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Designing an Interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence Curriculum for Engineering: Evaluation and Insights from Experts

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly impacts professional practice, there is a growing need to AI-related competencies into higher education curricula. However, research on the implementation of AI education within study programs remains limited and requires new forms of collaboration across disciplines. This study addresses this gap and explores perspectives on interdisciplinary curriculum development through the lens of different stakeholders. In particular, we examine the case of curriculum development for a novel undergraduate program in AI in engineering. The research uses a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative curriculum mapping with qualitative focus group interviews. In addition to assessing the alignment of the curriculum with the targeted competencies, the study also examines the perceived quality, consistency, practicality and effectiveness from both academic and industry perspectives, as well as differences in perceptions between educators who were involved in the development and those who were not. The findings provide a practical understanding of the outcomes of interdisciplinary AI curriculum development and contribute to a broader understanding of how educator participation in curriculum development influences perceptions of quality aspects. It also advances the field of AI education by providing a reference point and insights for further interdisciplinary curriculum developments in response to evolving industry needs.


AI Education in a Mirror: Challenges Faced by Academic and Industry Experts

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies continue to evolve, the gap between academic AI education and real-world industry challenges remains an important area of investigation. This study provides preliminary insights into challenges AI professionals encounter in both academia and industry, based on semi-structured interviews with 14 AI experts - eight from industry and six from academia. We identify key challenges related to data quality and availability, model scalability, practical constraints, user behavior, and explainability. While both groups experience data and model adaptation difficulties, industry professionals more frequently highlight deployment constraints, resource limitations, and external dependencies, whereas academics emphasize theoretical adaptation and standardization issues. These exploratory findings suggest that AI curricula could better integrate real-world complexities, software engineering principles, and interdisciplinary learning, while recognizing the broader educational goals of building foundational and ethical reasoning skills.


Understanding Teacher Perspectives and Experiences after Deployment of AI Literacy Curriculum in Middle-school Classrooms

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its associated applications are ubiquitous in today's world, making it imperative that students and their teachers understand how it works and the ramifications arising from its usage. In this study, we investigate the experiences of seven teachers following their implementation of modules from the MIT RAICA (Responsible AI for Computational Action) curriculum. Through semi-structured interviews, we investigated their instructional strategies as they engaged with the AI curriculum in their classroom, how their teaching and learning beliefs about AI evolved with the curriculum as well as how those beliefs impacted their implementation of the curriculum. Our analysis suggests that the AI modules not only expanded our teachers' knowledge in the field, but also prompted them to recognize its daily applications and their ethical and societal implications, so that they could better engage with the content they deliver to students. Teachers were able to leverage their own interdisciplinary backgrounds to creatively introduce foundational AI topics to students to maximize engagement and playful learning. Our teachers advocated their need for better external support when navigating technological resources, additional time for preparation given the novelty of the curriculum, more flexibility within curriculum timelines, and additional accommodations for students of determination. Our findings provide valuable insights for enhancing future iterations of AI literacy curricula and teacher professional development (PD) resources.


Teenagers and Artificial Intelligence: Bootcamp Experience and Lessons Learned

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) stands out as a game-changer in today's technology landscape. However, the integration of AI education in classroom curricula currently lags behind, leaving teenagers inadequately prepared for an imminent AI-driven future. In this pilot study, we designed a three-day bootcamp offered in the summer of 2023 to a cohort of 60 high school students. The curriculum was delivered in person through animated video content, easy-to-follow slides, interactive playgrounds, and quizzes. These were packaged in the early version of an online learning platform we are developing. Results from the post-bootcamp survey conveyed a 91.4% overall satisfaction. Despite the short bootcamp duration, 88.5% and 71.4% of teenagers responded that they had an improved understanding of AI concepts and programming, respectively. Overall, we found that employing diverse modalities effectively engaged students, and building foundational modules proved beneficial for introducing more complex topics. Furthermore, using Google Colab notebooks for coding assignments proved challenging to most students. Students' activity on the platform and their answers to quizzes showed proficient engagement and a grasp of the material. Our results strongly highlight the need for compelling and accessible AI education methods for the next generation and the potential for informal learning to fill the gap of providing early AI education to teenagers.


Transdisciplinary AI Education: The Confluence of Curricular and Community Needs in the Instruction of Artificial Intelligence

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education has the potential to transform the way we learn and teach. In this paper, we examine the current state of AI in education and explore the potential benefits and challenges of incorporating this technology into the classroom. The approaches currently available for AI education often present students with experiences only focusing on discrete computer science concepts agnostic to a larger curriculum. However, teaching AI must not be siloed or interdisciplinary. Rather, AI instruction ought to be transdisciplinary, including connections to the broad curriculum and community in which students are learning. This paper delves into the AI program currently in development for Neom Community School and the larger Education, Research, and Innovation Sector in Neom, Saudi Arabia s new megacity under development. In this program, AI is both taught as a subject and to learn other subjects within the curriculum through the school systems International Baccalaureate (IB) approach, which deploys learning through Units of Inquiry. This approach to education connects subjects across a curriculum under one major guiding question at a time. The proposed method offers a meaningful approach to introducing AI to students throughout these Units of Inquiry, as it shifts AI from a subject that students like or not like to a subject that is taught throughout the curriculum.


