Northeastern’s College of Professional Studies Launches Comprehensive AI Literacy Initiative
by Heidi Happonen
When Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies (CPS) set out to integrate AI across its operations, leaders recognized a fundamental challenge: How do you build AI literacy across an entire organization when people start at vastly different levels of readiness?
The answer has evolved into a comprehensive initiative that addresses everyone: faculty, staff, students, and external partners. Using targeted programs and human-centered support, CPS set out to “immerse AI in everything we do.”
The approach reflects CPS’s longstanding commitment to experiential, practice-based learning. Known for designing programs and credentials in response to workforce needs, the college is applying that same methodology to AI integration, building from real-world applications rather than theoretical frameworks.
“This goes beyond simply adopting new technology,” said Uwe Hohgrawe, professor and associate dean of Global Learner Access, Strategic Partnerships, and AI. “It’s about fundamentally transforming how we teach, learn, and work together. We recognized early that AI literacy isn’t optional for our future. It’s central to preparing our students and our organization for what comes next.”
The college’s strategy addresses a critical challenge facing many established institutions: how to implement transformative technology across diverse stakeholder groups with varying levels of expertise and readiness.
“This goes beyond simply adopting new technology. It’s about fundamentally transforming how we teach, learn, and work together. We recognized early that AI literacy isn’t optional for our future. It’s central to preparing our students and our organization for what comes next.”
Uwe Hohgrawe, Professor and Associate Dean of Global Learner Access, Strategic Partnerships, and AI
Building Infrastructure and Community
The college developed several foundational initiatives to support organization-wide adoption. The AI Voices forum convenes early adopters to share practical applications and build community around implementation. All sessions are recorded, and materials are available for the broader community.
CPS also established clear guidelines for responsible AI use. The framework is aligned with guidelines and directions at Northeastern at large and includes faculty guidance for syllabus integration, protocols for ethical AI application, and a student-facing AI Pledge that outlines expectations for academic integrity and responsible use.
“We needed to establish guardrails while encouraging innovation,” Hohgrawe explained. “The guidelines give everyone confidence to experiment responsibly.”
A centralized CPS AI Hub serves as the digital anchor, providing tailored resources for students, workplace leaders, faculty, staff, and educators.
Targeted Programs for Faculty and Staff
Understanding that effective support requires meeting people where they are, CPS conducted AI-powered interviews across the organization to assess current fluency levels. The assessment enabled development of targeted learning roadmaps and identification of specific support needs.
The college also established an AI mentoring and coaching program, pairing colleagues with mentors for both ad-hoc consultations and regular support sessions, recognizing that technology adoption succeeds or fails on human factors.
“Human connection is essential, especially for colleagues who are cautious about engaging with AI,” said Allison Ruda, co-director of the CPS LEARN Lab and associate dean of Use Inspired Research. “While AI tools can be powerful, it’s the human element of creativity and innovation where true potential is unlocked.”
Because of the dynamic nature of AI tools and applications, CPS’s Data Support & Academic Quality Assessment team has been surveying faculty and staff intermittently to determine what gaps may be emerging in how people are actually applying AI to their daily administrative tasks and other priorities, and where gaps may remain in learning.
According to Mamta Saxena, Senior Assistant Dean of the unit, “Data isn’t a ‘one-and-done’ measurement process, especially when it comes to the adoption and socialization of AI. “We need ongoing opportunities for people to share what they’re experiencing and what they still want to learn. When we listen continuously and respond collectively, we build a stronger community of educators and learners who grow together.”
Student-Facing Innovation
While faculty and staff programs build organizational capacity, CPS has simultaneously developed robust student-facing programs that integrate AI literacy directly into the learning experience.
The flagship AI in Professional Practice Badge program brings together faculty, staff, and students in a 12-week, multi-module learning experience. Weekly 90-minute synchronous online sessions feature CPS faculty demonstrating AI tools and applications across professional settings, followed by optional drop-in sessions for personalized project feedback.
Responding to strong demand, CPS is launching additional cohorts to serve both internal and external partners. In addition to the Professional Badge, CPS offers a Master of Professional Studies in Applied AI and has integrated AI learning across most of its other curricula, from bachelor’s to doctoral programs.
