AI in Teaching and Learning
SCU does not have a single campus-wide policy setting the expectations of whether, when, and how AI may be used in the classroom or other academic activities. Rather, faculty have a responsibility to weigh the humanistic, ethical, and pedagogical considerations when determining how and whether to integrate AI into their instruction to ensure that AI is facilitating and not replacing learning. It is crucial that faculty clearly communicate their policies and rationales for AI use in their courses and assignments.
Santa Clara University, Position Statement on AI in Teaching and Learning
AI in Teaching and Learning Resources
Teaching and learning at Santa Clara University is about educating citizens and leaders of competence, conscience, and compassion to build a more humane, just, and sustainable world. AI changes the conditions of that work, but not its purpose.
We are well-positioned to lead in the development of AI innovations that help us to serve our mission. As a Jesuit institution situated at the center of technological innovation, we have a responsibility to engage AI in ways that center learning, relationships, and human dignity.
The question of how to advance the mission in the context of AI varies based on course, discipline, industry contexts, and related learning outcomes. This website is intended to support faculty in this effort–to provide models, sources of information and even inspiration for making values-informed educational decisions that meet the immediate and ongoing needs of their students, departments, programs, schools and the communities they serve.
Building Understanding supports the development of AI Literacy among faculty through frameworks and resources for learning design
Applications supports AI Fluency through the sharing of faculty-developed course materials
This pilot series of grants and mentoring facilitates faculty exploration and experimentation with generative AI in their research and/or teaching.
Over the 2025-26 academic year, an interdisciplinary SCU team was tasked with discerning actionable pathways to achieve better institutional level coherence for faculty development that addresses the AI literacy and fluency needs across academic departments and schools. This team engaged in collaborative learning with other institutions across the country; hosted a series of AI Listening Sessions with SCU faculty, staff, and students across disciplines and majors, creating space to share how AI was showing up in their work on campus; and formed three faculty-staff AI Working Groups who surfaced key insights to guide SCU faculty’s approaches to teaching and learning in the age of AI:
You can read the full report from this foundational work below to understand the process that led to the present resources and approaches. This work is a beginning, and we look forward to continuing to engage our faculty, staff and students in this important conversation about teaching and learning in the context of AI.