The use of AI in lectures and exercises
Using AI tools to shape the future of higher education teaching
The aim of OneTutor is to support students during lectures by answering questions and offering individually tailored quizzes to review the material. The idea originated during a student internship. Building on this, Alexander Pretschner, Professor of Software & Systems Engineering at TUM, continued to research and refine the AI tutor, testing it together with four students - until the team founded their own company in May of this year. Today, the AI tutor has over 21,000 active users and is being used in more than 620 lectures at 30 universities across Germany and Austria.
During his visit, Bavaria's Minister of Science Markus Blume said: “When it comes to innovative teaching, AI is not just a 'nice-to-have', it's a 'must-do'. AI is here to stay. In fact, it will develop explosively. Our universities are the perfect places to experiment with new ideas and evaluate them simultaneously. We must use AI to develop our human talents even further. The same applies to teaching and learning formats. The greatest danger with AI is not getting involved. From AltaVista to Google to ChatGPT, the key has been to use technology as a support system and actively set guidelines. This also includes adapting examination culture. With the amendment to our Bavarian Higher Education Innovation Act, we will ensure that a general ban on AI in examination regulations is unnecessary.”
Alexander Pretschner said: “AI has the potential to make teaching and learning personalized through continuous feedback between lecturers, students, and the new tools. We now need to understand which factors lead to measurably better learning success - because if AI tools take over thinking, it doesn't help anyone, especially in higher education. Our initial experiences with OneTutor make us very confident!”
Accompanying research: Focus on effectiveness and learning success
To better analyze and understand the impact of AI tools such as OneTutor on learning success, a three-year accompanying research project entitled “AIffectiveness in Education” is being conducted under the leadership of the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. In addition to TUM, other innovation partners from Bavaria are also involved. The aim is to investigate the potential and further development needs associated with integrating AI tutors in higher education. Using OneTutor as an example, insights into the use and effectiveness of AI tutors in higher education are being gained. The focus lies particularly on the effects on students' perceived learning success and the factors that influence this success using OneTutor.
Further AI-supported courses at TUM
In addition to OneTutor, there are other projects at TUM that deal with digitization in teaching. For example, Prof. Stephan Krusche, Professor of Software Engineering, developed the Artemis learning platform, which provides students with exercises and direct, task-specific feedback. Artemis is complemented by the chatbot Iris, which acts as an “excellent tutor”: Instead of providing solutions, Iris works with subtle hints and counter-questions, thereby promoting independent problem-solving.
Contacts to this article:
Prof. Dr. Alexander Pretschner
91ĚŇÉ«
Professorship for Software and Systems Engineering
alexander.pretschner@tum.de
www.tum.de
