Ten faculty members from the University of Central Florida’s College of Arts and Humanities have been chosen to participate in the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Institute on AI, Pedagogy and the Curriculum. The institute, which started today, brings together educators from over 170 institutions nationwide to examine the impact of artificial intelligence on teaching, learning, and scholarship. The yearlong program aims to help faculty develop and implement AI-focused action plans for their classrooms, curricula, and campuses.
UCF is represented by two teams that include faculty from every department within the College of Arts and Humanities. The first team is led by Associate Dean Peter Larson, a professor of history. Other members are Meghan Velez (assistant professor, writing and rhetoric), Jonathan Beever (professor of philosophy), Matt Dombrowski (professor, visual arts and design), Melissa Scott (lecturer, performing arts), Lisa Logan (associate professor, English), and Taoues Hadour (assistant professor, modern languages and literatures). This group will work on building AI literacy across arts and humanities through course design, policy recommendations, and sharable resources.
The second team is headed by Anastasia Salter, a professor of English who also directs texts and technologies. Team members include Rudy McDaniel (professor of English; director of visual arts and design) and Sherry Rankins-Robertson (professor of writing and rhetoric). Their project will look into creating a college-level center focused on AI scholarship as well as teaching and learning. They will also explore funding opportunities, partnerships with other organizations, and ways to engage with the community.
Additionally, four UCF employees are serving as AI fellows or mentors at the institute this year: Rankins-Robertson; Rohan Jowallah (senior instructional designer at the Center for Distributed Learning); both returning for a second year; along with newcomer Kevin Yee (special assistant to the provost at UCF Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning). Rankins-Robertson and Jowallah are also part of the AAC&U institute faculty.
“The fact that we have enthusiastic participation from faculty in every department in the College of Arts and Humanities demonstrates how seriously we’re taking this moment,” says Jeff Moore, dean of the college. “AI is changing how we teach, how students learn and what employers expect. This is our chance to rethink how we prepare students for today’s classrooms and tomorrow’s careers.”
This year’s institute has more than 1,220 participants across 192 teams.
