Skytte Staff Participated in EmpowerAI Co-Design Workshop in Kaunas

Between March 4-5, the EmpowerAI consortium held the 2nd Co-Design Workshop to explore and showcase the use of AI tools in teaching practices, paricularly focusing on the field of social sciences and humanities. The workshop was organized as part of the Nordplus project "Empowering Social Sciences Educators on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom" and took place at Kaunas University of Technology. The Skytte Institute was represented by Anna Beitane, Heiko Pääbo and Yurii Kondratyk.

The project is coordinated by the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu (UT) in partnership with Kaunas University of Technology, the University of Turku, and Tampere University, forming the EmpowerAI consortium.

EmpowerAI aims to enhance the digital competencies of teaching staff in social sciences and arts, focusing on the responsible and ethical use of AI tools in education. The project achieves this through co-design workshops, piloting training materials at partner universities, assessing outcomes, and producing an assessment report with recommendations for higher education institutions (HEIs) in the region.

A total of nine teaching staff members from partner universities participated in an intensive two-day co-design workshop. Participants presented case studies on AI integration in their courses, covering topics such as using AI to assist students in thesis writing, fostering critical thinking skills, running decision-making simulations, and using AI for feedback processes. Beyond discussing case studies, consortium members agreed on the design and layout of teaching guidelines, which will be made available on the EmpowerAI website in late sring. These guidelines will serve as practical resources for educators interested in incorporating AI into their teaching practices. The guidelines will be presented at each partner institution and piloted among peers to gather feedback for further refinement. The piloting phase will take place in May 2025.

According to Anna Beitane, the main coordinator of the project, "artificial intelligence is reshaping higher education, and educators must be equipped with the necessary skills to adapt to this transformation. The recent AI Leap initiative launched by the Estonian Ministry of Education highlights the urgent need for teaching staff to better prepare themselves and their students for the digital challenges ahead. Through initiatives like EmpowerAI, we are taking concrete steps to ensure that AI is used responsibly and effectively in academic settings.”

The project will be concluded at the end of September this year with a final event at the University of Tartu, where the main results and best pratices will be shared with the broader academic community of EmpowerAI consoritum.

More information could be found on the website of the project. For additional questions, please contact Anna Beitane at anna.beitane@ut.ee

The EmpowerAI project has received funding from the Nordplus programme: project ID – NPHE-2024/10453