Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Proposal for a Transversal Curricular Unit

Given the very recent appearance and rapid dissemination of tools based on artificial intelligence (AI), particularly the ChatGPT application, and the inevitability of their installation in the lives of students and professors, this article proposes the creation of a new “transversal skills” curricular unit to be taught to students in the Engineering Programs at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. Given the “revolution” that these AI-based tools can represent, it is important to reflect on what they constitute, how they can support professors in their teaching tasks, how they can support students in acquiring and interrelating knowledge and developing their competences, and how they can shape assessment processes. This article begins by analyzing the characteristics, potential and limitations of AI and the importance of developing AI-related transversal skills in higher education, followed by examples of the application of AI-based tools in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. Finally, the design of an AI-based curricular unit is proposed, as well as a methodology for identifying, assessing and mitigating the effects of biases in AI applications in curricula. Despite this proposal is directly applicable to STEM courses, it can be easily adapted to other areas of study.