AI Tools in University Teaching: Competent and Responsible Use for Educators and Students

In the project "AI Tools in Higher Education: Exercises for Competent and Responsible Engagement for Educators and Students," extensive material on generative AI applications in university settings is being developed, practically tested, and evaluated in multiple trials. The Institute for Philosophy at the University of Stuttgart contributes expertise in language philosophy, media philosophy, technology philosophy, and higher education didactics, while the International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW) contributes to ethical and epistemic aspects of media and democracy education. The pedagogical advisory board (PH Ludwigsburg) provides consultative guidance in the development and testing of the material.

The created material includes specific exercises for the utilization of generative text-to-text and text-to-picture models, reflection on the epistemic quality and other characteristics of AI-generated outputs, as well as contemplation of relevant distinctions between texts authored by humans and machines. Furthermore, the potential societal consequences of increasingly difficult-to-discern differences between information and misinformation, as well as the strategic or unintentional dissemination of false and misleading information, are addressed.

Through the application of the materials, educators and students are guided towards competent and responsible handling of generative AI models. An optionally applicable "AI Policy" within the exercises aims to clarify expectations in higher education regarding the identification of generated texts and images, as well as individual responsibility in assessing the truthfulness of generated texts.

The objectives of the project include imparting media and epistemic competence with a focus on enabling responsible engagement with AI applications and facilitating the use of the developed and validated materials in various teaching and learning contexts.