AI-Ready Teaching Contest at Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) has announced the “Teach-a-thon,” a competition celebrating innovative teaching practices in response to the rise of large language models and generative AI. This virtual event is designed to engage all Penn State faculty, including collaborative teaching teams, and invites submissions until the deadline of February 1, 2026.

Participants are expected to detail how they have thoughtfully adapted their courses to address the challenges and opportunities posed by AI technologies. Submissions can take various forms—including lecture modules, classroom activities, student assignments, and learning evaluations. The main emphasis is on showcasing concrete alterations made to teaching practices, whether that involves course content, classroom structure, policies on academic integrity, or assessment strategies.

A panel of seven Penn State faculty members will evaluate submissions based on several criteria, including innovation, originality, responsiveness to AI technologies, and evidence of student learning outcomes. Awards will be allocated as follows: $3,000 for first place, $2,000 for second place, $1,000 for third place, and $500 for honorable mentions. This incentive highlights the university’s commitment to integrating AI into educational frameworks creatively and effectively.

The Teach-a-thon is the fifth initiative by CSRAI in a series of challenges aimed at exploring the dual-edged nature of generative AI. Previous challenges include the Bias-a-thon, which focused on the biases in AI tools, the Cheat-a-thon, testing AI’s capacity for answering college-level exams, the Diagnose-a-thon, which assessed AI in medical inquiry, and the Fake-a-thon, which scrutinized the complexities of identifying AI-generated disinformation.

Founded in 2020, the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence advocates for transformative AI research while considering the critical social and ethical implications inherent in such advancements. Its broad portfolio includes activities spanning foundational research to applying AI across diverse human endeavors.

For more information regarding the Teach-a-thon, interested individuals can visit the official website of the event or reach out to Amulya Yadav, CSRAI’s associate director (programs), at auy212@psu.edu.