AI Essentials for Educators

This four-week hybrid course is designed to introduce RIT faculty to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in teaching and learning. The course is modeled after the Educause Faculty AI Literacy in Teaching and Learning Framework, which includes the following major competencies:

• Technical Understanding
• Evaluative Skills
• Practical Application
• Ethical Considerations

This course supports all four areas of the framework, providing faculty with opportunities to explore, practice, and reflect as they consider how AI can support teaching and course design practices.

• Develop a foundational understanding of artificial intelligence and its applications in higher education, including how AI tools can support both instructional and administrative tasks.
• Critically evaluate the opportunities and limitations of AI, considering how tool use intersects with core values such as academic integrity, equity, and student well-being.
• Identify areas in your teaching where AI may enhance, or hinder, student learning, and reflect on how to align tool use with your learning outcomes and pedagogical priorities.
• Support responsible student use of AI by setting clear expectations, fostering transparency, and guiding ethical engagement with emerging technologies.
• Articulate a personal teaching philosophy that integrates your values, experiences, and vision for teaching in an AI-enhanced learning environment.

AI Essentials for Educators is a professional development course designed for RIT faculty who are new to AI or looking to build confidence and clarity around its use in higher education. This 4-week, mostly asynchronous online course includes two in-person sessions - one at the beginning and one at the end of the course - supplemental readings, and three modular quizzes. The course concludes with a final deliverable in which faculty will revise their teaching philosophy statement to incorporate principles of AI literacy in teaching and learning.

AI Essentials for Educators hybrid course is offered once per academic semester. Please review the Center for Teaching and Learning’s events calendar to join the current semester’s cohort.