How We're Helping Faculty Navigate AI: The Big Stuff From the 2026 CHS AI Teaching Summit

We just wrapped the CHS AI Teaching Summit at VCU (on April 29th), and I am still thinking about the energy from the day. More than 200 faculty, staff and students came together from across disciplines, campuses, and partner institutions for a full day focused on AI in teaching. The event was again hosted by the College of Humanities and Sciences and organized in collaboration with the General Education Symposium. The Media + AI Initiative was proud to again serve as a major sponsor.

Our involvement included financial support, coordination work, printed materials, and volunteer staffing throughout the event. That kind of engagement reflects how we approach the Initiative’s Strategic Plan in practice, especially the emphasis on educational outreach, faculty development, and cross-campus collaboration in AI literacy .

The Summit itself is a strong example of Year 2 priorities in action. Our Strategic Plan calls for expanding workshops, supporting faculty training, and building sustainable structures for AI-focused teaching and learning. We did it! This event brought those goals into a shared, visible space where faculty could learn from one another and test ideas in real time .

The keynote from Dr. C. Edward Watson of AAC&U set a strong tone for the day. He focused on academic integrity in a practical way, emphasizing what instructors can do inside their own courses to support learning in an AI-rich environment. That framing aligned closely with our goal of supporting applied, classroom-level approaches to AI integration rather than abstract discussion.

The roundtable sessions showed that work in action. Faculty shared assignments, course designs, and early experiments with AI integration across disciplines. I presented on HUMS 204: AI Literacy, a new course launching in Fall 2026. The course is part of our broader effort to expand AI literacy programming and build structured learning pathways for students across the university, which is a key strategic priority in our curriculum development work. If you were at the AI Teaching Summit you also heard from Dr. Watson that AI Literacy is imperative for today's students.

Affiliated fellow, Scott Witthaus shared work from Creativity with AI, offering a grounded look at how generative tools can support creative practice while still keeping student authorship and reflection central. Co-Founder, Scott Sherman, moderated afternoon workshop sessions focused on policy, pedagogy, and implementation, helping connect classroom practice to broader institutional questions.

Affiliated Fellow, Jennifer Johnson, proudly staffed the Media + AI Initiative table throughout the day and collected signups for our upcoming AI Faculty Interest Group. That group will launch in the fall and is part of our effort to build longer-term faculty engagement structures, which directly supports the Strategic Plan’s emphasis on sustained collaboration and community-building across VCU.

Of course Dr. Marcus Messner and Dr. Amy Rector (both M+AI affiliates) were on hand upholding major planning and emcee responsiblities. What stood out most to me is how closely the conversations at the Summit align with where the Initiative is pushing strategically. Faculty are actively working through how to redesign teaching, assessment, and learning environments in ways that reflect the reality of AI in higher education. This is a dance that requires an ongoing consideration for keeping aligned with how AI is shaping the expectations of the classroom. That is exactly where the Strategic Plan points us. Events like this help move those priorities from planning into practice.

We are looking forward to continuing this momentum at the upcoming AI Research Summit and through the faculty group and other programming across the Initiative.

By: Joshua J. Smith, PhD

Founder, Chair

Image credits: Marcus Messner, Amy Rector, Joshua Smith, VCU CHS Communicaitons.

AI Disclosure: This post was drafted with assistance from a generative AI tool and edited for tone, clarity, and alignment with Media + AI Initiative communication standards.