Re-Envisioning Curricula for an AI Era
Overview
Many instructors have made changes to single courses, but the challenges in higher education are much larger: shifting student demographics, changing employer expectations, questions about the value of a degree, and a rising importance in human skills, especially with growth in the use of generative AI. This program asks departments to respond to those pressures collectively rather than piecemeal. Teams will rethink assessment so it holds up when students have access to AI, articulate the disciplinary and human skills that graduates need, map where students can build AI literacy across a major, and design courses and degrees flexible enough to serve students who arrive with different levels of preparation.
Program Focus
Led by CTE staff members, teams will begin by examining the forces reshaping higher education, including demographics, information systems, artificial intelligence, state and federal funding, student needs and expectations, public perceptions, and employer expectations. From there, teams will define the skills students will need, identify ways to assess learning that make human thinking visible and do not depend on monitoring AI use, and clarify the core habits of disciplinary thinking and how those habits help students solve problems beyond a single course.
This is not a program for building AI majors, minors, or certificates. It asks a broader question: What will students in your discipline need five to ten years from now, and how should curriculum, pedagogy, and degree formats change? The goal is to create a flexible curriculum that can adapt to the changing needs of students and to changes in technology.
What Teams Will Do
Teams will choose the areas they see as most important as they envision the future. Each team will finish the year with a revised curriculum map, ideas for redesigning AI-resilient assessments, a plan for integrating AI literacy into the curriculum, and a department statement on AI. Depending on the team’s focus, participants might also work on questions like these:
Curriculum
- How can we create a flexible curriculum that can adapt to student needs and technological changes?
- How might we re-envision the curriculum to de-emphasize grades and provide incentives for students to deepen their learning and improve skills?
- How might we create non-degree learning opportunities that could help non-students refresh skills and bring in additional revenue to the department?
- How might we reduce time to degree while maintaining learning?
Skills
- How can we clarify disciplinary thinking so that students have a clear sense of how to apply that thinking in their work and in careers?
- What human skills do students gain in our discipline, and how can we make those skills clearer to students?
- What career skills will students gain as they move through the curriculum?
- What skills, including AI skills, are most important in the discipline, and how can we more clearly connect those skills to careers?
AI integration
- What types of AI tools could we create to assist faculty and to improve student learning?
- How can we rethink our curriculum map to take AI into account?
- How can we help faculty adapt?
- How can we make clear to students where they will gain AI skills?
Funding & Team Requirements
Proposals must be submitted by a department or a cross-departmental alliance. Each team must designate at least three faculty representatives who will coordinate the work with their department. Advisors, postdocs, and students are welcome to be a part of faculty-led teams.
Department teams are expected to have at least two people attend program meetings (three meetings in the fall and three in the spring) and share their work in at least one department meeting and in a poster at CTE’s annual Celebration of Teaching the afternoon of May 7, 2027.
- Funding: Selected departmental teams will receive $5000 to support the collaborative curriculum redesign process. These funds are intended to acknowledge and support faculty time, team collaboration, and instructional development within the department, and to support the work of redesign.
- Administrative Support: A brief letter of support from the department chair or dean is required, confirming administrative backing for the project and the faculty members' participation.
Proposal Guidelines
Teams should fill out an application form and attach a document of no more than two pages (excluding the chair's letter) with the following information:
- Department and team: The team should include at least three faculty members plus the chair, associate dean, or a representative. At least two members of the team must attend the meetings with CTE.
- Project narrative and rationale: Why do you want to join this project, and what would you like to achieve? What is the current state of AI in your department and your discipline? What challenges do you anticipate? Does the department have enough faculty support to achieve meaningful changes? How will you go about sharing your work with other department colleagues?
- Budget: Provide a short budget detailing how the requested funds would be used to support the team’s work. This may include supplemental faculty salary, salary for graduate or undergraduate students, or purchase of technology needed to complete the project.
- Department chair letter of support: A short letter or statement from the department chair endorsing the team's proposal and validating the faculty commitment to the seminar schedule.
Important Dates & Deadlines
- Proposals due: Tuesday, September 22, 2026, by 5 p.m.
- Award notification: Tuesday, September 29, 2026
- Meeting dates: 10 to 11:30 a.m. Oct. 2, Oct. 30, and Dec. 4 at CTE, 135 Budig Hall.) Funds will be made available after the first meeting.
Questions?
Contact Doug Ward (dbward@ku.edu), CTE Associate Director, or Omar Safir (osafir@ku.edu), CTE Principal Analyst