30.09.2025
studies teaching
Further information
Heiko Pääbo
PhD (Political Science)
Faculty of Social Sciences
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
Lecturer in Politics of Baltic Sea Region Countries, 0.4 p, Programme Director for Central and Eastern European, Russian and Eurasian Studies
Lossi 36–320
Area of Vice Rector for Academic Affairs
Centre for Learning and Teaching
Senior Specialist in Curriculum Development, 0.6 p
Lossi 36–320
+372 737 5647
+372 522 9035

AI competence day focused on developing new skills at the university

The competence day “AI at the university. Vision, ethics and practice” was held in the University of Tartu Library conference hall on 22 September. The event attracted considerable interest, and the nearly 170 participants included lecturers, researchers and students from the university’s four faculties and support staff.

At the beginning of the competence day, Rector Toomas Asser welcomed the participants and encouraged everyone to actively engage in the discussion and develop their AI skills. Then, an opening speech was held by Helen Hint, head of the University of Tartu’s working group on chatbots, who linked the Estonian mythology of kratt-crafting with modern-day AI usage skills. Hint emphasised that just like the incompetent use of a kratt could lead to having one’s nose turned to the back of the head, the mindless use of artificial intelligence can harm the user.

In the first part of the competence day, Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas gave a brief overview of the AI Leap initiative, discussing both the development of the idea and its current state. In her presentation, she concluded that young people entering university in autumn 2027 will likely have different expectations of education. Just as the teachers today give schoolchildren recommended prompts to help them learn new topics, young people will expect lecturers to offer problem statements that can be addressed using the suggested prompts.

Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Aune Valk provided a thorough overview of the development trends at the University of Tartu and the materials created by the university’s working group on chatbots. Valk also spoke about the AI steering group, which was established this spring to coordinate the university’s areas of development. In the context of AI and teaching, the most important topic in the coming years will be the marathon of curriculum development (2025–2028), during which curriculum designers should consider how students can develop their skills in using AI. The priority for the upcoming years is adapting the writing and assessment of theses to the AI era.

Head of the Centre for Ethics, Professor Margit Sutrop focused on the AI ethics in her presentation. She emphasised that ethics stems from values we wish to uphold, and ethical behaviour is guided by those values. To maintain the values, various norms are established. Changes brought about by AI make us reflect on the values and assess how different values can coexist without any one becoming absolute. Sutrop also spoke about the need to think about how we teach at the university, and to calmly consider both the possibilities and the risks of using AI.

The presentations were followed by a discussion led by Associate Professor Age Värv. The central question discussed was the universities’ readiness to admit the AI Leap generation. It was concluded that continuous information exchange would support this process, and it was pointed out that university teaching staff can familiarise themselves with recordings of the AI Leap online training sessions offered to schoolteachers. During the discussion, practical examples of using artificial intelligence were described, and it was concluded that in AI-supported learning, the learner’s self-management skills and willingness to take responsibility for their own learning are of key importance.

The second part of the competence day included eight workshops where participants could either discuss AI-related topics or learn skills in using some AI tools.

  • Liina Tammekänd explored in her workshop how writing assignments can be made more AI-resilient with the help of an assessment matrix.
  • Uku Raudvere and Diana Pilvar introduced the Google Colab data visualisation tool.
  • Terje Mäesalu and Priit Piir presented a case study to discuss the use of AI tools in a way that personal data protection and confidentiality are maintained.
  • Maili Vilson shared ideas from a discussion held at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies about aligning thesis writing guidelines with the AI era. She also gave colleagues a tool to try out this task in their institutes.
  • Eda-Riin Tuuling presented Scopus AI, which helps teaching staff and students use the Scopus databases in research and teaching.
  • Neeme Ilves led a workshop aimed at students, where participants discussed, based on their experiences, how AI supports learning.
  • Triinu Pihus introduced the NotebookLM and Napkin.ai tools, which allow users to process more extensive sources and create summarised diagrams.
  • Heiko Pääbo focused on creating educational videos using the Invideo tool.

In the third part of the competence day, Junior Research Fellow of Artificial Intelligence Kristjan-Julius Laak presented research findings reflecting the habits of AI use and training needs among university teaching staff and students. The results of a follow-up survey for lecturers and the student survey, conducted in the first half of 2025, show that both groups increasingly use AI tools. While only 9% of teaching staff benefited from artificial intelligence last year, 54% use it for lesson planning, preparing assignments, and other teaching-related activities this year. Compared to the previous year, 20% more lecturers have adapted their teaching due to AI – for example, replacing homework with in-class work, fact-checking with analysis, and agreeing with students on the rules of using AI. The survey conducted among students reveals that nearly all students use AI both as a learning aid and for completing homework. Various reasons were given for using it, ranging from lack of time or interest to the desire to avoid doing the dirty work themselves. 15% of the students admitted to having committed academic fraud, such as using AI to complete a Moodle test.

The presentation was followed by a panel discussion between programme directors Helen Hint and Heiko Pääbo, members of the teaching staff Anti Kalda and Madis Vasser, and student representatives Eneken Riin Salong and Anet Ilustrumm. The discussion revealed that, instead of banning AI tools, study assignments should be better targeted, fostering students’ intrinsic motivation to learn for themselves at university and their willingness to sacrifice certain skills to collaborate more effectively with AI. Programme directors play a key role in this process. Together with the teaching staff in the curriculum, they should consider opportunities for developing AI-related skills and clearly communicate them to students.

The materials from the competence day presentations and workshops are available on the website of the working group for using artificial intelligence in teaching.