Academics

AI literacy course, suite of services now available to Penn State students enrolled in summer classes

AI Essentials and AI Studio will be available for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in summer classes and for all students this fall

Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State is rolling out new artificial intelligence (AI) resources to students this summer, followed by all students this fall, with the goal of providing every student with the opportunity to develop AI literacy and build skills in generative AI.

Students enrolled in summer classes — including Summer Session, Summer Session I and Summer Session II students — now have access to both AI Essentials, a self-paced online course, along with AI Studio, a suite of AI services featuring Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT models.

The two resources, which previously launched for University employees in April, provide opportunities for developing AI literacy — including technical knowledge, ethics, critical thinking, and practical applications — and for learning and experimentation.

“Our goal is to prepare our students to not only graduate, but to be empowered to thrive in a world that is changing in large part because of AI,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos. “We’re focused on creating equitable opportunities for every Penn State student — starting in their first year — so that all learners can hone foundational AI literacy and, if they choose, explore tools to grow new skills. This means teaching our students to understand and work effectively and ethically with AI, as well as supporting our faculty as they guide students through an evolving learning journey.”

AI Essentials self-paced online course

AI Essentials is a self-paced course designed to equip all Penn Staters with the knowledge, skills and ethical grounding needed to engage with AI responsibly across a range of academic and professional contexts. The course includes modules on topics such as academic integrity, ethical use, writing prompts and more, and does not require the use of AI to complete.

Summer students will see AI Essentials automatically appear in their Canvas dashboards. While some students may be assigned AI Essentials as part of their summer courses, anyone can choose to take the course on their own. Faculty members and instructors will be able to verify students have completed AI Essentials through Course Insights.

University faculty and staff are also strongly encouraged to complete the AI Essentials course this summer to expand their own foundational AI literacy and so they can help support students this summer and fall. Employees can continue to access the course through the Learning Resource Network.

As part of the summer roll out, the AI Center of Excellence for Teaching and Learning and Penn State IT will work together to collect feedback on both AI Essentials and AI Studio from undergraduate students in Penn State’s Learning Edge Academic Program (LEAP) and others to inform future service offerings and versions of the course, which will continue to evolve.

Members of the AI Coordinating Council have engaged students in conversations about AI Essentials and AI Studio, including meetings with the Student Technology Advisory Reps (STAR), University Park Undergraduate Association General Assembly, Commonwealth Campus Student Government, and students involved in sustainability efforts. A class at Penn State Harrisburg also piloted AI Studio in the spring.

For students who are interested in getting involved, a new AI Student Advisory Council is being planned for the fall semester in partnership with the vice provost for AI, and more information will be shared.

AI Studio generative AI platform

Students will also now have access to AI Studio, the University's enterprise generative AI platform, that provides access to models from OpenAI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude) and Google (Gemini) in a single interface, allowing users to choose the best model for their task.

For students, the platform can support activities like brainstorming, studying, note-taking, understanding complex topics, research and more. Students should always talk to their instructors and check their course syllabi to understand if and how AI usage is allowed in a class or for a particular assignment.

To get started, students can access AI Studio using their Penn State credentials. On first login, users will review a brief acknowledgement covering data handling, permitted use and the limitations of AI-generated content.

Students’ privacy and data security is Penn State’s priority:

  • Prompts and conversations are private: Penn State IT employees do not actively monitor individual prompts or conversations or disclose them to others, including course instructors, except in a few limited circumstances related to health and safety and legal and emergency incidents. Conversations will not be provided in connection with academic integrity investigations.

  • Personal information is safe: Personal information is not used to train AI Studio or its underlying AI models.

  • University-provided tools are secure: AI Studio is not the same as a public chat tool — it provides a secure environment for protecting individuals’ prompts and conversations, as well as University data. AI Studio is a Penn State-managed environment with its own governance, enabled models, knowledge-source options, and privacy controls. Learn more about how to use data safely with AI tools.

In addition to AI Studio, Penn State also offers a portfolio of AI-related services to all students, faculty and staff such as the standard generative AI features of Adobe Firefly and the standard version of Microsoft Copilot.

Google Gemini and NotebookLM are currently being piloted with faculty and staff and will be rolled out to students soon. Gemini, integrated within Google Workspace, can help with idea generation, productivity tasks and writing. NotebookLM is an AI-powered research assistant that uses Gemini as its underlying AI engine to process uploaded materials (such as PDFs, Google Docs and websites) so users can interact with them to generate insights and answers grounded in their own content.

Guidance for faculty and instructors

In preparation for the launch of AI Essentials and AI Studio, the AI Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and Student AI Literacy Implementation Team, which includes faculty members, has been meeting with a variety of faculty groups — including department heads, course coordinators, academic administrators and Faculty Senate leadership — to share information and resources and answer faculty members’ questions.

For faculty and instructors who are interested in learning more about AI in the classroom, a quick-start guide and course activity document offer an overview of what AI Essentials is, why it matters, and how faculty may choose to incorporate or promote it within their courses. Faculty members and instructors will be able to see if students have completed the course through Course Insights. In addition, instructors can use the GenAI Use Icons and academic integrity and AI syllabus statements in course materials to communicate about class AI policies with students.

Support and training

The following resources are available to Penn Staters using University-provided AI tools:

  • AI comparison table: A guide for determining the right AI tool to use based on your workflow, comfort level, and the type of tasks you need to complete.

  • Data protection: Penn State’s information classification levels determine what can and cannot be used in generative AI tools.

For further questions or support, the following options are available:

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