Inaugural Day of AI brings new digital literacy to classrooms worldwide

#artificialintelligence

The first annual Day of AI on Friday, May 13 introduced artificial intelligence literacy to classrooms all over the world. An initiative of MIT Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE), Day of AI is an opportunity for teachers to introduce K-12 students of all backgrounds to artificial intelligence (AI) and its role in their lives. With over 3,000 registrations from educators across 88 countries -- far exceeding the first-year goal of 1,000 registrations in the United States -- the initiative has clearly struck a chord with students and teachers who want to better understand the technology that's increasingly part of everyday life. In today's technology-driven world, kids are exposed to and interact with AI in ways they might not realize -- from search algorithms to smart devices, video recommendations to facial recognition. Day of AI aims to help educators and students develop AI literacy with an easy entry point, with free curricula and hands-on activities developed by MIT RAISE for grades 3-12.


UNESCO Forum on AI and Education engages international partners to ensure AI as a common good for education

#artificialintelligence

Under the theme "Ensuring AI as a Common Good to Transform Education", the 2021 International Forum on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Education convened policy-makers and practitioners from around the world on 7 and 8 December 2021. The goal was to share knowledge on how governance can be aligned to direct AI towards the common good for education and humanity, and how countries are leveraging AI to deliver the unfulfilled promises and enable the futures of learning. The Forum was co-organized by UNESCO and China with the support of the Inter-UN-Agency Working Group on Artificial Intelligence. It convened approximately 74 speakers including 17 Ministers or Vice Ministers, from UN agencies, international organizations and more than 40 countries around the world. During the two-day event, the Forum attracted more than 9,000 real-time participants and viewers from more than 100 countries.


Artificial Intelligence and the Futures of Learning

#artificialintelligence

In December 2020, UNESCO organized the International Forum on AI and the Futures of Education'Developing Competencies for the AI Era' and produced a synthesis report. UNESCO carried out two surveys on government-approved AI curriculum targeting UNESCO Member States and non-governmental organizations, which provide AI curricula. The results of these surveys will inform the development of a guiding framework on AI competencies. UNESCO launched a call for applications on the use of AI to support education during the COVID-19 pandemic by non-governmental agencies and a survey for UNESCO Member States. The results of this exercise will inform a report on the main areas of AI use in education and help examine the effectiveness of these tools in supporting education during and beyond the COVID-19 learning crisis.


The Increasing Role of Artificial Intelligence in Our Lives

#artificialintelligence

Artificial intelligence is being used in so many facets of our everyday lives. Three years ago when I first started to learn more about artificial intelligence, I was surprised at how much we interact with it on a daily basis and most of the time, may not even realize it. Over the past few months, there has been an increase in information about how AI is being used in various fields and the innovative ways that people are developing new technologies with it. Artificial Intelligence has been an area identified as one of the top five areas of IT in demand as a result of COVID-19. There has also been a huge increase in the number of online courses available to learn more about AI and develop the skills needed to fill some of the nearly 58 million projected jobs that will be available by 2024.


Creation and Evaluation of a Pre-tertiary Artificial Intelligence (AI) Curriculum

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Contributions: The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)-Jockey Club AI for the Future Project (AI4Future) co-created an AI curriculum for pre-tertiary education and evaluated its efficacy. While AI is conventionally taught in tertiary level education, our co-creation process successfully developed the curriculum that has been used in secondary school teaching in Hong Kong and received positive feedback. Background: AI4Future is a cross-sector project that engages five major partners - CUHK Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Education, Hong Kong secondary schools, the government and the AI industry. A team of 14 professors with expertise in engineering and education collaborated with 17 principals and teachers from 6 secondary schools to co-create the curriculum. This team formation bridges the gap between researchers in engineering and education, together with practitioners in education context. Research Questions: What are the main features of the curriculum content developed through the co-creation process? Would the curriculum significantly improve the students perceived competence in, as well as attitude and motivation towards AI? What are the teachers perceptions of the co-creation process that aims to accommodate and foster teacher autonomy? Methodology: This study adopted a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods and involved 335 student participants. Findings: 1) two main features of learning resources, 2) the students perceived greater competence, and developed more positive attitude to learn AI, and 3) the co-creation process generated a variety of resources which enhanced the teachers knowledge in AI, as well as fostered teachers autonomy in bringing the subject matter into their classrooms.