STAGE : STEM Teaching in the Age of Generative AI

Leveraging existing tools

The project team decided to build on the existing use of Ed Discussion forums. These forums allow students to ask questions about course content and seek help with exercises.

The CEDE team focused on integrating a bot that would allow teachers and student assistants to manage student questions more efficiently while supporting a pedagogical approach that does not short-circuit learning.

A response to a real need

To create this bot, several constraints had to be taken into account, including the subject matter being taught, the teacher’s teaching style, the structure and timing of the course, how students use the forum, and how they write their questions.

To cite just a few challenges, it is common for some professors to assign a series of questions, the answers to which are only revealed at a specific later date. The team had to take this into account in its data management to enable the bot to suggest clues or answers without violating these deadlines and revealing certain details of the course ahead of time. It is also common for students to take photos of their handwritten solutions, so the system had to be equipped with the ability to process images. 

Thanks to focus groups organized with student assistants and workshops dedicated to AI in education, the team was able to define these constraints, understand the various needs that exist at EPFL, and recruit teachers interested in hosting the pilot project in their classes.

Continuation of the project

The STAGE project will identify which new skills are expected of teachers, develop appropriate training materials, and assess the impact of using AI in discussion forums.

In collaboration with partners, phase 2 of the project will also address the general issue of human-machine complementarity and, in particular, the computational skills of students in the era of generative AI that enable future professionals to remain in control of the machine.