KI-Update – ein heise-Podcast · Isabel Grünewald, heise online

KI-Update Deep-Dive: Kompetenzen verbessern mit dem KI-Campus

·39 min·3 clips

Florian Rampelt explains how Germany's free AI learning platform emerged from a government strategy to boost national innovation.

1. KI-Update's 600th episode is a deep dive in which host Isabel Grünewald interviews Florian Rampelt of KI Campus about AI competency education in Germany. 2. Florian Rampelt is Programme Director for Future Skills and AI and head of the KI Campus office at the Stifterverband, Germany's century-old science and education funding network. 3. The episode's central question is how a free open-licence AI learning platform can reach enough people fast enough to close the gap between Germany's AI adoption ambitions and its workforce readiness. 4. KI Campus originated as part of the German government's AI strategy; the Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) approached the Stifterverband to co-develop the idea, and the platform went live in 2020. 5. The platform initially focused on massive open online courses (MOOCs) with 30–150 hours of workload aimed at university credit recognition, but shifted toward shorter micro-courses of 2–4 hours after user research showed a need for lower-threshold entry. 6. A core licensing principle from the start was that all content must be open and reusable without copyright barriers — Humboldt-Universität content must be freely usable at RWTH Aachen and by private workshop providers. 7. The platform now offers over 50 courses, and Rampelt's team of five uses a semi-annual evaluation matrix to audit every course for content accuracy and pedagogical quality, archiving courses where updates would be too costly. 8. A new project funded by the Federal Ministry of Research (BMBF) brings nine universities together — including RWTH Aachen, TU München, Universität Tübingen, Fernuniversität Hagen, and Humboldt-Universität — covering over 300,000 students between them, to build AI competency offerings under the EU AI Act's Article 4 requirement. 9. Article 4 of the AI Act obliges institutions deploying AI systems to ensure staff have sufficient AI competencies — Rampelt identifies this as a key driver for university adoption of the platform. 10. Courses are differentiated by audience: administrative staff receive deeper coverage of legal frameworks, while teaching staff focus on pedagogical integration of AI tools in their courses. 11. The Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg was highlighted as a standout example: it remixed KI Campus open-licence modules into a closed Moodle course on AI and academic work, reaching over 2,000 staff and students. 12. TH Nürnberg made the 'Ace Your Exams' student AI course — created by two TU München students Rampelt met at a KI festival in Heilbronn — compulsory, resulting in roughly 10,000 of its students completing it. 13. A small course on AI in higher-education administration, co-developed with university administration networks in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, has now been used by several thousand administrators beyond those two states. 14. KI Campus has 150,000 registered users today and targets 500,000 by 2030, measuring progress both through direct registrations and verified reuse within partner institutions' own systems. 15. Regional hubs at Fernuniversität Hagen and in Heilbronn advise other institutions on adoption and adaptation of materials, extending reach beyond the nine-university core consortium. 16. A Stifterverband study found over 80% of German companies report insufficient AI competencies internally and say universities do not adequately prepare graduates — Rampelt has set a public goal of halving that share by 2029/2030. 17. The interview format is a question-and-answer deep dive, relaxed and methodical in pace, with Grünewald asking practical follow-up questions and Rampelt providing detailed programme specifics. 18. Rampelt distinguishes KI Campus from for-profit training providers by its open-licence mandate, and from general adult-education platforms like Applied AI by its focus on foundational competencies for all rather than specialist depth. 19. Listeners working in German higher education, university administration, or corporate learning and development who need concrete examples of AI education frameworks will find detailed, actionable content. 20. Listeners outside Germany or those already deeply familiar with the German higher-education system and AI-Act compliance may find the institutional specifics less relevant to their context.

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