FernUni LLM Experimental Infrastructure (FLEXI) -- Enabling Experimentation and Innovation in Higher Education Through Access to Open Large Language Models
This addresses access barriers for higher education institutions, but it is incremental as it focuses on practical guidance for setting up existing infrastructure.
The paper tackles the challenge of accessing large language models (LLMs) in higher education by establishing FLEXI, an open LLM infrastructure at FernUniversität in Hagen, enabling experimentation to generate evidence on the use of locally maintained open LLMs.
Using the full potential of LLMs in higher education is hindered by challenges with access to LLMs. The two main access modes currently discussed are paying for a cloud-based LLM or providing a locally maintained open LLM. In this paper, we describe the current state of establishing an open LLM infrastructure at FernUniversität in Hagen under the project name FLEXI (FernUni LLM Experimental Infrastructure). FLEXI enables experimentation within teaching and research with the goal of generating strongly needed evidence in favor (or against) the use of locally maintained open LLMs in higher education. The paper will provide some practical guidance for everyone trying to decide whether to run their own LLM server.