Report – Guidelines to design your own AI projects and initiatives

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been marking our era with ongoing revolutions in all the spheres of individuals’ life, e.g., education. Beyond the social sphere, the constant exponential evolution has led academics and non-academics, teachers, trainers and practitioners in general in the area of education to experiment and imagine how AI can represent the means through which changing training and education. The present report aims to offer an understanding of the existing perspectives on the use of AI in Adult Education and Vocational Education and Training in order to understand how to integrate in the educational sector.
To achieve this aim, the present report comprises the results of two research activities conducted within the Working Package 4 of the AI Pioneers coordinated by the University of Verona and in collaboration with all the project partners. Understanding how AI can change the educational sector and in particular Adult Education and Vocational Education and Training requires a research approach that stands at the nexus between academic and practitioner perspective. This is why we undertook two main research activities, namely: a literature review of the use of AI in Education and a large cross-country qualitative study on teachers’ uses and perspectives on AI in Education.
The present Report comprises the ultimate findings on the use of AI in Education in addition to reporting the two research activities undertaken. In the first chapter, the report comprises a) description of the project and Working Package 4 methodology, and b) highlights of the findings with short description of the main results of the two research activities. This chapter is meant to offer a practical guideline for teachers and trainers who are interested in understanding AI in Education and how to integrate AI in Education.
The second chapter contains the literature review, i.e., the first study conducted. In this study, we refer to existing reviews of the literature and perspectives of academics on the use of AI given the sparse empirical knowledge on the use AI in education. Moreover, given the small number of studies in Adult Education and Vocational Education and Training, we refer to the use of AI in Education in general.
The third chapter contains the qualitative study conducted, that is the second study realized for the Working Package n. 4. Partners collaborated in the realization of this study by conducting interviews and focus groups with trainers and teachers in the area of VET and Adult Education in order to collect their perspectives on the use of AI and its integration.
Taken together, the chapters makes the document providing a comprehensive guide for incorporating AI in Adult Education and in Vocational Education and Training. The overreaching aim of the report is to support the preparation of trainers and teachers to harness the promise of AI in enhancing learning experiences while mitigating risks through ethical and thoughtful integration.