BROOKINGS, S.D. (9-30-26) — South Dakota State University has been awarded a three-year, $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education with the support of Sen. Mike Rounds.
The grant supports artificial intelligence literacy and competency for university students, faculty and staff. SDSU’s new Center for AI Innovation and Emergent Technologies will host much of the programming.
“Largely, what we’ll do is support AI awareness, literacy and competency across the SDSU campus. And that includes first and foremost students, but also faculty and staff,” said Victor Taylor, principal investigator on the grant, co-executive director of the center and vice provost for graduate education and extended studies.
Fun, educational programs on AI
The grant, in part, provides funding for AI products that enhance interactive learning.
“We’ll focus on hands-on, engaged learning, There won’t be any dry workshops,” Taylor said.
One is a product that helps faculty build oral exam assessment using an AI agent.
“There’s some concern about student writing and AI. This is a tool where faculty members can actually create an AI interactive oral exams or oral quizzes for students, but the professor is always the one who grades it,” Taylor said.
Two upcoming learning opportunities are based on a daily app. For faculty, the AI and pedagogy program takes 30 days of microsessions. Every day, the learner completes a 10- to 20-minute lesson. This is similar to language learning apps.
“Over the 30 days, they’ll build skills and get more resources on how to use AI in the classroom or AI and assignment design,” he said.
Students will have a similar program, but it’s 15 days instead of 30. It covers AI literacy and ethical use.
The grant will also help support SDSU’s second annual AI symposium in Sioux Falls in April 2027.
It will fund other center-sponsored AI learning activities and opportunities over the next three years as needed.
A new world powered by AI
Dennis Hedge is provost and vice president for academic affairs at SDSU. He said the university is striving to be very intentional in its approach to AI, both in terms of how the university uses these tools and why.
“We’re in the process of establishing standard learning outcomes related to AI so that every student who graduates with a South Dakota State University degree will have fundamental competencies when it comes to the utilization of artificial intelligence,” he said.
Hedge said the university’s focus is on giving students a comprehensive understanding of AI — from its pros to cons — so students can shape how AI impacts their fields.
“Without some knowledge when it comes to responsible use, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to be a participant in these conversations and help shape the way AI gets utilized,” he said.
He encourages students and faculty to see AI as an augmenting tool, not a replacement tool. Could AI provide additional support outside of a faculty member’s regular hours, for example?
The major concern around AI in education is cognitive offloading, such as when students use AI to think for them or even complete their assignments.
“I don’t think the technology inherently detracts from student learning,” Taylor said. “Students and faculty can use AI to help with research and analysis. It could help with critical thinking and refine an argument through feedback. Generative AI is a powerful tool, but the human always needs to be in the loop and be the author of the work.”
SDSU’s initiative helps students learn to work with AI as a cointelligence. The emphasis is on how to complete projects themselves with the appropriate assistance of AI as a supporting tool.
‘A game changer’
In the end, SDSU is using the $750,000 grant to keep pace with AI developments in the field and make sure students have access to cutting-edge knowledge.
“The grant becomes the fuel that helps us feed all kinds of efforts that will help us build integration throughout our academic programs and develop the right types of competencies at all layers of the university to help us succeed in the current AI landscape,” Hedge said.
Taylor agreed.
“It’s a game changer for us and for students, and I appreciate receiving the funding. No other university in the Regental system and very few in the country have the kinds of resources today to do what we’re doing,” Taylor said. “SDSU is certainly a regional leader, and I would go so far as to say national leader in AI pedagogy development. We wouldn’t have that without the grant dollars to fund this programming.”
About South Dakota State University
Founded in 1881, South Dakota State University is the state’s Morrill Act land-grant institution as well as its largest, most comprehensive school of higher education. SDSU confers degrees from seven different colleges representing more than 230 majors, minors and specializations. The institution also offers 39 master’s degree programs, 17 Ph.D. and two professional programs.
The work of the university is carried out on a residential campus in Brookings, at sites in Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City, and through Extension offices and Agricultural Experiment Station research sites across the state. SDSU’s research expenditures for the 2025 fiscal year were more than $94 million. SDSU has a Doctoral University: High Research Activity designation on The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
For more information: SDSU News • www.sdstate.edu
— From SDSU University Marketing and Communications
