Local college to teach students how to live and work responsibly with AI
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IDAHO FALLS — The College of Eastern Idaho will soon be teaching students how to live with generative artificial intelligence as part of their first-year English class.
The college is launching an updated English 101 course in Fall 2026 that “emphasizes generative AI literacy, helping students understand, evaluate, and responsibly navigate AI tools,” a CEI news release states.
Dr. Dana Cotton, chair of Humanities and Social Sciences, says the goal of the addition of generative AI curriculum is to preserve and protect academic integrity in a world where many experts are grasping how to use this new software.
“We know that our AI detectors do not work. They just don’t work … it’s still the wild frontier. But, I have already seen a shift back to students wanting to do their own thinking,” Cotton says. “Promoting AI literacy is to say, this is not going to do all of the services that you think it’s going to do. It’s not going to help you think better.”
CEI says it will be one of the first institutions in Idaho to integrate this kind of content instruction into its first-year curriculum.
“With the rise of AI technologies reshaping communication and knowledge work, CEI’s English faculty are taking a proactive approach to help students understand how to use AI effectively, ethically, and responsibly in academic and professional contexts,” states the release. “As a Microsoft-based institution, CEI will utilize tools such as Microsoft Copilot to support student learning.”
Cotton says the focus will be on teaching students that although generative AI can be helpful for certain aspects of academia, their own minds will always be their best tool.
“There’s a risk of (students) undermining themselves. If they’re not really intentional, particular and strategic about AI use, then they are literally undermining their own learning processes and their growth,” Cotton says. “We want them to be skeptical consumers — they need to be skeptical consumers.
CEI says students will be taught to understand what generative AI is and how it works, how to evaluate when and how AI is helpful (or not), to analyze AI output for accuracy, bias, and missing perspectives, how to use AI tools to support language production processes, and how to maintain their own voice, judgment, and academic integrity when using AI.
“By embedding this new and evolving technology into one of our core general education courses, the English faculty demonstrates their clear understanding of AI’s impact on their discipline and their commitment to putting the needs of students first,” says Jacob Haeberle, Dean of General and Transfer Education at CEI in the release.
The revised course will be piloted during the Summer 2026 term, with a full rollout planned for Fall 2026.
CEI says that faculty will gather student feedback frequently during the pilot phase to refine the approach and ensure the experience supports learning outcomes.
CEI’s English faculty — including Cotton, Dr. Steve Harrison, English faculty lead; Roger Plothow, English and Communications instructor; and Heidi Tighe, English and Communications instructor — are helping to lead the design of the new curriculum.
The release says the team’s work aims to establish a framework that other CEI instructors can build on to address AI use across disciplines.
“By integrating generative AI into English 101, CEI continues its mission to provide students with relevant, real-world skills while fostering critical thinking, digital literacy, and responsible technology use,” the release states.
For more information about CEI’s General and Transfer Education programs, visit cei.edu.