Penn State University offers its first ever General-Education AI Course

In University Park, Pennsylvania, following a successful first semester in Fall 2024, the College of Arts and Architecture’s first-ever general-education Artificial Intelligence course is in progress and this spring the college aims to establish it as a permanent course. Also this semester, the course is being offered as a special topic.

Jacob Holster, assistant teaching professor of music education at the School of Music, developed the course in collaboration with Aaron Knochel, associate professor of art education at the School of Visual Arts. Holster instructs the hybrid course that is gathered weekly at the college's Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design (C-PAD).

AI research and technology education are among Holster's key areas of focus. He is part of a cross-disciplinary team of Penn State faculty from the College of Arts and Architecture and the College of Education, who have developed a ChatGPT-powered, virtual reality (VR) application that offers professionals across various sectors an interactive training resource designed to enhance communication and teaching abilities, prioritizing empathy.

“It is an objective fact that AI exists, and our response is to put ethical considerations at the forefront of the course while understanding the impact of AI on the arts and society more broadly,” Holster stated.

The course starts with an introduction to fundamental AI functions, such as converting text to text, text to image, and text to video. As the semester advances, students start to utilize AI tools and enhance their editing skills while engaging in a semester-long project that requires them to implement AI in their communities.