Described in a news release last week as the first AI-specific degree in the university's Graduate School of Education, as well as the first AI education degree in the Ivy League, the Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence program will be offered fully online. Courses will cover machine learning, data analytics and technologies that help meet students' needs. On the social science side, the curriculum will also include ethical impacts of AI in education and social contexts of data.
While housed within the education school, the program is not just for educators. It’s designed for working professionals in a variety of fields, including data scientists, administrators and technologists, according to the news release.
Ryan Baker, a professor of learning sciences and technologies at UPenn, said AI’s growing integration in teaching and learning make programs like this important.
“More students around the world are now learning with AI and from AI,” he said in a public statement. “Our program addresses the need to develop practitioners and scholars who can build learning systems, based on solid learning sciences principles, that leverage AI to support teachers rather than disempower them, and provides them the necessary skills to harness the exciting new possibilities of generative AI to transform learning.”
AI-specific degrees are growing more common in higher education as AI proves influential across disciplines. UPenn, for example, recently added two AI-focused engineering degrees. Faculty are also investigating AI and automation in business, health, science and broader society as part of the AI @ Penn initiative.
