Teaching in the age of AI | Lehre gestalten

Tips from our pros

Our Internal link opens in the same window:Center for Teaching and Learning (ZLL) regularly organises workshops on topics such as time management, learning methods, teaching methods and much more. The ZLL also supports lecturers in the development, implementation and further development of contemporary and innovative teaching models.

A non-binding and incomplete, but hopefully helpful guide for HFU lecturers

HFU students want an open and non-judgemental approach to AI tools such as ChatGPT and see it as our responsibility as a university to address how to use them and to practice with them together. In fact, it makes no sense to "teach students as if there were no calculators, no Wikipedia, no Google. And it won't make sense to teach students as if there were no ChatGPT." (Fleischmann, 2023, p. 22).

How can you use ChatGPT in your teaching? You will find helpful information and tips on this page.

The following table suggests actions and classifies them didactically.

What to do?	Why?
Demonstrate and point out... Actively draw attention to tools such as ChatGPT. Use them live in your class to show whether and how these tools can be used as aids.	..., to create awareness. Show that you know that such tools exist and that you are aware of the possibilities they offer. Students should perceive that you are dealing with the topic.
Clarify the rules ... Make it clear whether and how tools such as ChatGPT may be used in the context of your class. Explain that and how reference must be made to the use of supporting AI tools in work results.	..., um für Transparenz zu sorgen. Wenn die Verwendung von KI-Werkzeugen nicht verhindert werden kann oder soll, dann müssen die Spielregeln klar sein. Sinnvoll kann es z. B. sein, dass Studierende beschreiben, wie sie KI-Werkzeuge bei der Bearbeitung von Aufgaben genutzt haben und/oder die an die KI gerichteten Eingaben (Prompts) zu dokumentieren.
Discuss ... If tools such as ChatGPT influence your course and/or tasks - discuss with your students in what form these tools can be of help, but also where the limits lie (validity of the output, timeliness, wrong sources, approach which misses the actual learning objective, ...).	...., to raise awareness If the use of such tools is likely, the associated opportunities and risks should be addressed. Ideally, students should be taught how to use such tools sensitively in relation to their own subject

What to do?

Why?

Demonstrate and point out...

Actively draw attention to tools such as ChatGPT. Use them live in your class to show whether and how these tools can be used as aids.

..., to create awareness.

Show that you know that such tools exist and that you are aware of the possibilities they offer. Students should perceive that you are dealing with the topic.

Clarify the rules ...

Make it clear whether and how tools such as ChatGPT may be used in the context of your class.

Explain that and how reference must be made to the use of supporting AI tools in work results.

..., um für Transparenz zu sorgen.

Wenn die Verwendung von KI-Werkzeugen nicht verhindert werden kann oder soll, dann müssen die Spielregeln klar sein. Sinnvoll kann es z. B. sein, dass Studierende beschreiben, wie sie KI-Werkzeuge bei der Bearbeitung von Aufgaben genutzt haben und/oder die an die KI gerichteten Eingaben (Prompts) zu dokumentieren.

Discuss ...

If tools such as ChatGPT influence your course and/or tasks - discuss with your students in what form these tools can be of help, but also where the limits lie (validity of the output, timeliness, wrong sources, approach which misses the actual learning objective, ...).

...., to raise awareness

If the use of such tools is likely, the associated opportunities and risks should be addressed. Ideally, students should be taught how to use such tools sensitively in relation to their own subject

Knowledge of and practice in using AI tools is essential for implementing the above recommendations.
At the same time, there is a need to restructure processes in courses and adapt teaching objectives where necessary.

The following content goes into more detail and provides further information on the respective points.

Overview article

This External link opens in a new window:overview article about ChatGPT provides you with answers to many important questions about ChatGPT and explains the most important terms in an understandable way.

External link opens in a new window:Probable not correct - this is how ChatGPT works - This approx. 2-minute video gives a brief insight into how ChatGPT works.
External link opens in a new window:ChatGPT 1, 2, 3, 3.5, 4,... - In this approx. 16-minute video, Professor Eudard Heindl explains more about the background and development of neural networks.
We also have an Insight entry on Internal link opens in the same window:Dealing with Chat-GPT.
Our Insight entry on "Studying and learning in the age of AI" clearly presents all the information and help for our students.

First of all, you should ask yourself whether the existence of AI tools such as ChatGPT requires you to adapt your learning objectives (Gimpel et al., 2023).

