Opening Minds: Artificial Intelligence in Digital and Open Education
Abstract
Keynote presentation of "Opening Minds: Artificial Intelligence in Digital and Open Education" presented at the IEEE DEMOcon, 2025 IEEE Digital Education and MOOCS Conference, previously known as LWMOOCS, 5-7 October 2025, Boca Raton, Florida, USA with IEEE Education Society and Florida Atlantic University and LACCEI. Abstract: Generative Artificial Intelligence is not just changing digital and open education, it is enhancing it, especially in the perspective of educating the new generation of engineers and developers. As AI systems increasingly can personalize learning, change how we do assessment, and scale access across borders, the boundaries of traditional education are dissolving. In the context of digital education, I explore how AI is transforming educational ecosystems into intelligent environments, how AI-driven platforms are accelerating global access to open education, breaking language barriers, and supporting inclusivity. Drawing from research and real-world deployments, from direct developments with students, the session will spotlight the opportunities—and the ethical dilemmas—at the heart of this transformation. How open education and digital education practices are changed by GAI? How do we ensure that AI supports, rather than replaces, the human elements of teaching and mentorship? How do we build systems that are fair, transparent, and globally accessible? Additionally, the talk will do an in-depth exploration of AI’s power to shape the future of education—and the urgent responsibility to guide it wisely.
Full text
Opening Minds: Artificial Intelligence in Digital and Open Education Dr. eng. Diana ANDONE Director Digital and Distance Education Department Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania 6 October 2025, IEEE DEMOCON, FAU Boca Raton
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Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania 1920
Education Licence Master Doctorate Full time, distance learning, lifelong learning Academic Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania
Elearning.upt.ro Since 1998
European University Alliance https://www.eudres.eu/
https://www.eudres.eu/
My repository on AI https://zenodo.org/communities/ai_andone_research/
Importance on the use of AI in education Learning has become one of the major ways of using ChatGPT 10,2% from all the prompts in ChatGPT are clearly asking for support in learning (± 2 billions coming from 7 millions users per week) A. Chatterji, et all – “How People use ChatGPT" (OpenAI, Sept 2025), https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/a253471f-8260-40c6-a2ccaa93fe9f142e/economic-research-chatgpt-usage-paper.pdf
UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education (inspired by ) 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 AI and educators 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000395236
UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education (inspired by ) 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 AI futures not only about computation, intelligence, power, penetration — to rethink what “knowing” really means. — how we know and how we find out about things, how we acquire information, validate and understand its values — Digital divide – those who can ‘own’ it — Not only technical but transformational: how do we define learning, progress, and human identity in an AI age? UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000395236
UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education (inspired by ) Power 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 AI in schools and universities is inevitable — education systems have choices and the power to shape direction — opportunity for reinvention vs. risks of over-automation and cultural/ language bias 𝗔𝗜 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 Classrooms can’t be reduced to data points — AI must respect the incomputable nature of learning — Building AI “with” educators, not “for” them — Reshaping the learning starts with how we evaluate and assess knowledge and competences how we evaluate and accredit the quality of the education UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000395236
UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education (inspired by ) Power 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 AI in schools and universities is inevitable — education systems have choices and the power to shape direction — opportunity for reinvention vs. risks of over-automation and cultural/ language bias 𝗔𝗜 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 Classrooms can’t be reduced to data points — AI must respect the incomputable nature of learning — Building AI “with” educators, not “for” them — Reshaping the learning starts with how we evaluate and assess knowledge and competences how we evaluate and accredit the quality of the education UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000395236
UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education (inspired by ) Inequalities in education AI can close divides — but only if it is localized, contextualized, and as open as it can — Bias, cultural, marginalized groups will persist — Economical and digital divide will be enhanced 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 — transparent, fair, and accountable by design and structure — Governance— it requires democratic, participative oversight (not only technical or ethical) — Strategic adoption of AI with all actors involved and their accountability UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025
UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education (inspired by ) 𝗥𝗲𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗘𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 Policy must keep pace with fast-moving AI capabilities balancing human and machine intelligence — supporting open and collaborative structures UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025
OPEN PRACTICES and AI
What we have…? https://github.com/marketplace?type=models Manus
Artificial Intelligence and Open LLMs
AI and Open Education •September 2025, a publicly developed large language model (LLM) is released — co-created by researchers at EPFL, ETH Zurich, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) - ALPS •This LLM will be fully open: This openness is designed to support broad adoption and foster innovation across science, society, and industry. •A defining feature of the model is its multilingual fluency in over 1,000 languages. https://www.swiss-ai.org/
TildeOpen LLM: Europe’s Sovereign Multilingual AI https://tilde.ai/tildeopen-llm/
Components of an Open Educational Language Model (OELM) https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/7628 David Wiley, Dec 2024
Intelligent Tutors in Education AI TUTOR PRO AI Tutor Pro Interface of the personalized AI tutor used in Harvard’s experiment Jamworks HARVARD AI TUTOR JAMWORKS
UPT Virtual Campus AI OPENAI V. Sorescu, D. Andone -Developing Intelligent Tutors with Artificial Intelligence for Digital Education, IEEE DEMOcon, 2025 Figure 6. OpenAI BLOOM AI AZURE AI OLLAMA Figure 7. Azure AI Figure 8. Bloom AI Figure 9. Ollama Figure 10. The Power of AI through API Integration of an AI tutor into Moodle Technologies and Solutions Used
UPT Virtual Campus AI Implementation 38/16 We used a stable VPS, sufficient for running the Llama 13B model for testing and integration into Moodle. Figure 12. Running the Llama2:13B model Figure 11. Installing Ollama on the server Figure 13. Ollama running publicly Figure 14. Configuring AI Tutor Poli for Moodle with Ollama Figure 15. Settings of the Ollama module V. Sorescu, D. Andone -Developing Intelligent Tutors with Artificial Intelligence for Digital Education, IEEE DEMOcon, 2025
UPT Virtual Campus AI Testing 39/16 Testing was carried out on two courses: “Data Protection and Open Licenses” (in English, Book format) and “Advanced Multimedia Technologies” (in Romanian, free format) in UPT Virtual Campus (Moodle ). Figure 16. Prompt for text generation Figure 17. Configuring parameters for all 3 actions Figure 18. Summarizing the text from the first course Figure 19. Explaining the text from the first course V. Sorescu, D. Andone -Developing Intelligent Tutors with Artificial Intelligence for Digital Education, IEEE DEMOcon, 2025
UPT Virtual Campus AI integrating an open-source language model into a real LMS: •facilitate access to information, personalize learning, and automate repetitive tasks •all within a controlled, transparent, and safe framework for users. Challenges: •High server costs if deployed for the whole university •Training and support for staff and students •Evaluation of the Impact on learning V. Sorescu, D. Andone -Developing Intelligent Tutors with Artificial Intelligence for Digital Education, IEEE DEMOcon, 2025
Open educational practices and AI AI can enhance the Production, management, use and reuse of open educational resources. Developing and applying open/public pedagogies in teaching practice, with stable AI
Artificial Intelligence and Open Educational Resources OER Content Development Course activity in Instructional Technologies with students from the Multimedia Technologies Master in 2024 Students used 11 different tools Some Open AI tools Developed 17 OERs
Multimedia educational examples created with AI Synthesia.io •Create a lesson or a course video based on your own material, or a resource, edit it and adapt it
Artificial Intelligence and Open Educational Resources OER Translation and Localization millions OERS are in EN Automated translation tools powered by AI Automated translation and text to voice Personalisation and adaptation MOOC integration https://digitallibrary.io/
