Train with It, Don't Defer to It: Critical AI Literacy Scaffolding into Discipline-Specific Courses
Higher education has largely agreed that AI is here to stay, but agreement on how to incorporate it ethically and meaningfully into student learning remains elusive. This session explores how this can be accomplished within a discipline-specific undergraduate course through the lens of critical AI literacy. Join a team of instructional designers and library faculty as we share preliminary findings from an active research project exploring what it looks like to embed AI into an existing political science course—not as a subject to be taught, but as a skill to be developed through use. Built around a scaffolded model that follows the arc of a research paper project, our approach focuses on ethical prompting, source evaluation, drafting, and revision, with AI positioned as an assistive tool at every stage—never as a replacement for student work. We will begin by sharing our real exercises, pedagogical rationale, and student data, followed by a collaborative, facilitated discussion and exercises that invite you to engage with the model, stress-test it, and explore how it might translate to your own discipline or institutional context. Whether you are just beginning to think about AI integration or already deep in it, you will leave with practical frameworks, fresh perspectives, and a cohort of peers navigating the same terrain.
Presenters
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Jenny Harris
Associate Director of Library Services,
Austin Peay State University
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Mike Olson
Senior Instructional Designer,
Austin Peay State University
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Alexandra Rotzer
Senior Instructional Designer,
Austin Peay State University
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Scott Shumate
Lead Librarian of Digital Services,
Austin Peay State University