The dissertation journey is often lonely and overwhelming for PhD students. This presentation introduces the "Diss Buddy," a custom-trained AI chatbot providing 24/7 support to supplement dissertation chairs. By synthesizing research methodologies, institutional guidelines, and peer-reviewed literature, this specialized assistant offers accurate real-time guidance on writing, methodology, and goal-setting. Discover how this innovative tool improves student engagement and research rigor while offering a scalable, replicable framework other faculty can adapt. Join us to explore how custom AI chatbots can transform doctoral mentorship and empower students to navigate the PhD process with greater confidence.#AI-enhanced-mentorship #doctoral-student-success #custom-chatbot-pedagogy
We've taught students to use AI. The next frontier is teaching them to supervise it. As AI handles more knowledge work, employers and accreditors will demand graduates who can serve as effective human-in-the-loop (HITL) overseers. This means verifying AI outputs, catching failures, and knowing when to trust or override recommendations. This session introduces HITL oversight as an emerging workforce competency, identifies four teachable skills (recognizing hallucination, resisting automation bias, detecting sycophancy, spotting reward hacking), and provides adaptable classroom activities for any discipline.Keywords: #workforcereadiness, #AIoversight, #AIliteracy
This presentation showcases Ethical AI for English Composition, a Canvas-based instructional module designed to integrate artificial intelligence into college composition curricula. Aligned with ENC1101/1102 competencies, the module equips instructors and students with ethical, practical approaches to AI-supported writing, research, and revision. Featuring scaffolded activities, policy guidance, and authentic writing comparisons, the project demonstrates how AI can enhance rhetorical awareness, critical thinking, and writing pedagogy at scale.
In this presentation, two librarians will share how they developed AI programming that goes beyond tool demos & large language models. Through five different events and workshops, students were invited to engage with a diverse slate of offerings that highlighted creative ideation and experimentation, mental health, & integrity in scholarly publishing. The presentation will discuss the collaborations and planning that went into each event, as well as each event’s successes and lessons learned. Participants can expect to leave with ideas, strategies, and resources for creating similar programs at their own institutions.
Dr. Todd Taylor is an award winning teacher and distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, although he currently works full time for Adobe as a Pedagogical Evangelist.
How do we teach AI in a way that is rigorous, relevant, and grounded in our disciplinary context? This session examines how the AI for Nonprofits Course Framework from the Applied AI Innovation Initiative can be adapted by faculty across different fields. The course is structured to begin with transferable foundations such as generative AI models, tokenization, AI terminology, security, accountability, ethics, AI tools, automation, and chatbots, before moving into discipline specific applications within the nonprofit sector through modules on grant writing, the evaluation cycle, and other nonprofit topics. This structure puts into perspective how AI instruction can be adapted to support thoughtful implementation across academic fields. #DisciplineSpecificAI #AIinAction #LearningwithAI
As AI becomes a routine learning tool, educators need course designs that build what remains distinctly human: judgment, communication, collaboration, and ethical decision-making. This presentation introduces a practical soft-skills framework (Intrinsic, Navigational, Connectivity, Visionary) and demonstrates a Strategic Management in Hospitality exercises where students may use AI to draft responses but must apply a “human verification” layer for empathy, risk-awareness, and integrity. Participants will leave with a rubric-ready approach to assess soft skills alongside AI-enabled work.
Academic libraries are uniquely positioned to support AI literacy on campuses, guiding students, faculty, and the broader community in how to engage with this technology effectively and responsibly. The University of Oregon Libraries has developed a service desk, the AI Consultation Station, to do just that. In conjunction with other library services including workshops, individual meetings, and embedded instruction, the Consultation Station supports students and faculty where they are. We'll discuss the entire process from conception to launch, struggles and challenges, our ethos behind the project, and our future plans. (#academic-libraries #ai-fluency #campus-support)
As artificial intelligence accelerates transformation across every sector, a critical question emerges: Are graduates prepared to meet industry expectations in an AI-driven world? This session brings together a university professor shaping emerging talent and an industry professional leading teams through real-world AI integration. From industry, attendees will hear where skill gaps persist and which competencies (AI literacy, ethical reasoning, adaptability, and data fluency) are becoming non-negotiable. From academia, the session examines the challenges of teaching rapidly evolving tools while cultivating judgment and critical thinking. Together, the presenters will outline shared responsibilities and actionable pathways for preparing graduates to thrive alongside intelligent systems.
Most professors are still somewhere in the realm of ambivalence about AI, unsure exactly how to react. For the last year, the University of Dayton has responded with a “bottom-up” approach of creating spaces for vulnerable conversation and learning, rather than simply instituting a top-down AI policy. The dialogues and writings generated by this approach have enabled faculty to share fears, hopes, observations, and tested strategies, building an atmosphere of trust and solidarity. This presentation will discuss why dwelling in ambivalence is a necessary and even productive stage, and how to grow faculty trust in an age of apprehension. #facultydialogue, #institutionalchange, #AIattitudes
AI gives students the power to generate a polished case summary in seconds, but closer examination often reveals a lack of critical thinking and strategic judgment, which AI can support but never replace. This session shares a classroom-tested, mastery-based case critique system designed to build workforce-ready thinking in an AI-enabled world. Students learn to use strategy tools as the “lens” for analysis (not buzzwords) through a phased structure (Learning → Development → Mastery) and a simple 3-paragraph critique model. The rubric foregrounds evidence, reasoning, tradeoffs, and actionable recommendations.
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Lander University
Dr. ‘Cesca is a marketing professor at Lander University who brings more than 20 years of professional experience working with small, mid-sized, and Fortune 500 organizations across the profit, nonprofit, private, and public sectors. Her background in developing and executing business... Read More →
