Curricular Integration of AI Skills and Literacy

 

Award: $1,500 stipend or $3,000 in professional development funding

Deadline: October 15^th, 2025

 

Overview

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape the academic and workforce landscapes, UMass Dartmouth is committed to preparing students to navigate this new reality with ethical awareness, critical thinking, and practical skills. We invite faculty from all academic councils to propose a course revision or a new course that meaningfully integrates one or more of the following student learning outcomes (SLOs) related to AI.

AI Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

1. Master practical AI use: Integrate AI fluency with human creativity, judgment, and communication by appropriately selecting and applying AI tools to support academic tasks, while ensuring that human originality and critical thinking remain central to their work.
2. Identify and mitigate bias: Detect representational and statistical biases, assess equity impacts, and apply mitigation strategies; document decisions transparently.
3. Exercise professional judgment in the use of AI: Evaluate discipline-specific contexts to determine when AI tools add value and when human expertise is essential, and articulate the reasoning behind those choices.
4. Identify and address ethical, environmental, and social implications of AI:
   Analyze the ethical, environmental, and societal issues associated with AI technologies and articulate how these considerations impact the application of AI.
5. Diagnose limitations in AI models: Explain model capabilities, constraints, and failure modes; evaluate outputs for accuracy, uncertainty, and provenance; and identify situations where AI use may not be appropriate due to these limitations.

Eligible Activities

Full-time faculty may propose to:

• Revise an existing course by incorporating assignments, modules, or assessments aligned with one or more AI SLOs.
• Develop a new course—undergraduate or graduate—focusing on AI literacy, application, ethics, or interdisciplinary use of AI tools.
• Collaborate across departments or colleges to create interdisciplinary offerings that address AI from multiple perspectives.

 

Funding and Support

Selected proposals will receive:

• A $1500 stipend for course revision or development, or $3,000 in professional development funding (to be used according to ACA-027).
• Instructional design consultation from the Instructional Design Team and access to AI pedagogy resources from the Office of Faculty Development.
• Opportunities to participate in faculty learning communities on teaching with AI.

 

Proposal Requirements (2 pages max)

Please include:

1. Course information: Course title, number (if applicable), and department.
2. Type of project: New course or course revision.
3. Target audience: Intended student population and level.
4. Learning outcomes addressed: Clearly state which AI SLO(s) will be integrated.
5. Description of changes: Outline how AI-related content will be incorporated, including specific assignments, technologies, or pedagogical approaches.
6. Timeline for implementation: Indicate when changes will be piloted (e.g., Spring 2026; no later than Fall 2026).
7. Assessment plan: Briefly describe how student achievement of the AI outcomes will be evaluated.

Proposals that will reach the most students, meet multiple AI SLOs, and offer the course in the Spring 2026 semester will receive the highest consideration. For this reason, a memo or email from the department Chairpersons and respective deans in support of the proposal should accompany it. We are expecting to fund faculty from all academic councils.

Significant course revisions and new courses rxequire approval by the departmental curriculum committee. Additionally, a Curriculog proposal may be required.

 

Deadline and Submission

Submit your proposal as a PDF to provost@umassd.edu by October 15^th, 2025 by 5:00 pm. Awards will be announced by October 24^th, 2025.

 

Questions?

Please contact Shannon Jenkins (sjenkins@umassd.edu) with any questions or for support during the proposal process.