San José State University has embedded itself as a key bridge between public and private sectors when it comes to emerging technologies, due to its connection to the City of San José, and its corporate partners like NVIDIA and Adobe.

Part of that bridging entails facilitating learning about emerging technologies to the members of SJSU's academic community and peers. This is why staff, faculty and graduate students at SJSU worked together to create a report studying the interactions higher education institutions (or HEIs) have with AI education and development in their communities.

SJSU's Martin Luther King Jr. Library, supported by PIT-UN, (Public Interest Technology University Network) and the Knight Foundation, surveyed and researched how different HEIs in California, such as schools in the CSU, UC, Community College or Private system, approach incorporating AI into the academic pedagogy or curriculum. The report itself was created utilizing the very technology - Adobe Firefly - it was examining, providing depth to its creation. Adobe Firefly, is a generative AI imagery tool from Adobe trained on licensed media (that creators were compensated for), as well as other Adobe tools. The report is a nuanced comparison of different HEI system's adoption of AI in their schools, what still needs to be added to curriculums, and important suggestions for how to approach improving the SJSU's community's academic relationship with AI.

SJSU's King Library is full of bright individuals working to improve the campus's community and resources. Sharesly Rodriguez, the primary investigator & research manager of the report, is the AI Librarian at the King Library, and has been heavily involved in the development of AI initiatives at SJSU, conducting research, assisting staff, and overseeing AI tools that the library implements for the community. Her work is instrumental in the development of AI learning at SJSU, including resources for students, tools and other opportunities for those interested in developing their AI understanding. Rodriguez is also involved in making sure AI usage on campus remains responsible and ethical.

During an interview with SJSU Marketing & Communications, Sharesly states "A few themes around the conversation I've been having is the responsible use and guidance of AI usage, citing AI generated content, some of the best practices of disclosing when you use AI… We built a chatbot using the OpenAI API and also the library website. So we scrape the library website and every week we are looking at those transcripts to see, you know, whether or not the information it retrieved was accurate and if there's anything we can improve from our library website." This is just one example of the work Rodriguez has done to hone the usefulness of AI in our community.

The report consists of an analysis of AI literacy, development and learning across California's HEIs. There were many key findings through the report, especially about how different HEI systems approach AI learning in their schools, providing clues to the resources that different schools have available, and how these change the pedagogical dynamics of each institution. One of the most important findings overall, however, is the fact that AI literacy learning has been relegated to event and workshop-based teaching, as opposed to being integrated as an in-depth curriculum or research structures. This finding is tied to the need for more staffing relating to AI literacy, a stronger commitment to ethical AI policies, and more consistent development of AI literacy tied to early stages of integration, and a need for more coordinated support systems.

Schools with funding for research, such as institutions in the UC system, often polled higher confidence in the integration of AI in their classrooms. Other institutions, such as CSU campuses and community colleges, polled a much more uneven sentiment regarding AI. The report offers different recommendations and solutions for schools experiencing difficulties advancing this important fundamental of today's education. The main solution is providing funding for "faculty professional development and AI training through a combination of state allocations and institutional budget commitments" (as stated in the report itself). Alongside this funding, strong guidance and policy must be implemented to guide students and faculty across the board. Currently, much of the approach to AI's learning is relegated to conversations, workshops and circumstantial implementation, and a clear direction for using the tool ethically and effectively is due to developing our relationship with this emerging technology.

Use of Adobe Tools for the Report Production

The way the report was produced is a testament to tools available to our academic community. In order to design and create the report, SJSU's Adobe Trainer and Instructional Designer Raymond Lam utilized Adobe Firefly to generate images that informed the design of the report. Adobe Firefly is an image-generation software that all SJSU students have access to. It was was trained on media and images Adobe had license and permission to utilize. Lam looked to using the software because it was in theme with the report itself, and it was a representation of the tools and versatility the SJSU community has to create assets for their own work and reports. Lam used prompts such as "Vivid computational flow art implying neural pathways glitch waveform" & "Chaotic systems abstraction - intricate particle paths, glitch noise, and fluid dynamics merging into emergent order through color and light." He used a reference image of California and sent it through Firefly, prompting the modifications he was looking to create.

Lam also used Adobe InDesign to design the PDF, a professional tool used to design booklets, magazines, books, etc. As part of Adobe's initiative with CSU campuses, all students also have access to this software, as well as all other creative cloud software. Adobe Express, Adobe's versatile design tool, was used to create the website summarizing the most important points from the complete report. Learn more about SJSU's findings regarding AI on campus at the site put together by the team. You will also be able to find a link to the PDF report on the website: https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/uTkfKdUlVrF7R

Landscape of AI across California HEIs is an important piece of research that helps get us closer to understanding the future of this technology and how it relates to our education as a whole. It offers relevant insights into what's missing from our schools and policy, how to approach the difficulties and conflicts we're being faced with and how they're affecting the students across California. It's a report built by staff that have a nuanced understanding of the technology and are looking to achieve the best results possible across the board, for faculty, staff and students. The report was produced by the tools it discusses and that students have available, making it an intrinsic work of emergent technology.