The College of Arts and Sciences will pilot three new artificial intelligence literacy courses in the fall semester that are designed to teach students how to work with AI and to help them understand the societal implications of using the technology. The three courses are offered across separate disciplines — one in science, one in the humanities and one in the arts — in the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
According to Dean of Libraries Leo Lo, the three single-credit AI literacy courses are being offered in conjunction with the AI Literacy and Action Lab, which launched last month and aims to help students and faculty conduct research studies on AI. Lo said these courses are intended to engage students in ethical conversations about AI and train them as leaders in the AI world. Lo also said these courses are being piloted to address questions about whether they should be worth more than one credit or made a general education requirement.
The science AI literacy course is LASE 2530, “AI in the Sciences: Tools, Limits and Opportunity,” the humanities AI literacy course is LASE 2530, “AI in the Humanities-Reading and Writing with LLMs” and the arts AI literacy course is LASE 2530, “Yeou Agnt: Composition, Agency and the AI Corpus.”
The three AI courses, offered under the “Dean of Arts and Sciences” Office and the “Liberal Arts Seminar” subject in the Student Information System, are available for undergraduate students to enroll in during the current enrollment cycle which ends Sept. 8.
Lo said the three AI literacy pilot courses offered across a range of disciplines will likely place focus on certain topics in AI.
“Different disciplines or different occupations may have a slightly different kind of emphasis,” Lo said. “Engineering students, for example, would definitely put more focus on the technical aspect [of AI], because that's what their job is. A social scientist may pay a lot more attention to the societal impact of [AI].”
Lo said he hopes students come away from these courses with a better understanding of how to use AI, as well as the broader implications of its use and its effects on society.
“I define [AI literacy] very broadly. Basically, [it] is [being] able to use [and] think about AI, the technology in your everyday life and being aware of its ethical and societal impact,” Lo said.
Given the newness of these courses, Lo said the faculty hope to work very closely with the students enrolled in the courses to take a collaborative approach to teaching and learning. The three faculty members teaching these are Paul Torrey, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics, Matthew Hedstrom, associate professor of religious studies, and Matthew Burtner, Eleanor Shea professor of music. The courses can each hold up to 20 students.
Lo said much of the learning will center around project-based assignments, which will allow students to build skills as they explore AI and its uses. Much remains uncertain about these courses due to their newness, Lo said.
Hedstrom wrote that his course will be a project-based seminar focused on learning and discussing how students may collaborate with AI in reading and writing in a statement to The Cavalier Daily.
“We will think in particular about how the practices of reading and writing relate to the cultivation not only of knowledge and communication but also, more importantly, other dimensions of our humanity — connection, feeling, imagination and transcendence,” Hedstrom said.
Torrey also elaborated on what the syllabus of his course will look like in a written statement to The Cavalier Daily. He wrote that course content will include a combination of readings, hands-on project learning and discussions.
“My course deliberately balances reading, hands-on work and discussion. Direct experience is how students build real AI literacy,” Torrey said. “My course won't tell students what to think about AI. It’s to give them the background information, experiences and space for reflection that they need to develop their own views.“
According to Lo, over the Fall semester, these courses will provide faculty with feedback on what works well in terms of curricula and assignments.
In addition to these pilot courses, the University has started offering other AI-related courses over the past couple of years. For example, this past Spring semester, the College offered courses including ECON 4444, “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work” and ANTH 5440, “Ghost in the Machine: Language, AI and Society.”
The University is launching these courses alongside many other AI initiatives at the University. One tangential project includes the launch of the new AI Literacy and Action Lab, created through a joint venture between the College and the University’s libraries.
Another initiative includes the recently established Student Technology Council — a prospective Special Status Organization launched by members of Sloane Lab that allows students to elect members to the council to make decisions about technology on Grounds.
The McIntire School of Commerce also offered a course last Fall semester called COMM 4211, “The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence,” which, according to the course description, introduces students to various AI applications and assesses their ethical implications at both the individual and societal levels.
At the time of publication, all three courses have seats available in SIS. The final day to enroll in courses for the Fall semester is Sept. 8.
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