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With the proliferation of generative AI tools in recent years and their increasing accessibility to students, many faculty members have commented on the challenges and opportunities for their use in their courses. Some encourage students to thoughtfully explore and play with these technologies, while others note an increasing concern about AI being used to complete assignments to the detriment of student learning. While these issues are being addressed at all levels within the University, they have also presented a unique opportunity for Cheng Library’s longstanding commitment to information literacy (IL) instruction at the University.
Embracing this role as leaders in IL, we leveraged our partnership with Will.Power to design and present an AI Literacy lesson to all 34 sections of Will.Power 102 during the spring 2025 semester. The purpose of this lesson was to increase awareness of some of the challenges posed by generative AI and to present students with resources and tips to safely and ethically use it as a research partner in their academic work. Focusing on four specific areas—Accuracy, Privacy, Bias, and Academic Integrity—librarians engaged with students through discussion and hands-on exploration with the generative AI tool, Perplexity.
Based on pre- and post-assessments, we found that the lesson had a positive effect on raising student awareness of these four issues; most notably regarding Privacy and Bias. Additional findings are still being explored, but show slight shifts in how students feel about the use of generative AI for brainstorming ideas, understanding new or complex topics, editing grammar, locating sources, and writing papers. We asked students if they had any thoughts or questions about generative AI. Responses presented mixed feelings, with some reacting very positively to it and others stating that they never use it. Several students took this sentiment even further, expressing concern about the impact of generative AI on society. We were pleasantly surprised to see student responses exploring these bigger issues and asking thoughtful questions about the ethics of using generative AI, its environmental impact, and how its use could be detrimental to creative expression. We look forward to sharing the full results as part of an ongoing IRB-approved research project.
What is clear from these initial findings is that students are not aware of some of the challenges presented by generative AI. This lesson and future iterations are vital to increasing awareness and shaping the ethical use of these tools in educational settings.
While this program reaches all first-year students, providing the broader University community with the lessons on AI is equally important. The Library offers multiple AI webinars each semester covering related topics, and many librarians have been involved in statewide generative AI initiatives. We will continue to explore generative AI’s impact on research and serve as leaders in promoting AI literacy to the University community.
If you are interested in learning more about our AI literacy programming, please contact instruction@wpunj.edu for more information.
