I am the principal investigator of a Comenius Leadership Fellowship funded by the Nationaal Kennisinstituut Onderwijs (Dutch National Education Institute). The fellowship supports educational leadership and innovation, with a focus on developing responsible and effective approaches to the use of artificial intelligence in higher education.
Across higher education, students and teachers increasingly use AI to search for information, refine writing, and generate ideas. Yet AI-literacy education—typically offered through webinars, e-modules, or workshops—often remains detached from authentic learning contexts and treats AI as a tool to assist rather than create. This limits opportunities for deeper, discipline-specific learning through hands-on experimentation. AI literacy must become a foundational academic skill, put into action in everyday teaching and learning rather than taught in isolation.
Chat2Learn (C2L) and Chat2Create (C2C) address these challenges by embedding AI-literacy education and a creative maker sandbox directly into Tilburg University’s chatbot platform Tilly, which is accessible to all students and staff. C2L turns everyday AI interactions into guided moments of reflection on responsible digital behavior. Through built-in feedback, it helps students refine prompts, verify information, recognize biases, fine-tune their writing, and consider the ethical, social, and environmental implications of AI use.
C2C enables students to design their own chatbots and lightweight apps using natural language. Through the creation process, students gain transferable skills in problem-solving and responsible innovation with AI, preparing them to contribute to the digital transformation of society. Together, C2L and C2C will reach 1,600 students annually through formal embedding in programs and courses. They will also be available informally to everyone at Tilburg University via Tilly, reaching an estimated 6,800–15,200 users and supported by training materials and shared use cases.
An expert steering group will ensure governance, ethics, and sustainability, securing the project’s long-term integration into Tilburg University’s educational model.
The fellowship runs from 2026 to 2029 and is funded with €500,000. More information is available on the Comenius Leadership Fellows 2026 programme page.