Integrating AI in Higher Education Curriculum at University of Pennsylvania

• In Event: Supporting AI in Higher Education for a Global Workforce

Proposal

Following the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, many college students began using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools with little guidance from faculty or institutions. The present study presents data from surveys and structured interviews with a diverse sample of postsecondary students at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) who used large language models (LLMs) and other AI platforms explicitly for academic purposes. Data were first collected in the 2023 “Spring of Chat GPT” and epistemic network analysis (ENA) was used to examine comparative perceptions about GenAI and key differences in use cases both over time and across participant demographics—most notably between U.S. and international students.

Findings include varying AI allowances and prohibitions across courses, and a wide range of use cases across academic disciplines and majors. Concerns emerged from student participants about a coercive or competitive pressure to use AI, ethical complications during collaborative groupwork, and a significantly heightened perception of benefit felt among international students and English language learners. Overall, preliminary findings reveal that students who use LLMs feel strongly that adopting GenAI in higher education—even in unsanctioned or quasi-sanctioned educational settings—augmented their personal productivity and could be potentially advantageous in terms of their preparedness for an evolving workforce that values digital fluency and efficiency.

Corresponding to the CIES 2025 Conference call to “Envision Education in a Digital Society”, ongoing research and analyses will focus on comparing ethical perceptions of GenAI use cases across disparate academic fields (e.g., LLM use in writing composition compared to graphic GenAI tools for art and design). Findings thus far raise timely ethical implications for postsecondary teaching, academic affairs, and for the equitable adoption of these increasingly popular and profoundly powerful tools.

Author

• Ross Aikins, GSE, University of Pennsylvania