NAU Professors Explore Equitable Integration of AI in Education and Creative Fields
Northern Arizona University (NAU) professors are actively researching the evolving role of Generative AI (GenAI) in both education and creative industries, focusing on equitable access and responsible implementation. Their work aims to understand how students and professionals can best leverage AI as a collaborative tool, rather than a replacement for human skill and ingenuity.
One study, led by a researcher named Kh, focuses on student engagement with GenAI in real academic settings, notably within STEM fields. Her goals include fostering AI literacy – especially among first-generation, rural, and underrepresented learners – and supporting faculty in becoming comfortable with these new technologies. Ultimately, she seeks to develop evidence-based recommendations for integrating GenAI equitably into STEM education. Kh anticipates her findings will extend beyond academia, informing more equitable GenAI use in industries like healthcare, engineering, and finance by improving workplace training, job simulations, and continuing education. She emphasizes understanding how learners use AI to solve problems, revise ideas, and evaluate facts.
In the School of Communication,Professor of visual Communication Johnson is exploring AI’s potential as a creative collaborator. His project centers on developing classroom-ready workflows that integrate industry-standard tools like After Effects, Procreate Dreams, and Blender with AI assistants. These workflows will be tested through guided stories, comparing traditional pipelines to AI-assisted ones to assess time savings and quality improvements. Johnson plans to create open-source teaching modules for wider adoption by other instructors.
A key focus of Johnson’s work is teaching students to direct, critique, and refine AI’s output, maintaining authorship, ethics, and creativity at the forefront. His study will also address the ethical considerations surrounding AI training and provenance, prioritizing tools that respect artists’ rights and avoid unauthorized imitation of living artists’ styles.He stresses that AI should provide feedback after initial creation, not generate the work itself.
The research highlights a shared vision: AI is a powerful tool, but its effective and ethical use requires a focus on human skill, critical thinking, and responsible implementation.
source: https://news.nau.edu/trail-research-25/ (original Post by Heidi Toth, September 10, 2025)