DMACC plans to expand AI education programming with new mentorship

Des Moines Area Community College has expanded its partnerships in developing curriculum for education on artificial intelligence to better prepare students for a changing professional world.

The community college announced last week that it has been selected to join the National Applied AI Consortium Mentorship program, which will provide DMACC with support and resources from colleges and universities with their own established AI curriculum.

Executive Academic Dean for Business and Information Technology Anne Power said DMACC is also working to expand its AI education from non-credit, basic courses into an associate degree and certificate to help students and employers across the state gain the necessary knowledge and skills to deal with AI in their work.

“I think it’s important that our education system in general does take the lead on AI in the state of Iowa, so that we can help educate our industry partners, governmental agencies on AI and how they can use it effectively in their organizations,” Power said.

The consortium, developed by Miami Dade College, Houston Community College and Maricopa County Community College District, will give DMACC access to mentorship and resources from the colleges’ already-established AI curriculum, Power said. Only two other community colleges are involved on the mentee side of the consortium.

Miami Dade College AI faculty member Norge Pena Perez has been assigned to work with DMACC, Power said, and in group meetings they have already discussed what courses and competencies should be included in curriculum and barriers that students have dealt with in the past in other programs.

“It is all mentorship — how to develop the curriculum, how to market the program,” Power said.

DMACC this fall became the first Intel AI for Workforce college partner in Iowa, aiding the college in developing curriculum for introductory, non-credit courses on AI. The first course, which started in October with 22 enrolled continuing education students, filled up within a couple of days, said Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence faculty member Becky Deitenbeck. The class is eight weeks long.

A second course starting in November was offered to meet demand, which also met capacity. As it is an introductory class to the topic and industry of artificial intelligence, she said students are given broad strokes of its history, different ways it is utilized and where it has already been applied in the real world, like the Christmas Coca-Cola ad that was developed with AI graphics.

“I always like to call it the 5,000-foot view of AI,” Deitenbeck said.

When AI is brought up in conversation, Deitenbeck said people’s thoughts usually go to generative programs like ChatGPT, but in reality artificial intelligence has been around in different fashions for around 50 years. Deitenbeck said students are shown AI’s presence in different industries and its functions, and how and why it has become more popular.

“It’s recently gained traction because we have not only the computing power, but also the resources in order to utilize the capabilities of these large language models,” Deitenbeck said.

A separate, non-credit course on the ethics of AI will be available to students starting next semester alongside the introductory class. Power said the community college is currently working to get AI certificate and associate degree programs approved so students can enroll for the fall semester.

One area of concern surrounding AI is the idea that people’s jobs will disappear as a result of these programs, Deitenbeck said, but she doesn’t believe this is true. Industry leaders have requested AI training for their employees, Power said, which served as a sort of catalyst for the college’s delve into AI education possibilities.

AI is in the “forefront of everyone’s minds at this point in time,” Power said, with it impacting many, if not all, aspects of people’s lives. Deitenbeck said it affects how people create graphics, write code and complete other tasks, but that doesn’t mean that people’s careers or ways of life will go away.

“There’s a lot of opportunities and exciting items on the horizon, even from an educational standpoint, in being able to ensure that students going into the workforce have the skills necessary that they need to be successful,” Deitenbeck said.