Overview
Are you discussing or using generative AI (GenAI) in your course? Give your students foundational knowledge about how GenAI works—and how to use it critically and responsibly—with the AI and Information Literacy digital course from the TLTC and University Libraries.
This free, self-paced digital course includes four lessons with content and knowledge checks, and it takes approximately 1–2 hours to complete. Students will learn to:
- Explain generally how AI-based tools work as well as their benefits and risks
- Recognize when AI gives inaccurate or misleading answers, and fact-check AI output
- Cite and acknowledge AI-generated work appropriately
- Begin exploring creative ways to use these tools
This digital course was created by the University of Maryland teaching and Learning Transformation Center (TLTC) and University Libraries. We are thankful to the Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law and Society (TRAILS) for their collaboration.
Assign the Digital Course to Your Students
Tell your students:
- Please enroll in the Artificial Intelligence and Information Literacy digital course in Open Learning
- You need to view all pages and complete all knowledge checks (missing no more than 1 question per knowledge check)
- Once you have finished, you will receive an email with your "AI and Information Literacy" badge from University Libraries
- You can send a unique link to your badge to verify your completion. Full directions for sharing the badge in the course here.
NOTE: If you are having students submit their badge in an ELMS-Canvas assignment in your course, make sure you allow "website URL" as a submission type.
If a student has already completed the course and earned their badge, consider letting them submit the badge they earned previously for your requirement.
Optional If Needed: Import the Content into Your Course via Canvas Commons
A previous version of this digital course allowed you to import it directly into your ELMS-Canvas course from Canvas Commons. We strongly recommend not doing this option but instead using the method above of assigning your students the Open Learning digital course. But if you need to import the module directly into your course instead, that is still an option. Here's how:
- Open ELMS-Canvas and click on "Commons" on the red bar on the left of the page
- Search for "AI and information literacy"
- Click on the module that comes up (it should have a red and orange background and be posted by Mona)
- Select "Import/Download" from the right side of the screen
- A window will open and you will see a list of sites. Select the checkbox next to any sites you would like the module downloaded into and click "import into course" (important: do NOT check "All" unless you want it going in to every single course you are in!)
- Navigate to your course and go to the "modules" section to see the imported module (it may take a few minutes to show up).
- Feel free to use the module as-is or customize it to suit the needs of your class!
Note: if you import the module in this way, your students will not receive a badge for completion and you will not benefit from automatically updated content. But you will be able to edit content within the training and see student scores on the knowledge checks.
View the Digital Course
Interested in just looking at the digital course?
Questions?
- Do you work at another university and want to download and use this content (under its Creative Commons license)? Fill out this form to request access.
- Want to learn more about Artificial Intelligence in your teaching? Check out the TLTC's AI resource page.
- If you're having any technical issues or questions about the AI and Information Literacy digital course in general, please contact the TLTC.