“Students and professional learners are eager to understand not just how to use these tools, but why they matter for their careers,” noted John Wilder, Assistant Teaching Professor and Academic Lead of the Applied AI MPS Program. “We’re seeing engagement levels that tell us we’re addressing a real need.”
“Students and professional learners are eager to understand not just how to use these tools, but why they matter for their careers. We’re seeing engagement levels that tell us we’re addressing a real need.”
John Wilder, Assistant Teaching Professor and Academic Lead of the Applied AI MPS Program
Catalyzing Use-Inspired Research
The AI literacy initiative has also catalyzed exceptional opportunities for faculty-student collaboration and interdisciplinary scholarship, with students moving from consumers of AI tools to contributors of AI solutions.
The AI literacy interview project itself became a learning laboratory. Doctor of Education students partnered with the LEARN Lab and teaching professor Chuck Kilfoye to analyze interview data, yielding insights that evolved into two new tools currently in development: a CPS AI Coach and an AI Sophistication framework. The technical infrastructure supporting this analysis also sparked innovation. Master of Professional Studies student Jibin Baby built a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) database for qualitative analysis that has since expanded into collaboration with CPS’s advising team to develop a student support chatbot.
Baby’s RAG project generated yet another research stream: an interdisciplinary team examining how different data preparation methods influence human-AI collaboration during qualitative coding. The project brings together faculty from analytics, global studies, and education, exemplifying the cross-disciplinary connections the initiative has fostered.
The college’s experimentation with voice-based AI interviewing has led to sponsored research partnerships, including work with a workforce development intermediary developing AI-driven assessment tools for high school students completing micro-internships. Undergraduate faculty member Harry Son is collaborating with the LEARN Lab on this application, exploring how AI can support more authentic and scalable assessment practices.
“This is the essence of use-inspired research,” Ruda noted. “We’re solving real problems while generating new knowledge, with students as co-investigators rather than just participants.”
“We’re solving real problems while generating new knowledge, with students as co-investigators rather than just participants.”
Allison Ruda, Associate Dean, Use-Inspired Research & Development
Expanding Impact Beyond the Campus
CPS has extended its AI literacy work beyond its campus locations through partnerships with industry and K-12 education. The college offers “Safe and Ethical Use of AI in the Workplace,” an interactive workshop teaching organizations to harness productivity tools while avoiding pitfalls like inaccurate data and biased outputs, as well as “AI in Regulatory Affairs,” a six-week program exploring how AI transforms human therapeutics across the regulatory landscape.
Through Northeastern’s Graduate School of Education, which is housed within CPS, faculty are developing professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers. Most recently, GSE educators have partnered with the Lynn school district to conduct AI-related programming.
“We’re building these programs in partnership with educators, responding to their specific needs to improve efficiencies and ethically train students to treat AI as a partner, not a crutch,” said Corliss Thompson, associate dean of the Graduate School of Education.
These initiatives align with Northeastern’s broader AI strategy, including adoption of Claude as the institutional large language model and faculty contributions to the university’s Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning Through Research.
A Model for Organizational Change
Hohgrawe describes the college’s approach fundamentally as organizational transformation. It is inspired by the vision of the college’s dean, Jared Auclair, and requires attention to interconnected elements including people, process, technology, leadership, communication, and culture.
“You don’t need to have ‘AI’ in your job title to lead innovation in this space,” Auclair explained. “Our role is to encourage and support AI activities throughout the organization. Only through that distributed approach can we truly immerse AI in everything we do.”
The college has begun working with public and private sector partners and is now inviting community organizations and additional collaborators to leverage its frameworks and expertise through customized training programs, consultation on organizational change management, and co-development of industry-specific AI literacy initiatives.
“Alignment across the organization is crucial,” Hohgrawe added. “This can’t be siloed in one department. True transformation requires leadership support, distributed innovation, and transparent communication across every level.”
For more information about CPS’s AI initiatives and partnership opportunities, visit https://ai-cps.sites.northeastern.edu.