The following guiding questions can help you with this:

What impact does the AI tool have on my subject area, and how can I best address this impact with my students?
How can I use the AI tool to promote higher-level skills such as critical thinking and/or recognising and critically examining information in my students?
Will my students be confronted with AI tools in their future working environment and what skills do they need in relation to this (e.g. prompt engineering, ability to assess the output of AI tools, ...)?

There are numerous possible applications for ChatGPT during the planning and implementation of teaching. You can kill two birds with one stone: familiarise yourself with the use of ChatGPT and optimise your teaching in the process. Use ChatGPT as a "sparring partner" and get support in designing your teaching, for example by ...

... asking ChatGPT to assess and supplement your learning objectives. (To the Insight entry "Internal link opens in the same window:Teaching and learning objectives")
... creating learning materials together with ChatGPT (e.g. case studies, examples and counterexamples, tasks and instructions, summaries, checklists).
... use ChatGPT to produce further explanations or to individualize them (adjust level of difficulty and language style).
... use ChatGPT to generate learning objective checks for a specific content area (e.g. questions for self-tests).
... optimise your exam questions with ChatGPT. Let ChatGPT answer your exam questions to find out what answers ChatGPT provides to your questions. This allows you to improve the wording of the exam questions and prevent misunderstandings or create a scoring scheme for open questions using the output generated by ChatGPT.

In addition, ChatGPT can be a helpful support for text production in many everyday activities (e.g. formulating e-mails, writing minutes, creating course and module descriptions, etc.).

The possibility of using ChatGPT does not affect all examination formats in the same way and many forms of examination are barely or not at all affected by the use of ChatGPT (e.g. supervised examinations, oral examinations, practical examinations). However, any form of unsupervised written work, such as term papers and final papers as well as other text and programming tasks, are particularly affected.

Various control mechanisms are currently being discussed, such as a greater individualisation of tasks, a higher desired "taxonomy level of learning objectives" (creating instead of "only" reproducing) or a follow-up check (plagiarism checks in the classical sense do not (yet?) work, if necessary an oral "exam" can be added afterwards) (see also Fleischmann, 2023). The most promising approach at the moment appears to be stronger process support. This means that students should be accompanied regularly during the writing process to ensure that they have made an appropriate personal contribution.

Link zum "External link opens in a new window:Guidelines for the use of generative AI in writtenr assessments" sowie "Declaration on honest academic work" (Login nötig)

A number of legal questions arise with regard to the use of ChatGPT and the use of output in the form of texts generated with ChatGPT, for example:

What rights of use do I have to texts that I have created with ChatGPT?
Can I consider myself the author if I have written a text with the help of an AI tool?
Am I - possibly even unknowingly - violating copyright law because the output of the AI could contain copyrighted works?

As is so often the case, these and similar questions cannot always be answered in general terms. However, there are some legal opinions and assessments that can help at this point:

On the right of use of texts written with the help of ChatGPT

OpenAI, the company that operates ChatGPT, grants users all rights to the generated text output in its terms and conditions (Fleischmann, 2023).

On the copyright of texts written with the help of ChatGPT

The "Legal opinion on the use of AI software in the university context" (Salden & Leschke, 2023) comes to the conclusion that ChatGPT itself cannot claim copyright and authorship of a text, as ChatGPT is not a natural person. Natural persons, on the other hand, can be authors of a text - even if they have written texts with the help of ChatGPT - provided that they have made a significant contribution to the text. The decisive factor here is that the essential design decision was still made by the person. In the event of a dispute, this ultimately remains a case-by-case decision.

Possible copyright infringements of texts written with the help of ChatGPT

It is difficult to answer the question of whether I am - possibly unknowingly - infringing copyright when writing texts with the help of text-generating AI. This is because ChatGPT has been trained with a large amount of text, which in turn may contain copyrighted works. Due to the way ChatGPT works (creates a text based on statistical principles and a randomised algorithm word by word), it is very unlikely that texts will be created that are literally identical to existing texts, but it cannot be ruled out.

Data protection

Anonymous use of ChatGPT is not possible (identification via cell phone number) and it can be assumed that, in addition to the usual metadata, all prompts and entries as well as the generated responses are stored unencrypted. The data is stored on American servers and no information is provided about the duration of storage (Thiede, 2023). You should therefore carefully consider what information you "feed" ChatGPT with and, for example, not enter any texts with a blocking notice, internal information or data about people or specific facts. Make your students aware of this fact. The use of ChatGPT must be optional and students who do not want to use ChatGPT for the reasons mentioned must not be disadvantaged.