New AI Literacy Course for Students

We know our students are experimenting with AI tools, but are they using them in a way that is ethical, responsible, or strategic?

OPLR is excited to introduce AI Literacy for Students, a new self-paced, ungraded course designed to help learners understand and work with AI in meaningful ways. In this course, students will explore a variety of AI tools, think critically about how AI is used, and build real-world skills for working with AI. This article offers a preview of the course, which will be launching soon.

The course contains four modules, described below. These descriptions include a sample of the content, but each module includes extensive learning materials and activities to support the objectives of the module.

Module 1: Exploring AI Tools

In this module, students explore the capabilities of several AI tools and learn effective prompting. They learn what makes generative AI technologies unique and some of the risks involved with using these technologies.

Featured Activity: Ask the AI What It Can Do

Students are invited to investigate one or more AI tools to consider what tools might be of most use to them. This activity is part of a series within this module, designed to help get students who are unfamiliar with AI tools up to speed.

Student directions to explore the AI tool of their choice, including asking it to do various tasks. — An activity from the first module encourages students to explore the capabilities of AI tools.

Module 2: Thinking Critically about AI

Using the CRAB evaluative framework, students practice analyzing and revising AI outputs for known limitations.

Featured Activity: CRAB Criteria Flip Cards

Students use interactive course components to compare AI outputs and determine their Credibility, Relevance, Accuracy, and Balance (CRAB).

A sample prompt that does not meet the CRAB criteria, with an explanation and a button to reveal a better response. — An interactive activity from the second module helps students learn about credible AI outputs.

Module 3: AI as a Learning Tool

This module guides students in using AI to create supplemental study materials. Students explore the basics of learning science to better understand how they learn and how to use AI to meet their personal learning needs. They’re also given guidance for working with instructors to ensure academic integrity.

Featured Activity: AI as a Learning Tool Prompt Guides

Students are provided with ready-to-use prompts to aid them in using AI as a learning tool. Each prompt is tied to an evidence-based learning strategy and includes examples.

A selection of prompts for students to help them connect new information to existing knowledge by creating custom activities. — Ready-to-use prompts provided in the third module help students use AI as a learning tool.

Module 4: Your AI-Enabled Future

Students reflect on how to demonstrate AI literacy to future employers and adapt to the evolving workplace.

Featured Activity: Investigate AI’s Impact

Students ask AI about future impacts on their chosen career and use its response as a starting point for identifying skills to feature in an AI portfolio. They’re also encouraged to work closely with their program faculty to inform their AI-enabled work strategies.

Directions for students to interact with AI about the use of AI tools in their future careers. — An activity in the fourth module gets students thinking about AI use in their future careers.

Critical Thinking and Career Readiness

Throughout the course, the ethical use of AI and the importance of critical thinking are emphasized. Students are encouraged to connect with faculty, campus resources, and their peers to explore and learn more about responsible and practical AI use.

Modules can be revisited as students need support or new ideas. The training is designed to be useful far into the future, thanks to its emphasis on critical thinking and career readiness.

Engaging with Students Around AI

This course is designed to inspire reflection and conversation around AI in learning. Once it launches, you can encourage these conversations by using course announcements to highlight ideas, share examples, or invite students to explore specific activities. Here are some ways to keep the conversation about AI going before or after your students complete the AI literacy course:

Explore expectations together: Consider having an ungraded discussion with your students about your course AI policy. Sharing your views and perspectives on how AI could be used or misused in your course can strengthen student understanding of the role these tools play in academic and professional settings.
Link to the field: Highlight ways that AI is impacting your discipline or field through links to articles or news stories. Showing students the human skills that will continue to be important will help make them better evaluators of AI.
Stay curious: Continue your own exploration and testing of AI tools as they relate to your course or discipline. Tools are constantly evolving and changing. If a tool couldn’t do something last time you checked, it might be worth another look! Share your findings with students to help guide their responsible use, and use “I” statements when describing your experiences (for example, “I tried Notebook LM for the first time yesterday and here’s what I discovered…”).
Encourage learning support and critical thinking: Remind students that AI can enhance learning but should not replace original thinking. Encourage students to try using AI to create study aids and personalized support. Invite students to share how they are using AI with each other in a general course discussion area, including how they might be evaluating AI outputs used for assessments.

Stay Tuned

The AI Literacy Student Course is coming soon! Stay tuned for more details about how you and your students can access this resource. This new training will present opportunities for the responsible exploration of AI, spark important conversations, and help prepare students for their future academic and career goals.