Digital Literacy Skills in University Contexts (DigLit)

Description

Writing in most contexts today is done with digital, computer-assisted support. Technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) such as intelligent tutoring (IT), automated writing evaluation (AWE), automated text production (ATP) and machine translation (MT) present new opportunities, perspectives, and risks for tertiary education. The challenge in university contexts is to determine how the advantages of AI-related technology can be leveraged in language teaching and academic writing while minimizing potential issues such as ineffective communication, miscommunication, and misuse (e.g. plagiarism). The main goal of the project is to show how they can be brought systematically into classrooms and coaching as surrogates for how to exploit AI in education, empowering lecturers and students by demonstrating how smart machines can help students to improve their literacy skills. In order to meet this goal, we will evaluate the applicability of various types of digital multilingual reading and writing support in Swiss universities and heighten current and potential users’ awareness of the opportunities and risks they entail.