As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the workforce, several colleges and universities are introducing AI requirements to general education curricula, majors and certificate programs this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some institutions\u2014for example, Miami University<\/a>, Ohio State University<\/a> and the State University of New York system<\/a>\u2014are embedding AI competencies into pre-existing majors and coursework. Others, including Northwestern University<\/a> and the Wentworth Institute of Technology<\/a>, are introducing AI-specific major programs. Still others, like Indiana University\u2019s Kelley School of Business, are introducing required courses on AI.<\/p>\n Their approaches may differ but their motivations are the same: Employers are, at breakneck speed, increasingly asking for graduates who know how to effectively use AI. It\u2019s called AI fluency, said Ray Schroeder<\/a>, a senior fellow at the online and professional education association UPCEA, and it \u201ccan be a decisive factor between getting a job and not, especially at entry level,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCorporate HR departments who do the hiring are requiring or evaluating how much experience and ability applicants have in [AI], and it\u2019s very important to those corporations because AI is becoming very important in their day-to-day operations,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n As of March, more than a third\u201435\u00a0percent\u2014of entry-level jobs require AI skills, up from 13\u00a0percent six months prior<\/a>, according to the most recent job outlook survey<\/a> from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. About 58\u00a0percent of surveyed employers said they assign interns tasks that \u201cuse AI tools and skills.\u201d Although 70\u00a0percent of respondents said college graduates are \u201csomewhat prepared\u201d to use AI in the workplace, they also reported that of the skills they look for in graduates, AI skills are the weakest and lag behind teamwork, technology, communication, critical thinking, professionalism, career and self development, and leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n Starting this fall, all incoming undergraduates at Indiana\u2019s Kelley School will be required to take two AI classes: a 101 course in the fall, which will teach students how to use AI effectively and ethically, and a 201 course in the spring that dives deeper into business applications of AI, said Brian Williams, an accounting professor and chair of the Virtual Advanced Business Technologies Department at Kelley. The 101 course is an \u201cextensive revamp\u201d of a previous generative AI 101 class open to all students and employees, he said.<\/p>\n Purdue University was one of the first institutions to announce plans to integrate AI into the curriculum. In December, the university unveiled \u201cAI@Purdue,\u201d a comprehensive approach to AI, which includes an AI graduation requirement as well as several AI-specific degree programs. All students will be required to take one of 22 possible AI courses at some point during their studies, said Haley Oliver-Jischke, senior vice provost for academic and student success at Purdue. Faculty members designed the courses from scratch or by \u201cupgrading\u201d existing classes to add AI components.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were 331 plans of study that had to be modified,\u201d she said. \u201cThis task was just a tremendous lift, and everyone had it done and ready to go by April 1 so that our inbound freshmen this year would, in their plans of study, have an AI requirement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019re trying to get students to think about AI as a tool, not as something that\u2019s going to save them or something that will make their lives inherently better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2014Adam Johnson, Coastal Carolina University<\/p>\n The push for AI fluency comes as faculty members grapple with how to use AI in their own work and how to enforce<\/a> and encourage academic integrity from their students<\/a>. Purdue is making an effort this fall to ensure that every syllabus has guidance about how students can and can\u2019t use AI in class, Oliver-Jischke said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think students get most frustrated when there isn\u2019t clear guidance,\u201d she said. \u201cBe clear. Be specific. Be prescriptive, so that everybody\u2019s on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n Coastal Carolina University\u2019s new AI course\u2014Artificial Intelligence in the Research Process\u2014was developed to serve students in every discipline, according to Adam Johnson, a learning technologies and data librarian who helped create the course. Students don\u2019t have to take it, but if they do, it satisfies their human and social behavior core curriculum requirement. Coastal Carolina is starting the class with one 25-student section this fall.<\/p>\n Rather than focus on how AI works or is built, the class will \u201cget students to understand how human interaction with a large language model affects the outcome of their research,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to get students to think about AI as a tool, not as something that\u2019s going to save them or something that will make their lives inherently better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Johnson and his colleagues came up with the course after noticing that students were being pushed into using AI without realizing it, he said. A Google search, for example, now almost always returns a Gemini summary of results at the top of the page. Several large library databases like ProQuest have also turned on AI assistants by default, he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cStudents are using it without realizing what it is,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a real gap in terms of information literacy and a tendency to trust things without considering the academic integrity side or the ethical issues.\u201d<\/p>\n He likened AI\u2019s impact on students\u2019 research to the rise of Wikipedia in the mid-2000s.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Wikipedia came on the scene a long time ago, people were like, \u2018Never use Wikipedia,\u2019 and now it\u2019s a common part of our research tool kit,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWikipedia is one of those things we do not frown upon anymore because we now know how to use it and we know how to get them to go back and be transparent and check references.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n AI Courses Must Stay \u2018Fresh\u2019<\/p>\n AI\u2019s capabilities are changing rapidly. Any effective course or curriculum will need the flexibility to adapt to those changes, Schroeder said. At Kelley, professors will integrate weekly \u201cWhat\u2019s New in AI\u201d lessons that \u201ckeep the class fresh,\u201d Williams said. At Coastal Carolina, Johnson and his colleagues aligned the broad takeaways of the course to the Association of College and Research Libraries\u2019 framework for information literacy, and will adjust projects and individual assignments as AI tools change.\u00a0<\/p>\n Schroeder recommends that faculty members stay \u201cin tune\u201d with the employers in their field and consider inviting guest speakers to class to discuss how their industry is changing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the responsibilities of faculty and departments is to be familiar with the employers who hire your graduates and meet with them and, perhaps more importantly, with the director of HR to see what they\u2019re looking for, how far ahead they\u2019re looking and what skills they\u2019re expecting from [graduates]. And then, make those part of the learning outcomes for the degree and the learning outcomes for every course,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In lieu of\u2014or in addition to\u2014one freshman-year course on AI, Schroeder also suggests that colleges offer regular open seminars \u201cfor students to get a continuing flow of information.\u201d<\/p>\n At Purdue, faculty and administrators will regularly monitor the new AI curriculum for potential changes, Oliver-Jischke said. But they\u2019ll also be paying attention to students\u2019 critical thinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s what everyone\u2019s really genuinely concerned about, and rightfully so. With the interface of this technology, are we done thinking? Are we done being critical?\u201d she said. \u201cAt Purdue, we are actually going to begin measuring, across the institution, students\u2019 development of critical thinking. We\u2019re just getting started, but that\u2019s where I see the future of this actually going.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s likely that the number of colleges offering AI-specific courses or programs will grow. Endicott College<\/a> is planning to introduce a degree in AI implementation in fall 2027. Suffolk University<\/a> is rolling out an AI \u201cco-major\u201d that pairs with almost any other major.\u00a0<\/p>\n Interested in creating an AI class? Start with the library, Johnson advised.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe library can play a much more central role, at least in terms of forming these kinds of courses. Because we see research from all angles and in all disciplines, we\u2019re a natural fit to help integrate something like this,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cLean on those research point people at your institution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the workforce, several colleges and universities are introducing AI requirements to general…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,501,76,293,500,382,66],"class_list":["post-145812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-career","tag-education","tag-events","tag-higher","tag-jobs","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}