Generative AI in DiSC Teaching

Generative Artificial Intelligence is reshaping higher education, enabling innovative teaching and learning approaches. The Digital Science Center (DiSC) is committed to leading this transformation by exploring new opportunities and addressing emerging challenges. This page outlines our approach to incorporating generative AI in education, highlighting our new courses, policy developments, and future plans designed to empower both educators and students in this evolving digital era.

 

Since the 1950s, artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced rapidly. Although the scientific community, among them members of the DiSC, have researched AI for years, the topic has only recently gained widespread public attention. The release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022 marked a turning point, significantly increasing interest in generative AI. Today, more and more people are using generative AI tools to create text and media.

In response to this growing impact, the DiSC has developed a wide range of teaching initiatives that integrate generative AI into academic practice. Our efforts include course development, usage policies, and interdisciplinary collaboration—reflecting both the opportunities and challenges posed by this emerging technology.

Initially, we focused on gathering information about students' use of generative AI and their attitudes toward it. At the same time, we also explored and experimented with the technology ourselves to better understand its potential and limitations. Building on this experience, we began developing new courses, introducing usage policies, and expanding course content to include aspects of generative AI.

All in all, the DiSC strives to be at the forefront of integrating generative AI into university teaching, with a strong emphasis on innovation, responsibility, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Our new courses have attracted significant interest from both students and faculty, earning national recognition. Through our policies, we ensure that generative AI enhances—rather than compromises—learning outcomes. Through dedicated content, we help students build connections between emerging technologies and a variety of academic fields. Looking ahead, we plan to expand our AI-related activities and continuously adapt to new technological developments.

New courses

In the winter semester of 2023/2024, we introduced a new course, in the form of a lecture series, as part of the Minor Digital Science, focusing on responsible design and critical thinking in the age of AI. The course, titled "Aspects of Digitalisation: Generative Artificial Intelligence", was a collaborative effort involving 16 experts from 11 organizational units. It introduced students to the technical foundations of generative AI and examined its societal, ethical, and disciplinary implications from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The course attracted participants from 10 out of 16 faculties, demonstrating its widespread appeal across disciplines with seven applicants per available spot. It was also recognized for its innovative approach, earning a nomination for the national teaching award Ars Docendi 2024 and being featured in the Atlas der guten Lehre (Atlas of Good Teaching), published by the Federal Ministry for Women, Science, and Research.

While managing the course has been challenging—particularly due to a diverse team consisting of many and changing instructors and evolving technological developments—it has been successfully adapted to reflect these changes and is now offered annually. For more information, please visit the public page about our course.

The following year, in the winter semester of 2024/2025, we designed a course titled “Programming and Generative Artificial Intelligence.” The course had two main goals: first, to explore how generative AI impacts the learning of programming and software development; and second, to target students interested in experimenting with generative AI to create programs as opposed to students who prefer learning programming with generative AI used only as a learning tutor (in our regular course for programming in Python or R). 

The course also serves as a testing ground for innovative teaching methods, helping us explore how generative AI can best support programming education. At the same time, it captures students’ experiences and expectations regarding generative AI.

Adaptations

Since the summer semester 2023, we have been gradually integrating generative AI into selected courses, enabling students to both explore the technology and apply it responsibly in their learning. These pilots have provided valuable insights, but the broad and systematic adoption across our courses still lies ahead. The following examples illustrate how the content has been adapted according to the specific focus of each course:

We will use the learnings from these pilots to guide our future efforts of integrating generative AI into teaching and learning at the DiSC and share them with the teaching community at the University of Innsbruck and beyond.

In the winter semester of 2024/2025, we introduced policies for our minor to establish clear rules on the use of generative AI, ensuring that it does not compromise the learning outcomes of our courses. To maintain academic integrity and effective learning, we introduced three levels of AI usage policies, tailored to the skills and activities of each module:

  • Foundation Modules (1-3a): The policy encourages responsible use of generative AI tools for active learning but strictly forbids their use in assessments, emphasizing that personal effort is essential for deep understanding of foundational programming and data skills.
  • Advanced Modules (3b, 4): The policy treats generative AI tools like collaborating with others: students may discuss ideas with AI assistants, but all submitted work must be their own. Any use of AI-generated content must be properly cited; failure to do so is considered academic misconduct. 
  • Final Module (5): Building on the advanced modules’ policy, this policy includes additional rules for the use of generative AI in both individual and team projects to ensure academic integrity and proper attribution.

For those who plan to create their own policies, we recommend taking a look at Reinforcing Academic Integrity in the Age of AI: A Guide for Instructors or contact us for exchange and discussion.

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