Higher education largely agrees that AI is here to stay, but agreement on how to incorporate it ethically and meaningfully into student learning remains elusive. Join a team of instructional designers and library faculty as we share preliminary findings from an ongoing 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.
This poster presents results from a series of intentionally designed exercises implemented across a pilot course, sharing our real exercises, pedagogical rationale, and early student data, alongside reflections on what worked, what didn't, and where the model might translate to other disciplines or institutional contexts. Whether you are just beginning to think about AI integration or already deep in it, you will hopefully leave with fresh perspectives and a clearer sense of how a scaffolded approach can play out in practice.
