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Beyond AI Literacy. Human Competences in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
Beyond AI Literacy. Human Competences in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
The course is intended for teachers and educators who feel the need to recentre their formative role and to discern what remains essential in educating when AI calls learning and teaching into question.
Course description
Generative artificial intelligence has entered the places of education: in study, in lesson preparation, in assessment, in writing. Alongside the tools, competence frameworks have multiplied, setting out what one needs to know and be able to do with AI. Yet a question remains open that concerns those who educate more closely: which human competences allow a person to live, learn and work as an active agent in AI-mediated environments?
This course proposes a pedagogical reflection on essential human competences — thinking, judging, acting — understood as resources of the person to be safeguarded and cultivated. At the centre of the path is practical wisdom (phronesis) as the condition that makes all the other competences operative at the moment when one must decide what it is good to do, here and now, with this person.
Through reference to the Aristotelian virtues, the critical reading of international frameworks and situated examples in educational contexts, the course accompanies teachers, educators and trainers in recentring their formative role and in discerning what remains essential in educating when AI calls learning and teaching into question. Throughout the path a dual perspective is maintained: the competences required of those who educate and those to be promoted in the people in formation.
Total workload of the course: 25 hours
The MOOC is organised into 4 modules or weeks:
- Week 1 - The competences and the person
The first week poses the course's underlying question: which competences do people need in the age of AI? It shifts the focus from competences "for using AI" to the competences that allow people to live, learn and work as active agents in AI-mediated environments, and shows why thinking, judging and acting are resources of the person and why safeguarding them is an educational task. - Week 2 - AI literacy and its frameworks
The second week addresses the concepts of literacy and AI literacy with a retrospective gaze, asking whether the promise of emancipation historically linked to literacy is still present in contemporary international competence frameworks. As a paradigmatic case it reads the European Union's DigComp 3.0: the analysis of its verbs brings out which subject the framework imagines, together with the presuppositions, limits and potentialities that follow from an educational perspective. - Week 3 – The human virtues of intelligence
The third week proposes thinking of competences as virtues, in the sense Aristotle gave the word. It distinguishes the virtues of thinking and of acting and recognises in practical wisdom (phronesis) not one competence among others, but the condition that makes all the others operative. It then addresses the reason why, in the age of AI, forming practical wisdom is a priority educational task. - Week 4 – Safeguarding and cultivating the human
The fourth week moves from theory to educational practice. It clarifies what it means to safeguard the human in oneself, in others and as humanity, with particular reference to the encyclical letter Magnifica Humanitas by Pope Leo XIV (2026), and it proposes criteria for recognising which choices, environments and activities cultivate practical wisdom when AI takes part in the work, holding together the competences required of the educator and those to be promoted in the learner.
For a wider diffusion of the course, learning materials including texts, infographics, templates and videos were translated from Italian to English through Artificial Intelligence software. Therefore they may contain inaccuracies.
This MOOC was produced as part of the Edvance project – Digital Education Hub per la Cultura Digitale Avanzata. The project is funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU, Component 1, Investment 3.4 “Didattica e competenze universitarie avanzate".
Intended Learning Outcomes
If you take an active part in the course, by the end you will be able to:
- Distinguish and argue the role of the essential human competences for the growth of the person, recognising them as resources of the subject and differentiating them from the instrumental competences tied to the operational use of AI.
ESCO: instructional design models - Read critically the international frameworks for digital competences and AI literacy, analysing DigComp 3.0 as a paradigmatic case, in order to recognise which person they presuppose and to identify their underlying assumptions, limitations, and potential from an educational perspective.
ESCO: teach digital literacy - Interpret competences in a pedagogical key as dispositions of the person, that is, as virtues in the Aristotelian sense, recognising in practical wisdom (phronesis) the condition that makes all the others operative in the face of the challenges posed by AI.
ESCO: develop a pedagogical concept - Evaluate and argue criteria, educational choices and reflective instruments that safeguard and cultivate practical wisdom when AI takes part in the work, making explicit what is required of the educator and what is to be promoted in growing persons.
ESCO: exercise self-reflection
Prerequisites
No specific prior knowledge is required in order to follow the course.
Activities
In addition to accessing the course content — videos and other kinds of online resources (texts, infographics, glossary, quizzes) — the participant can discuss and exchange ideas on the MOOC's themes with the other participants through the forum. The forum has open access and is not moderated by the instructor. The participant can also practise reflective activities in order to try out on themselves the instruments presented in the fourth module.
Assessment
Your final grade for the course will be based on the results of your answers to the assessed quizzes. You have an unlimited number of attempts at each quiz, but you must wait 15 minutes before you can try again. You will have successfully completed the course if you score 60% (or higher) in each one of the assessed quizzes. The maximum score possible for each quiz is given at the beginning of the quiz. You can view your score in the quiz on your last attempt or on the 'Grades' page.
Certificate
You can achieve a certificate in the form of an Open Badge for this course, if you reach at least 60% of the total score in each one of the assessed quizzes and fill in the final survey.
Once you have completed the required tasks, you will be able to access ‘Get the Open Badge’ and start issuing the badge. Instructions on how to access the badge will be sent to your e-mail address.
The Badge does not confer any academic credit, grade or degree.
Information about fees and access to materials
The course is delivered in online mode and is available free of charge.
Course faculty
Enrica Ottone
Teacher
Professor of Social and Intercultural Pedagogy at the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences "Auxilium" in Rome. She is Director of the Institute of Educational Methodology and Coordinator of the Committee for the Quality of Teaching/Learning. She carries out research in various fields using a research-action-training approach.
Maria Antonia Chinello
Teacher
Professor of Communication Theories and Communication Technologies in the Educational Process at the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences "Auxilium" in Rome. A journalist, she is Editor-in-Chief of the Rivista di Scienze dell'Educazione. She carries out research and training in various fields, including computer-mediated communication, digital competence and citizenship in the mediapolis.
Credits
Recordings, Post-Production, Set Design: Francesca Bruschi, Luca Farinelli.
Contact details
If you have any enquiries about the course or if you need technical assistance please contact pok@polimi.it. For further information, see FAQ page.