Timisoara’s Heritage in the digital world 5 historical neighbourhoods Allegory of senses
Artificial Intelligence and Open Educational Resources OER Translation and Localization Spotlight Heritage Timisoara Integration of OpenAI API Voice-text for translation and voice on website Co-created by students at Multimedia Technologies Master Developed in October – December 2023 by a group of Master students - Valentin Sorescu, Lucian Muresan, Ana Cainiceanu The Voice on text is for English and Romanian Language https://spotlight-timisoara.eu/
AI Voice on Spotlight Heritage website In Romanian language the numbers and years are not automatically read properly (the years are read on EN style) – a special program was developed to break numbers and all years on separate digits, and in digits pair, so the textto-voice can be generated correctly Students increased the number of characters to be read more then 4096 for the mp3
Artificial Intelligence and Open Educational Resources ACADEMIC INTEGRITY Possibility to reuse content Open practices can improve the understanding, competences and use of AI European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers https://www.eurodoc.net/wg/academic-integrity-and-artificial-intelligence-wg Bozkurt, A. (2023). Generative AI, Synthetic Contents, Open Educational Resources (OER), and Open Educational Practices (OEP): A New Front in the Openness Landscape. <i>Open Praxis</i>, <i>15</i>(3), 178–184. https://doi.org/10.55982/openpraxis.15.3.579
Artificial Intelligence and Open Educational Resources Personalized Learning recommendations for OER based on a learner's performance, learning preferences, and development areas Open data and learning analytics with predictive models Xporter OEA Module, UK's first Microsoft Open Education Analytics module https://www.openeducationai.org/
Artificial Intelligence and Open Education MIT Open Learning challenges and opportunities of AI for open education nine rapid response papers — written by researchers and practitioners across the world how AI-powered open educational resources can foster equity and inclusivity in education, replicable models for transforming education development https://openlearning.mit.edu/news/new-papers-explore-challenges-and-opportunities-ai-open-education
Artificial Intelligence and Open Education AI and Open Education for All Tecnologico de Monterrey (Mexico) OEGlobal 2024 Open With Artificial Intelligence Award Winner AI Databot AI Avatar Professor TechnoIdeas AI Generator TechnoBot https://awards.oeglobal.org/awards/2024/open-ai/ai-and-open-education-for-all/
AI to support teaching/learning appropriate AI tool to quickly scope a topic and to create short summaries to identify and translate subjectspecific vocabulary into more understandable terms and create a glossary locate any references cited, Discuss where AI can fail Where in their learning students can use Generative AI to find out about a new topic, or to research an idea? Assess / Reflect
AI to support teaching/learning structure their study notes effectively into a variety of formats (eg visual, bulletpoints, lists, tables, mind-maps) to generate practice questions – study buddy developing their research and data analysis skills How students may use Generative AI to support consolidation of their learning, assess understanding? Assess / Reflect
AI to support teaching/learning AI to generate examples of different types of academic writing or presentations based on the same topic and different forms argumentative, descriptive, expository and narrative feedback on examples of their writing from different generative AI tools generate alternative explanations of different contexts, give more examples and suggest analogies How students may use Generative AI to improve their academic writing? Assess / Reflect
Higher education in AI – what can we do Policy considerations Specific principles and guidelines per target group (students, teachers, researchers etc.) Training and support Short courses (students, teachers, researchers etc.) Develop competences Adapt instruction and assessment (principles of open education) Improve academics and research ethics Foster a culture of science in AI-driven scientific research
Small, easily accessible courses, conferences and events Familiarize yourself with the basics Update syllabus for the generative Al Be mindful of the tool's limitations and use it in combination with other resources Organize openbooks exams Get Rid of Disposable Assignments // Create unique assignments Promote a culture of academic integrity Educators and AI – take aways Learn Share with others Teach People want to understand AI - support this!
Co-create to control and benefit from Generative AI in Education Regulation Adopt Use cases Learn Teach/ Research
OPEN PRACTICES and AI
AI will shape every industry but in education, it will shape its framework
My repository on AI https://zenodo.org/communities/ai_andone_research/