How CODE University is pioneering a new model for higher education through AI

As CODE continued to grow, the university was exploring new ways to meet the increasing demand for personalized feedback and guidance for students, while maintaining the same amount of resources. Faculty members play a pivotal role in shaping the student experience, balancing responsibilities such as preparing digital classrooms, assessing multifaceted student projects, and providing tailored pre-assessment feedback.

Another challenge was the growing role of AI in education. While AI tools offered opportunities to streamline processes, there was skepticism about their effectiveness in fostering student learning. Faculty needed to ensure that AI augmented rather than replaced critical thinking, guiding students toward deeper engagement with their work.

The founders of Langdock, alumni of CODE University, gifted subscriptions to CODE students and faculty, driven by their desire to give back to the institution that shaped their journey and to provide current students with a tool they wish they had had during their time at CODE in 2017. Langdock became the AI experimentation ground for faculty and students.

Since university-wide adoption in 2023, Langdock has become an integral part of the CODE learning experience. This includes:

1. Scalable Feedback Systems for Students

Faculty at CODE University adopted Langdock's assistant-sharing feature to create a personalized learning experience for students. Professors developed AI-powered assistants tailored to specific modules, like product strategy and decision-making. These assistants guided students through methods by asking reflective, guiding questions rather than providing direct answers. This coach-coachee dynamic empowered students to critically engage with their work.

Eventually, these individual assistants were integrated into a "meta-assistant." This system used Langdock's context-handling capabilities to combine instructional materials, assessment criteria, and specific task guidelines. The meta-assistant could differentiate between guiding students through methods and providing assessment-focused feedback, ensuring a seamless learning experience.

“The assistant gives students immediate, high-quality feedback similar to what they'd receive in a one-on-one session. It has not only reduced my workload but also improved the depth and quality of their submissions

Florian Grote

Professor of Product Management

2. Augmenting Classroom Preparation and Assessment

Langdock's tools were also used to streamline classroom and exam preparation. AI assistants summarized interview data from student bachelor theses, flagged inconsistencies, and generated questions for oral exams. This allowed faculty to focus on higher-value tasks like mentoring and curriculum design.

3. Providing assistance to students in their projects and learning journey

Students at CODE are using Langdock in various ways to enhance their learning and project work, such as assisting with literature reviews to help quickly synthesize information from multiple sources, providing explanations of complex algorithms, suggesting optimizations, helping debug code, and supporting various aspects of project management from ideation to execution.

Langdock's integration has had a transformative effect on both faculty efficiency and student outcomes at CODE University. The results include:

• 50% Reduction in Check-ins for some modules: The number of pre-assessment check-ins dropped by half, with some students eliminating the need for these sessions entirely. This saved faculty hours of preparation and allowed them to focus on higher-value activities with students.
• Improved Feedback Quality: AI assistants provided more thorough and consistent feedback than professors could in limited time, enhancing the quality of student submissions.
• Streamlined Thesis Assessments: The use of AI to summarize and analyze lengthy interview transcripts made thesis evaluations faster and more accurate.
• Future-Proofed Learning: By integrating AI tools into the curriculum, students learned to critically engage with AI, preparing them for a world where AI is ubiquitous.

Through Langdock, CODE University is pioneering a new model for higher education, demonstrating how AI can be used to enhance learning, improve efficiency, and prepare students for the future.