Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


New AAC&U Institute to Explore Challenges and Opportunities of AI in Teaching and Learning

The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) a new Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum designed to "help departments, programs, colleges, and universities respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities artificial intelligence (AI) presents for courses and curricula." Nearly 800 individuals from 123 higher education institutions have been selected to participate in the fully online learning opportunity, which kicked off on Sept. 12 and will run through April 2025.

Through monthly meetings and webinars, participants will interact with peers, engage in cross-team planning, and discuss the current state of AI in higher education as they develop and implement AI action plans for their classrooms, curricula, and campuses, the AAC&U explained in a news announcement. Topics of study include:

  • Pedagogical and assessment approaches within and across courses;
  • Academic integrity concerns, policies, and practices;
  • Ethical and equity implications of AI; and
  • Adopting AI competencies and literacies as course and/or programmatic learning outcomes.

Each campus team will be assigned a mentor from the institute's faculty, the AAC&U said, who will provide guidance asynchronously via the institute's online platform.

"The rapid emergence of generative AI has resulted in profound opportunities and challenges for nearly all disciplines in higher education," said C. Edward Watson, vice president for digital innovation at AAC&U, in a statement. "AI competencies and literacies are quickly emerging as necessary workforce skills. This demands that associated learning outcomes become a part of our curriculum; however, evoking AI into the classroom can create challenges regarding academic integrity and student learning. This institute is designed to help campuses navigate these complexities, engage in curricular and pedagogical reform, and address the array of related concerns associated with AI in higher education, including questions about policies, ethics, and the future of higher learning. I'm excited that AAC&U is collaborating with so many institutions to address our latest teaching and learning grand challenge."

For more information, visit the AAC&U site.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • cyber security padlock

    AI Adoption Forces Trade-Off Between Speed and Identity Security, Study Finds

    AI adoption is forcing enterprises to trade security for speed — and identity controls are the first casualty, according to a new report from Delinea, a provider of identity security solutions for both human and AI agent identities.

  • silhouette of business person facing wall of data

    Why AI Strategy Belongs in the President's Office

    Institutions that are succeeding with AI share one thing in common, and it is not a better committee, a larger budget, or a more sophisticated technology stack. It is a president who never handed off the steering wheel.

  • large group of college students sitting on an academic quad

    Student Readiness: Learning to Learn

    Melissa Loble, Instructure's chief academic officer, recommends a focus on 'readiness' as a broader concept as we try to understand how to build meaningful education experiences that can form a bridge from the university to the workplace. Here, we ask Loble what readiness is and how to offer students the ability to 'learn to learn'.

  • businesspeople in silhouette with colorful network lines

    Report: AI Will Reshape Work More than Replace It, but Global Impact Is Uneven

    Richer countries face greater exposure to AI-driven changes than developing countries, which are less exposed to AI but risk being left behind, according to a joint report from the International Labour Organization and World Bank.