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Artificial Intelligence

Ithaca College is exploring and implementing AI applications in thoughtful, innovative ways across campus. Our initiatives range from using AI to enhance teaching and learning, improving student services, and providing administrative efficiencies to engaging in critical discussions on the ethical use and equitable access of AI technologies. IC is working to align our approach to AI with the institution's core values and goals and prepare students for an AI-driven future.

Are you considering an AI tool or project in your area?

IT&A is happy to support AI exploration and initiatives where possible. In addition, all AI tools and initiatives must undergo a review process to ensure data security and alignment with our AI Guiding Principles before purchase, use, or implementation. Submitting an AI inquiry in one of these ways will ensure your AI effort is properly reviewed:

Here's where to get started:

AI Consultation - Have an AI question or idea? Looking at a potential AI product? Curious about how AI can help you accomplish your work? Need AI learning resources, or looking for funding or licensing for an AI Pilot?  Request an AI Consultation here.

AI Project - Want to get moving on a particular AI tool or platform to solve a need in your area? Maybe you have a product in mind, or are looking for a custom solution. Request a project here.

Third Party Application - Want to integrate an AI-powered third party application into a campus application such as Canvas or Teams? Submit a request for review here.

Teaching and Learning - If you are a faculty member and would like to request the purchase of AI-related software or licensing for teaching and learning, please complete a request to ETAC here.

Contract Review - Looking at an AI product to purchase? Have an existing technology platform with new AI features incorporated? Request a contract review here.

AI Efforts

The Center for Instructional Design and Educational Technologies, in partnership with the Center for Faculty Excellence, is pleased to announce AI Mini-Grants for Course Integration to faculty for the 2025-2026 academic year. For more information on applying, past recipients, and share-outs, visit our AI Mini-Grant page.

Come visit our AI Exploration Lab to discover the power of generative AI, experiment with AI tools and their uses, learn about responsible use, and receive guidance from our student Generative AI Exploration Guides. Collocated with the Digital Media Lab in Friends 102, our team offers workshops, scheduled appointments, and walk-in hours. 

The Presidential Working Group on AI at Ithaca College reflects the college's dedication to embracing advancements in AI and ensuring its integration aligns with the educational mission, core values, and vision for a responsible and equitable future.

Convening from July 2024 through May 2025, the group consisted of faculty, staff, and students, facilitated by members of Information Technology and Analytics, and was tasked with exploring and developing strategies to harness AI's potential and recommending responsible use across the campus. The group's charter was guided by seven essential questions, aiming to help the college start to answer or address these questions, which range from enhancing students' experience to improving operational effectiveness and assessing the impact of AI on workforce skills and roles. Deliverables resulting from this work were adopted by the President and President’s Cabinet in Summer 2025 and will shape the college’s strategic approach to AI.

NameDatesDescription
Claude AI PilotMay-August, 2024This project aims to explore Anthropic’s Claude AI and its capabilities, determining strengths, weaknesses, and use cases. We will explore the differences between the free version and paid license and compare to other popular AI chat tools.
Zoom AI Companion PilotMay-August, 2024This effort will explore the features of the Zoom AI Companion and test technical configurations before making this tool available to the whole campus in August 2024. This is a generative AI digital assistant that can be leveraged throughout the Zoom platform including Zoom Meetings and Whiteboard.
Teams Premium PilotMay-August, 2024This project is to evaluate the features of Microsoft Teams Premium. The objective of this project is to understand the value proposition for our organization and to provide recommendations around its use. Additionally, this project will establish a feature comparison between Microsoft Teams Premium and Zoom AI Companion.
Microsoft For Copilot 365 PilotApril-November, 2024This project is to evaluate Microsoft 365 Copilot which provides an AI assistance feature within each product in the Microsoft 365 environment (Outlook, Teams, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.). The aim is to explore the tools, identify use cases, understand the value proposition for our organization, and to provide recommendations around its use.
AI for ICare SupportMay 2024-October, 2025Develop an AI tool that can extract and summarize student information for the ICare support team. Phase two includes recording and summarizing confidential meeting transcripts.
AI Service Desk AgentFebruary 2024-December, 2025Create and launch alpha version of an AI Service Desk agent, trained on IT’s service catalog and knowledge base, that can answer questions and create a ticket.
Ithaca Insights PrototypeJanuary-March, 2024Creation of a usable AI prototype to answer questions about IC for potential students.
Tokenized AI Platform PilotAugust 2025-Decemner 2025Explore how services like LibreChat or Boodlebox may be used to provide tokenized access to paid AI tools for specific use cases.
Learning Outcomes AnalysisJune 2025-November 2025Pilot effort to create an AI agent to supplement assessment and batch-analysis of student learning outcomes for ICC programs.
Performance Evaluation AssistantMarch 2025-May2026Exploration of prompts and AI Agent creation to assist employees in crafting annual performance reviews, with an emphasis on connecting accomplishments with key competencies and developing SMART goals.

Launching Fall 2025, the AI Digital Literacy Initiative for Faculty includes four levels of faculty engagement to allow multiple opportunities to learn and apply AI to course practices. Whether you are looking to get started or want to go deeper into the use of AI, each level builds on prior experiences and understanding of artificial intelligence and its application to teaching and learning. 

Ithaca College is participating in theAI Ready program All Campus Essentials initiative, offered by the The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). This program is designed for faculty, staff, and administrators, to foster learning, share resources, and increase the effective adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) across our campus.

Tools & Resources

Please be aware that AI chat bots, software, plugins, and other AI tools may collect, store, or share information that you enter in chats or otherwise upload to them. If you use products that the college has not approved through contract review, you may expose data to unauthorized parties. Depending on the nature of the data, that may violate FERPA or other regulations, or violate IC policies. For more information, please see this article.

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered chatbot. It uses natural language processing and machine learning to generate text and images from plain text. It can be accessed through any browser at copilot.microsoft.com, and it is also integrated into the Microsoft Edge browser with additional capabilities such as PDF file analysis. Read more here.

Zoom AI Companion is chat tool built-in to Zoom meetings that, when activated by the host, lets participants ask questions, see action items, or catch up on parts they missed, by using the meeting transcript.

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered chatbot. It uses natural language processing and machine learning to generate text and images from plain text. It can be accessed through any browser at copilot.microsoft.com, and it is also integrated into the Microsoft Edge browser with additional capabilities such as PDF file analysis. Read more here.

Zoom AI Companion is chat tool built-in to Zoom meetings that, when activated by the host, lets participants ask questions, see action items, or catch up on parts they missed, by using the meeting transcript.

The Center for Instructional Design & Educational Technology (CIE) team partners with faculty to build and deliver exceptional courses, and to explore emerging and creative technologies including generative AI. 

This channel hosts video resources to guide users through various AI experiences including generative AI tools, best practices, and "how to" tutorials.