Educating Educators on Artificial Intelligence (AI) – development of an AI training material and an AI educational program for educators

"<< Background >>The project ""AI.4.educators"" was motivated by the fast-evolving field of AI, which has developed many new techniques and applications over the past years, creating the need for constant and lifelong learning on AI. The project aimed to capture this need for educators. The multifaceted character of AI was also a motivation for the project, as it is seen as a new technology based on algorithms, mathematical models, and engineering, but also an area of new regulation that raises serious ethical concerns. The project aimed to shed light on the ongoing discussions for regulation and incorporation of ethical values in AI systems, treating AI in a holistic way. The increased need for digital education due to the Covid-19 outbreak was another motivation for the project. The project aimed to encourage the use of innovative methods, interaction techniques, and digital tools for teaching AI, and to encourage remote participation by educators located in different countries.<< Objectives >>The ""AI.4.educators"" project's main objective was to improve educators' engagement with AI using a multidisciplinary approach based on educational material in the form of roadmaps and an e-learning platform to facilitate the training. The project was focused on the regulatory initiatives in Europe and the ethical values of AI systems. Participating educators were encouraged to adopt a Eurocentric approach that considers European values and fundamental human rights with regard to AI systems. Additionally, the project aimed to develop a comprehensive educational curriculum for educators using a range of educational methods. Personalization and interaction tools were employed to identify educators' AI training needs which helped us tailor the program accordingly. The project intended to enhance educators' digital skills and promote the use of digital training tools. Finally, an online AI academy was established (online learning portal), that offers e-courses based on the training material developed during the project.<< Implementation >>The project's activities were executed according to the initial plan. The activities that were crucial for achieving the project's main objectives were included in the three primary activities (A1 to A3). Activity 1 (A1) involved five distinct tasks/activities, which were focused on developing the digital platform and digital survey to identify educators' training needs. Activity 2 (A2) had four tasks/activities, aimed at creating educational materials (AI Roadmaps) for teachers on AI. Activity 3 (A3) had five tasks/activities, which involved designing the AI educational program (three e-courses) based on the educational material created in A2. The e-courses were made available on the e-learning platform and tested by 40 educators. Additionally, the project featured a Kick-off meeting in Greece hosted by MD Brainnovation, six online meetings to monitor project progress, and two project progress evaluations by the partnership. Dissemination was also a significant activity that focused on developing the project's website, branding, and social media accounts.<< Results >>The AI.4.educators partnership produced the following concrete outputs:- Digital Learning Platform of the Project which is available on the project website (ai4educators.eu), that serves as an e-learning portal containing all the project results and material, in a step-by-step approach to fully exploit the project products.- Digital Survey for Detecting Training Needs of Educators on AI which can be accessed on the project website, and was used to identify the real needs of educators related to Artificial Intelligence.- AI Training Material including three Roadmaps: (i) a Practical AI Roadmap, (ii) a Legal AI Roadmap, and (iii) an Ethical AI Roadmap. These comprise the core training material for educators in Artificial Intelligence that was developed by the partnership.- AI Educational Program including e-courses. These are part of the learning platform and are freely accessible to the public through the project website.All these results have been tested internally by the partners, and with the target audience through pilots and workshops. The feedback received during the multiple testing opportunities confirmed that the quality of the outputs is very high."