Launch of the GENIUS project: Artificial intelligence to improve assessment and feedback processes in schools

The interdisciplinary GENIUS (Generative Intelligence Utilized in Schools) project, funded by the Deutsche Telekom Foundation, starts today, 1 August 2024, at the IPN and will run for three years. The aim is to make assessment and feedback processes in school learning situations more effective with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). The project group headed by Dr. Thorben Jansen will use GENIUS to strengthen students' scientific reasoning skills and at the same time set new standards for the use of artificial intelligence in school learning processes.

GENIUS builds on the results of the predecessor project DARIUS (Digital Argumentation Instruction for Science), in which an AI-based assistance system for science lessons was successfully developed and tested. This system provides teachers with a detailed overview of students' individual skills and enables learners to receive targeted feedback on their argumentation skills at any time. The GENIUS project now aims to integrate this assistance system into school practice. The system will be expanded with modular learning units at different levels of difficulty for regular use in lessons, e.g. with units for writing individual arguments, so that all students can be supported according to their learning requirements. Teachers will also be offered webinars and online forums to support them in using the assistance system in the classroom.

Plans call for the system to be introduced at 100 schools in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Saxony-Anhalt by the 2024/25 school year. Collaborations with state institutes for teacher training and EdTech companies will also be intensified and the results of GENIUS implemented there also. After the project has ended, plans are in place to integrate the assistance system as an Open Educational Resource (OER) into the planned AIS of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder (Adaptive Intelligent System as an AI-supported adaptive computer learning environment).

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