Transformation through Artificial Intelligence in Learning

Overview

The Transformation through Artificial Intelligence in Learning (TRAIL) program aims to support faculty in developing innovative approaches for applying artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to various aspects of student learning and our broader educational enterprise.

Goals and areas of interest

In support of our academic excellence goals, we intend for this program to expand the use and adoption of AI technologies—with a particular interest in applications of generative AI technologies—across our curriculum, grow the career-readiness of our courses and degree programs through the infusion of AI skills, and help faculty discover ways in which AI can help optimize their work.

Faculty with a TRAIL award will receive support to assist them in developing course-based interventions that meet the goals of this program and to disseminate the outcomes of their work to the institutional community. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• The application of AI to instructional activities, such as improving student learning outcomes by using AI in course learning activities;
• Revising courses to infuse applications of AI and AI skills within other disciplinary learning outcomes; and,
• Facilitating and optimizing faculty work by using AI technologies.

Award information

All full-time teaching, clinical, practice, lecturer, tenure-track, and tenured faculty, at any rank step, with assigned courses in the fall of the award year are eligible to apply for support under the TRAIL program. Awardees will receive $5,000, under the baseline expectation that funds be used as summer compensation, to engage in the development of their proposed activities. We expect that proposed interventions are piloted in one or more fall courses taught by awardees, who also commit to showcase their work during the spring of the award year. Awardees will additionally receive access to elevated tiers of service with the Microsoft Copilot suite of technologies to support their work.

Applications to this program will be assessed and prioritized for funding according to the following criteria:

• Innovation, originality, and the potential to contribute to an improved understanding of possible applications of AI in supporting student learning;
• Feasibility, methodological soundness, and the awardee’s qualifications to carry out the proposed work;
• Potential for positive impact on student learning, including the magnitude of benefit as measured by enrollments in impacted classes, and broader disciplinary applicability;
• Potential for the sustainability of the proposed intervention beyond the scope of the award; and,
• Soundness in accounting for ethical implications of the proposed work and mitigating relevant risks, including data privacy of student information and transparency in the uses of AI.

Application information

Applications for academic year 2024-2025 awards are closed and funding decisions will be announced in late summer 2024. Please stay tuned for the announcement of the program’s 2025-2026 cycle in fall 2024.