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How do you test programming when the code no longer has to be written by the student? This question has been on my mind since November 2022, when ChatGPT started producing passable Python code. The standard answer is often: closed-book exam. Programming on paper. That answer feels outdated. We’re training people who will probably work with AI tools later. Why should they pretend these tools don’t exist during exams? One approach I find interesting: Stop asking “Did you write all of this yourself?” and ask instead “Can you explain it?” Authorship of the code …

Editor’s note: This is a guest contribution. This article is based on the introductory talk “What happens after a project ends in (digitally supported) higher education development, and how do we keep the door to the digital space open?” at the TURN Conference 2025. We all know the story: projects come – and projects go. And all too often, they take their ideas, visions, and tools with them. What remains is the question: How do we preserve what has been built? And what stays when the project period ends and the funding runs out? Projects in Digital Higher Education …

Article Series: Exams and AI In this Part 2 we examine the AI temptation for instructors: automatic grading, AI-generated tasks, and policy chaos. → Keynote announcement Previously published: The Illusion of Control – Fighting symptoms instead of systemic solutions Upcoming parts: Performance instead of Fiction – Three ways out of the trust crisis (available Nov 27) The Uncomfortable Truth – From symptom treatment to systemic questions (available Dec 4) → All slides from the talk (PDF, German) Part 2: The AI Temptation In Part 1 of this series, we saw how students are becoming passengers of …

In Brief Over 70% fail an introductory programming course – and a dramatic appeal to freshmen probably won’t change that. The problem becomes apparent as early as Week 4: Students know they can’t program, but they don’t change their behavior anyway – Akrasia, acting against better judgment. Mandatory intermediate steps are not legally possible, only subtle incentives – so is the high failure rate a systemic flaw, or are the competency standards simply non-negotiable? This week I presented my students with a text meant to wake them up. An alarming text. A text I didn’t …

Article Series: Exams and AI This is Part 1 of 4 of an article series based on my keynote at the Tag der digitalen Lehre (Day of Digital Education) on September 25, 2025, in Regensburg, Germany. In this series: The Illusion of Control – Fighting symptoms instead of systemic solutions (this article) The AI Temptation – Instructors are also susceptible Performance instead of Fiction – Three ways out of the trust crisis (available Nov 27) The Uncomfortable Truth – From symptom treatment to systemic questions (available Dec 4) → All slides from the talk (PDF, German) Passengers of their own …