The coronavirus pandemic has forced university teaching online – a development that has revealed the limits of traditional teaching formats and underscored the fact that learning is a highly individual process requiring personalised content and student-centred support. In the new research project ‘2LIKE’ at Ulm University researchers from computer science, psychology and from the advanced professional studies sector will be collaborating to develop solutions in this area.
The research team plans to use Artificial intelligence (AI) to develop self-adaptive digital learning systems that can respond to changes in student knowledge and progress. ‘We know from experience that students need individual opportunities to catch up on lost learning. And we also know that rapid personalised feedback is crucial to supporting the student learning process – irrespective of the time of day or the location. AI-based automated teaching and learning systems are well suited to supporting both of these adaptive approaches to learning,’ explains project lead Professor Birte Glimm, a research scientist at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence.
However, any new AI-assisted learning system can only ever be as good as the underlying psychological and didactic design concept ‘In order to provide the best possible support to students, data on their prior knowledge, their cognitive and motivational abilities and their personal preferences needs to be gathered. This data can then be used by the AI-assisted system to deliver targeted adjustments to curricular content,’ explains Professor Tina Seufert, Head of the Learning and Instruction Lab.
In the near future, new methods and learning activities, such as quizzes and application tasks will be introduced into the new Master’s degree programmes Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Systems. In fact, students on the AI-programme will even be able to contribute to the development of new learning tools as part of their student project work. The knowledge gained during this initial phase will then be transferred to other programmes of study, particularly the advanced study programmes offered to working professionals at the School of Advanced Professional Studies (SAPS).
The new project 2LIKE will receive around EUR 2 million from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research(BMBF) until 2025.
Full text: https://t1p.de/v9fg
Further information: Prof. Dr. Birte Glimm: Tel.: +49 (0)731 50-24125, birte.glimm@uni-ulm.de, https://www.uni-ulm.de/en/einrichtungen/saps/projekte/2like/ (in German)
