By Daniel Wilson

August 09, 2024

A new class at Sacramento State will help high schoolers, University students and others learn how to use generative artificial intelligence in the classroom and job market.

The College and Career with AI course, which launches this fall, will teach students to explore AI's role as an information aggregator, coach and counselor by applying AI in various scenarios and critically evaluating its outputs.

The course is offered through Sacramento State’s National Institute on Artificial Intelligence in Society (NIAIS) via the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies. Offering the course was one of President Luke Wood’s original goals for the institute, said Chief AI Officer Sasha Sidorkin, who will teach the new class.

“It's part of the strategy to go directly to students and future students and talk about AI,” Sidorkin said. “The other part is going to faculty and helping them to understand how to work with AI, so it's all part of the same strategy to create an AI-positive culture here.”

The fully online, two-unit course mostly targets area high school students and Sac State students, but it is open to anyone. Non-students may join the course via a free, no-credit Google Group, or earn credits through the College of Continuing Education's Open University program for a fee.

“I think it’s an exciting concept to experiment with teaching students as we continue trying to identify what skills are going into the use of AI."

-- Sasha Sidorkin, chief AI officer for Sacramento State's National Institute on AI in Society

The class will meet 5:30-7:10 p.m. Mondays to accommodate the schedules of high school students, who can enroll for free through the Accelerated College Entrance Program.

The course will help learners embrace the power of AI in real-world situations such as research, problem-solving and creative projects. It requires no textbooks and utilizes a free account through OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Students will be asked to participate in weekly discussion board postings, synchronous class activities and a final AI-assisted project that displays their ability to integrate AI into an academic or professional field.

“I want students to have a hands-on experience. I think that's the most important part,” Sidorkin said. “It's all about exposure, and I don't want them to have a negative connotation associated with using AI.”

Sidorkin called AI an assistive technology that helps students who face barriers to learning, such as neurological disabilities, as well as those who speak English as a second language.

“I really want to remove that bit of bad stigma from it,” Sidorkin said. “AI is a tool, and you have to learn to use it.”

He said the course will help high school students because it teaches them a valuable skill and familiarizes them with higher education.

“As they prepare for college, I think it's a great preparation to come into that college experience,” Sidorkin said.

Sidorkin said he wants the course to eventually evolve into a certificate program or a full degree program, but more knowledge about the technology is needed since it is unclear how AI will be adopted by career industries.

In the meantime, having the course on their resumes can improve students’ marketability when applying for jobs.

“I think it’s an exciting concept to experiment with teaching students as we continue trying to identify what skills are going into the use of AI,” Sidorkin said.

“The important thing that I realized already is that students learn AI differently than people like me who already have all the educational background. It's not just an opportunity to share what we know, but also an opportunity to learn about how students learn about AI.”

Information about the College and Career with AI course and how to enroll is available at sacstate.ai.