SLATE has received NOK 1 600 000 from Vestland County Council for three new Continuing and Further Education courses on Data and Artificial Intelligence.

In the fall of 2024, SLATE applied for funding for the development and further development of EVU ("Etter- og videreutdanning", or "Continuing and Further Education") courses on understanding data and the use of artificial intelligence. From SLATE, Director and Professor Barbara Wasson, Associate Professor Fredrik Breien and Senior Executive Officer Sofie Steinsund applied to Vestland County Council (Vestland fylkeskommune) for funding for three different EVU projects. This was done through Tilskot til forprosjekt for nye utdanningstilbod (“Grants for pilot projects for new educational offers”), in collaboration with SLATE's partners for the three projects.

In total, SLATE has received commitments of NOK 1,600,000 for the three projects.

Two of the new courses are part of UiB's DIGI package: Digital understanding, knowledge and competence. DIGI610B - Fantastic Data for the Seafood Industry is a collaboration between SLATE, UiB Videre and NCE Seafood Innovation, while DIGI610C - Fantastic Data for Teachers is a collaboration between SLATE, UiB Videre and Vestland County Council.

The two courses will be customized versions of SLATE's well-established and popular six-week EVU course DIGI610 - Fantastic Data, which provides a basic understanding of what data and digitalization are all about. In the spring of 2025, DIGI110 had over 200 students and staff from UiB and DIGI610 had over 700 registered participants workers from across Norway.

The development work for the two customized courses is well underway, led by Barbara Wasson and Fredrik Breien. Both courses will be launched in the fall of 2025.

AI in the Classroom, a new online EVU course for teachers with a focus on the use of AI in the classroom, is the third course with funding from Vestland County Council. The partners are SLATE, UiB Videre and Vestland County Council.

The development of the course is led by Barbara Wasson and will be launched in spring 2026. To ensure that it is as useful and relevant as possible, the course is being developed in close collaboration and dialogue with the AI expert teachers from Vestland.

Some of the funding will be used for updating the online course Datareisen, the reading material for the DIGI610 and DIGI110 courses. Datareisen has been developed by Digital Norway and SLATE.

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