MEDIA, Pa. — Christina Olear, associate teaching professor of accounting, and Deborah Ousey, associate teaching professor of English, were selected by the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence (SITE) as faculty leaders for artificial intelligence (AI)-aware instruction at Penn State Brandywine. The program supports teaching excellence by fostering a culture of thoughtful experimentation, collaboration and exploration of AI-aware instructional practices across departments, colleges and campuses.
The award provides participation in a community of faculty leaders for AI-aware instruction, along with collaboration with SITE faculty consultants. The faculty leader community is designed to bring educators together to share successes, challenges and promising practices as they navigate the opportunities and complexities of artificial intelligence in higher education.
Olear and Ousey were recommended for the program by Jennifer Nesbitt, chief academic officer at Penn State Brandywine. Both were eager to deepen their understanding of AI and explore how it can be thoughtfully woven into their classes in specific ways that enhance student learning and awareness, with clear guidelines and student privacy and protection at the forefront. They were also interested in how AI can help faculty develop course content that is more engaging, accessible and adaptable to current events, as well as to students’ interests, needs and abilities.
“AI is reshaping the way people learn, work and communicate, so higher education has a responsibility to help students engage with it thoughtfully, ethically and effectively,” Ousey said.
Throughout the academic year, Olear and Ousey have attended conferences, panels and workshops to learn about emerging best practices for AI in education. Their work has focused not only on practical classroom applications, but also on important questions surrounding ethics, privacy, safety, academic integrity and equitable access. They have also conducted faculty surveys to better understand perspectives on AI in the classroom. The survey results suggest that faculty are approaching AI with a mix of cautious interest, practical curiosity and concern. Respondents reported using AI for teaching, writing and administrative tasks, while more hesitant faculty cited concerns about accuracy, privacy, ethics and limited time or training. The strongest programming interests centered on faculty use cases and student perspectives. Based on the high level of interest in hearing directly from students, Olear and Ousey planned and organized a campus student panel. Additionally, they partnered with the Penn State Brandywine Teaching and Learning Committee to plan and organize a campus faculty AI showcase highlighting classroom use cases.
In her accounting courses, Olear has woven AI into assignment development and collaborative learning activities in intentional ways, helping students engage with tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Co-pilot while maintaining a strong focus on learning goals, clear guidelines and responsible use.
“Sometimes, I use AI to help design assignments and create Excel activities for my classes,” Olear said. “It gives me a starting point that I can then adapt to current events or to interests that resonate with my students. Last semester, for example, I created an NFL-themed assignment using Eagles football statistics that incorporated both accounting concepts and Excel skills.”
She also introduces students to AI platforms directly in class, modeling how these tools can be used to support learning while encouraging students to think critically about accuracy, bias, limitations and appropriate use.
“I show my students how I use AI platforms in my courses,” she said. “Just as importantly, I also show them inappropriate or ineffective ways to use them, especially when those uses would shortcut learning, limit creativity or undermine the purpose of the assignment.”
That commitment to equity is a key part of the project. Olear and Ousey are examining how AI can expand opportunity for students while also being mindful of the risks of widening existing disparities if access, training, privacy protections and digital literacy are not addressed. Their work emphasizes that AI literacy should include not only learning how to use these tools, but also understanding their limitations, potential biases and the importance of protecting personal and academic information. Student privacy, data protection and clear expectations for appropriate use remain at the forefront of their approach.
In her writing courses, Ousey has used AI to support brainstorming exercises and to help generate discussion questions that she can refine for classroom use.
“Sometimes, I use Co-pilot to generate starting-point discussion questions that I can refine and use in my courses or campus events,” she said. “For my first-year writing students, when they write their problem/solution essays, they use Co-pilot for brainstorming possible topics, generating possible reasons why it could be a problem and possible solutions they can then research on their own. We do this as a whole class activity so everyone can discuss their experiences with the tool.”
At the same time, both faculty members are intentional about creating guardrails around AI use. Their approach emphasizes transparency, responsible use and the importance of preserving core learning outcomes. They are also considering how to help students navigate privacy and safety concerns, including when and how to share information with AI platforms and how to evaluate outputs before relying on them.
Olear is in the process of revising her assessments to place greater emphasis on process, reasoning and student reflection, helping ensure they demonstrate their own understanding rather than relying on AI-generated responses.
“I’m redesigning some assessments, so they focus less on simply arriving at an answer and more on the process behind it,” she said. “I want students to show the steps they took and make their reasoning visible. A key component will be student reflection after projects, with students considering their own growth.”
“AI will play an important role in the future of higher education,” Ousey added. “It allows us to place greater emphasis on higher-level thinking.”
Olear and Ousey said they are thankful to the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence and its generous donors for this opportunity, and they look forward to continued collaboration with SITE consultants and peers across the commonwealth as they help foster thoughtful, AI-aware teaching.