On 12 April 2023, the UAS service unit LEARN hosted its “Didactics Café” once again, this time on the topic of “How to Approach ChatGPT in Teaching and Research”. The hybrid event was well attended both on site in the Small Assembly Hall and online via MS Teams: Almost 90 staff members of the St. Pölten UAS joined the meeting.

• You can find a recording of the event here (eCampus login required)
• LEARN offers an eCampus course with further links to helpful information.

What is ChatGPT and what can it do?

The objective of the event was to

• help develop a basic understanding of what ChatGPT is and does,
• recognise challenges and opportunities, and
• identify potential courses of action in teaching.

By way of introduction to the subject, Alexander Adrowitzer & Thomas Moser held a short keynote speech on the functions and characteristics of ChatGPT. After that, a panel of experts discussed the challenges and chances of this technological development in depth.

From this, the St. Pölten UAS will derive possible reactions and courses of action for teaching and research practice as well as for further strategic steps to be taken. The participants of the event contributed many relevant questions and exciting experience reports of their own.

The Expert Panel:

• Alexander Adrowitzer (Academic Director Digital Innovation and Research)
• Thomas Moser (Head of the Institute of Creative\Media/Technologies)
• Lisa David (Head of the UAS service unit LEARN)
• Christine Haselbacher (Head of the Department of Social Science)
• Carola Berger (Students’ Union ÖH)
• Moderator: Josef Weißenböck (UAS service unit LEARN)

Selected Questions / Points for Discussion:

• ChatGPT is not an expert system but a language model!
• The promotion of critical media competence will become an even more important learning outcome in all curricula because it is needed in dealing with AI.
• Final theses: Assignment types will have to change à an opportunity for the systematic further development of competence-oriented examinations
• ChatGPT takes away students’ fear of a blank sheet à a good starting point for written papers
• ChatGPT can be used as a tutor, for example in programming.
• The St. Pölten UAS needs guiding principles in dealing with ChatGPT (“Be transparent about it & don’t use it out of laziness!”) that lecturers and students can use for orientation.  

You can find many further interesting contributions in the documentation on the eCampus.

Follow-Up Workshop: “Using ChatGPT in Teaching“

Building on the Didactics Café, we are pleased to invite you to the follow-up

• Workshop “Using Chat GPT in Teaching“ on 24 May 2023 (9:00–12:00, seminar room B.1.10) held by Lisa David & Marlies Temper.
• Please sign up for the workshop in the CIS or by sending an email to learn@fhstp.ac.at.