evernote can help centralize multiple parts of the school day at once. It can transcribe audio and video, making it great for lectures, keeping track of documents and links linking to your calendar, and sending you reminders to help you stay focused.

Outlining and Writing Help

While students should not use AI to write their papers, it can be used to highlight weak writing and areas of improvement.

Tools like Grammarly or Copilot in Microsoft Word are great for tightening writing skills in a lot of different ways. It can highlight spelling and grammatical fixes, help keep tone consistent, or identify when writing is overly wordy or informal. Keeping track of what areas are consistently highlighted then learning from what it suggests is a great way to utilize this tool to become a stronger, clearer writer.

Math Help

You might know the feeling of being asked by your student to help with math homework only to feel your blood run cold. AI study tools like Mathway let you type a problem in and then review step-by-step instructions on how to arrive at the answers for many branches of math like algebra, calculus, or graphing. They even have options for other subjects like chemistry and physics. Other apps like Photomath (which is available on the App Store and Google Play) allow you to take a photo of your own handwritten problems to get help.

Much like Grammarly, looking at where students run into difficulties with problems can help highlight where they might need to spend more time reviewing.

Citation and Table Building

As students get older and have to follow citation rules for papers and projects, AI can keep track of sources for them while they do their research. Tools like Zotero can be added as an extension to your browser and let your student collect and tag sources as they work through the research process. It can also sync across multiple devices so they always have access to what they need and suggest related articles to help them in their search. EasyBib can automatically generate citations for different sources in multiple styles, create inline citations, and automatically compile bibliographies to keep things organized. It also has a built-in writing assistant, MLA formatter, and plagiarism checker.

Homework AI: A Helper, not a Hand Holder

When asked about how to use AI to do homework, ChatGPT’s own response contains an insightful caveat worth noting: “Remember, while AI can be a valuable tool for assistance, it’s essential to understand the concepts yourself and use AI as a supplement to your learning process, rather than a replacement for your own efforts and understanding.”

Researching, finding valid sources, and weaving those sources into an original thought are the types of skills that are called upon when a student is learning how to write a strong essay. And, at the end of the day, there is no easy AI homework helper that can assist a student with an assignment without inhibiting their learning growth. Even using AI for brainstorming ideas or finding new sources during the research stage is a disservice to students as the information an AI chatbot can find is not always relevant, original, accurate, or even real.

Technology, even in its most advanced forms, is not human. Despite the rapid progress of AI in recent years, doing homework the old-fashioned way remains vital for children to hone their critical thinking, collaboration, and creative problem-solving skills in school because these are human capabilities that a machine cannot replicate, let alone teach.

Want to learn more about how responsible technology use can enhance your child’s learning experience? Check out this list of essential computer skills every high school student must master.