2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The current work presents the challenges and opportunities of instituting a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Pedagogy Specialist position within the Morgan Teaching and Learning Center (MTLC) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), a midsize private polytechnic university. The position was established to help faculty navigate the rapid adoption of generative AI in teaching. The role addresses three distinct but related challenges: supporting faculty in integrating AI into their own professional practice, empowering instructors to thoughtfully redesign assignments and assessments to preserve learning integrity in an AI-enabled environment, and building student-facing AI literacy across disciplines. Using the framework from the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network’s “Defining What Matters” report on the functions of centers of teaching and learning, this paper explores how new roles focused on AI pedagogy can fit into existing infrastructure to support adoption in sustainable ways.
In its initial year, the AI Pedagogy Specialist has largely extended MTLC’s sieve and incubator roles. As a sieve, the AI Pedagogy Specialist filters best practices for teaching AI literacy and promotes them among the faculty through a dedicated website, a faculty email listserv, and research-grounded programming. As an incubator of innovative education practices, the AI Pedagogy Specialist offers dedicated coaching support to help faculty redesign their assignments; this doubled the infrastructure in the center to support faculty in their course redesigns. The role is also engaged in the center’s function as a major faculty hub on campus. Based on faculty requests, the AI Pedagogy Specialist has brought together early and late adopters to discuss ethics, assignment redesign, and AI policy, and has formed an AI advisory circle.
The full paper outlines several mechanisms through which these multiple functions are being carried out. The AI Pedagogy Specialist conducted needs assessment surveys with 155 faculty and instructors and 107 students in Fall 2025, establishing a baseline understanding of AI adoption, skill levels, and support needs across the institution. Analyses showed that faculty who responded were mostly using AI for managing their own work rather than for teaching. The findings informed four strategic priorities for the role. In response, the AI Pedagogy Specialist facilitated four programming sessions reaching 69 faculty and staff, conducted a faculty AI policy survey with 43 respondents, provided four individual consultations, and completed a student ambassador survey on AI literacy and support needs. These activities collectively reached a substantial portion of the instructional community in the role’s inaugural year.