Research works

A Student-Centered Model for Ethically Evaluating AI Integration in Learning Support Services and Beyond

As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes higher education, learning support centers are uniquely positioned to intentionally assess whether if and how to best integrate AI tools into academic services. This session presents a 6-week project framework that was designed to: • Revie...

AI for Everyone: Designing an Introductory AI Course Across Disciplines

As artificial intelligence reshapes virtually every field, universities face a growing imperative to ensure AI literacy is not reserved for computer science majors alone. This panel presents the collaborative design of an introductory AI course built for undergraduate general edu...

Designing with Intent: A Comparative Analysis of Custom AI Chatbots as UDL-Aligned Tools for Multidisciplinary Instruction

The growing presence of AI in higher education has prompted instructors to move beyond passive adoption, to deliberate theory-grounded design. This session presents two custom AI chatbots (DisneyBot and Rico) developed within a teacher preparation course as the technology-enhance...

AI Tutors, Worksheets, and Task Design: Matching AI Tools to Learning Structure

Artificial intelligence is increasingly used by students as a learning resource in STEM courses. However, classroom observations and survey data suggest that unstructured AI use may correlate with reduced student achievement. Two concerns are especially relevant: AI systems can p...

IT Meets Academia: Giving Students the Tech Tools to Write the AI Rules

An AI administrator walks into an Honors English seminar. The assignment: prepare undergraduates to help write the course AI policy. This UNLV case study follows an unusual collaboration between a professor of postcolonial literature and the administrator of the university’s Chat...

Guardrails in the Classroom: Possible responses by Higher Education to the current moment

This closing discussion seeks to draw out the larger questions about higher education's role in this current moment of AI technology debates, based on the takeaways and ideas for next steps by presenters at this summit. This year's summit submissions centered on practical, classr...

Building Bots That Teach Thinking: Using Custom AI Chatbots to Enhance Critical Thinking and Decision-Making

Generative AI is increasingly common in education, but its effect on student learning depends largely on how it is used. This interactive session will introduce practical strategies for creating custom AI chatbots that encourage students to think through problems rather than simp...

AI-Aware Student Recommendations for GenAI in Higher Ed

What do well-informed students say about the use and integration of AI in their college educations? In Spring and Summer 2026 semesters, students in three sections of ENG 102 at UNR wrote AI-aware white papers with policy recommendations for the integration of genAI into higher e...

Enhancing Mathematics Learning with NotebookLM: From Passive Study to Active Engagement

This 25-minute interactive session explores how NotebookLM can be used to enhance student learning in mathematics by transforming passive study habits into active engagement. Rather than focusing solely on the capabilities of AI, this session emphasizes practical, classroom-cente...

Core Mathematics Applications using AI

This presentation examines ways to use prompts with AI to build on the applications of core mathematics topics involving algebra, finance, probability, and statistics. We will use AI to discover how the topics in core mathematics could apply to students regardless of their major.

From “I’m Not a Coder” to “I Built a Website”: Teaching Business Concepts Through AI Vibe Coding

This presentation shares my experience developing an AI vibe coding project for business students with little or no coding experience. Students first replicated a website, then created their own improved version and learned from peer feedback. Through trial and error, they revise...

Crafting Resilient AI policies for Education

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence into academic spaces requires a shift from passive restriction to resilient, active pedagogical frameworks. This virtual panel explores actionable strategies to protect academic integrity, promote deep critical thinking,...

Engaging with Student Perspectives of AI to Build Better Assignments and Enhance Learning

This workshop will present data from recent student focus groups and surveys that collected students’ common uses and attitudes about AI. Additionally, anecdotal evidence from faculty workshops that include conversations about AI will be presented. This data will be used to gener...

Resisting AI with Paper: Possibilities, Concerns and Protest

While there are a number of commercial benefits involved in incorporating AI usage and training into college composition classrooms, to many the perils and problems involved in student AI use outweigh these possibilities. A growing number of composition instructors have chosen to...

Enhancing the Accessibility of Instructional Content in Higher Education Through AI

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into higher education, it presents new opportunities to enhance the accessibility of instructional materials. This session examines how Microsoft Copilot, Adobe AI, and built-in Windows 11 features such as live auto-capti...

Teaching in the AI Era: Studying Faculty Course Redesign, Visible Thinking, and Sustainable Implementation

How can faculty development move beyond generic AI guidance toward redesigns that make student thinking visible, clarify AI expectations, and remain feasible for teaching-intensive institutions? This presentation shares the design and emerging findings from Nevada State Universit...

Trust but Verify: Testing a Framework for AI Interrogation in Nursing Education

Generative AI produces fluent, confident output that is sometimes fabricated. Nursing students increasingly submit work built on sources that do not exist, or that exist and do not support the claims drawn from them. This session reports two semesters of classroom observation tes...

Designing Custom Chatbots for Classroom Use: Practical Examples, Benefits, and Current Limitations

Recent advances in generative AI have made it increasingly possible for individual educators to design and implement their own custom chatbots without advanced programming skills (Abe & Kaneshige, 2025). This workshop introduces practical examples of custom chatbots developed for...

AI Across the Curriculum: Early Insights from UNR Students and Faculty

In July 2025, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) joined librarians, educators, and administrators across 15-20 institutions to participate in an Ithaka S+R AI cohort. Ithaka S+R has worked with academic libraries, teaching and learning centers, and college administrators across...

Simulating the Clinical Encounter: Using AI Personas for Risk-Free Mental Health Assessment Practice

Mental health assessment requires students to navigate complex conversations involving depression, anxiety, mania, psychosis, suicide risk, and other sensitive clinical situations. Yet opportunities to repeatedly practice these conversations in a safe, low-stakes environment can...