As Artificial Intelligence becomes more common, the University of Rhode Island Academic Affairs AI Task Force just released its second annual report on its strategies to incorporate the developing technology into students’ academic experience and announced a new AI major.
The new major, called Interdisciplinary and Applied AI, will be coming in the fall of 2027, according to Vice Provost and Task Force Chair Sue K. Adams. It is intended to prepare students to use AI as a tool, and prepare them to understand and work directly with the technology.
But even as URI expands its use of AI, there is still concern about how AI can unintentionally remove the intellectual work students need to experience in order to learn. Adams is worried that AI is moving faster than we can keep up, so this new major proposes this solution of continuous learning and flexibility so students have a greater chance of comprehending AI and having the space to analyze and question what AI is producing.
AI has quickly become a part of college life, as students use it to brainstorm ideas and some professors even use it to help with creating teaching material. Task Force members said back in 2024, URI was seeing major increased use of generative AI and wanted to understand its risks and potential for the future of learning and leading the creation of the task force.
The report focuses heavily on key focus points such as, “should students be allowed to use it?” and “how can URI protect academic integrity?”
The Task Force report recommended centralized learning resources, faculty training and AI literacy. As the university comes to understand AI, the focus is shifted toward governing AI responsibly and improving AI.
“AI becomes something the student has to think critically about and with, rather than something that does the thinking for them,” Associate Vice Provost Christopher Lavan, Ph.D, said.
Lavan’s position focuses on finding a balance between allowing students to use AI and making sure they are still developing skills they need to learn. Instead of asking students whether they should be allowed to use AI, Lavan believes the focus should be on how AI is being used within the classroom and whether it supports the learning goals of the course. Students will still need to explain their thinking for themselves. The university is also beginning to incorporate artificial intelligence directly into its academic programs.
“For example, rather than simply asking AI to produce an answer, a student might be asked to analyze an AI-generated response, determine what is accurate or inaccurate, revise the response using what they have learned in their discipline, and explain the decisions they made,” Lavan said.
Adams has also seen the shift in perspective. AI has quickly evolved from a new technology the university was still learning about into an increasingly important part of education, according to Adams.
“AI is foundational,” Adams said.
With the help of the AI Task Force, URI has been working to make improvements in bringing AI into students’ learning while continuing to emphasize the structure students need in order to succeed. The university has expanded faculty training, developed clearer expectations for AI use in courses and created new opportunities for students to study AI directly.
Professors can design assignments where students use AI but are still responsible for analyzing, evaluating and making decisions about the information it produces, according to Lavan.
