AI & classroom activities

Yurii Kondratyk (University of Tartu): Integration of AI into classroom activities

This case study outlines how AI was integrated into the master’s-level course Introduction to Central and East European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, attended by 38 graduate students. The overall structure of the course consists of 2 main parts: the creation of videos about different regions assigned to the students (in groups) and the writing of research proposals, which were anonymized and provided feedback by peers. Hence, the main objective of these activities is to synthesize large amounts of information into comprehensible videos (this process includes writing scripts and editing), which the whole class uses to prepare for the final exam and develop the skills of writing research proposals, including justification of methods, literature review, and other integral components (this task involves writing and providing feedback for others).

In light of the rise of genAI in academia, the debate has sparked particularly around fears that students may “outsource” their thinking. To address this, we explored how to incorporate AI in a way that supports student thinking.

We define “critical AI use” through three competencies:

1. Students do not treat AI-generated content as a substitute for their own ideas.
2. They verify AI outputs rather than accept them uncritically.
3. They recognize biases and understand how algorithms influence content.

Based on these principles, we designed activities such as reflection sheets, mini-debates, and text analysis. We emphasize that AI should function as a thinking partner—a tool to consult, critique, and learn from, not a replacement for the student’s intellectual work. We also would like to highlight that not all tasks offered to the students were directly related to the course activities and in some cases (mini-debates, reflection sheets) were introduced in order to discuss the use of gen AI, raise awareness, encourage its critical usage and reflect on the technology’s impact on the way we study in more general terms.