Project IMPACT

The joint project IMPACT promotes the improvement of higher education through the scalable use of artificial intelligence (AI) methods for the (partially) automated analysis of texts. The basic goal of the project is to enable new forms of support for information and learning processes in a sustainable way for students and at the same time to relieve teachers in the supervision process. Along the student life cycle, prospective students, first-year students and students receive text-based, highly informative and personalized feedback in the orientation and entry phase, during the course of study (formative assessment) and at the end of study achievements (summative assessment). This not only addresses paracurricular study requirements, promotes individual learning goals and self-regulation strategies for future learning, or reduces uncertainty and overwhelm among students, but also supports teachers and encourages active engagement with AI-generated feedback by students and teachers.

At five German universities (Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Fernuniversität Hagen and Universität Bremen), accompanied by change management based on the SHEILA process model, text-based AI methods such as chatbots, personalized feedback systems for formative as well as summative assessment are being widely applied. The interdisciplinary consortium uses internationally proven open source software solutions (Rasa X, OnTask), common standards and interoperability in university teaching with learning management systems (Moodle, Stud.IP, ILIAS), online study choice assistants and assessment systems (LPLUS). For the goal-oriented integration of AI applications, (media-)didactic conceptions and adaptations are carried out.