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Frameworks and Activities for Fostering AI Literacy

This collection features frameworks for understanding AI literacy—including one framework developed here at UVA—as well as classroom activities that support the development of AI literacy in both students and instructors.

Learning Technologies
Updated September 2025
Bethany Mickel headshot
Bethany Mickel
Instructional Design & OER Librarian
University Library
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Fang Yi headshot
Fang Yi
Assistant Director
Learning Design & Technology
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The Progressive AI Literacy Framework

Fang Yi, Jess Taggart, and Bethany Mickel

The Progressive AI Literacy Framework provides a comprehensive yet practical approach to AI literacy development, serving both students and educators, while maintaining a strong ethical foundation throughout all levels of learning. It represents a thoughtful synthesis of existing research while addressing current educational needs and realities.

Headshot of Bethany MickelHeadshot of Fang Yi
Bethany Mickel, Fang Yi

Start here to understand what we mean by AI literacy. Our Progressive AI Literacy Framework was developed through a thorough analysis of prominent AI literacy models. This analysis informed several strategic adaptations tailored to the unique needs of higher education. In this chapter, we present a detailed overview of the framework, outline the development process, and highlight the specific modifications we implemented.

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The Progressive AI Literacy Framework

Fang Yi, Jess Taggart, and Bethany Mickel
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Fostering AI Literacy: A Guide for Educators in Higher Education

Fang Yi, Jess Taggart, and Bethany Mickel

This adaptable Open Educational Resource serves as a comprehensive guide for higher education educators, supporting your understanding of core AI literacy competencies and equipping you with the knowledge, skills, pedagogical best practices, and practical examples and resources needed to foster AI literacy in your classrooms.

Headshot of Bethany MickelHeadshot of Fang Yi
Bethany Mickel, Fang Yi

For a deeper dive into AI literacy and strategies for developing it, explore this interactive guide. Our OER guide represents a cross-institutional collaborative effort to empower educators with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to integrate AI effectively in higher education. By leveraging the benefits of open education and embracing a research-informed approach, we aim to support faculty members in harnessing AI's transformative potential to enhance student learning outcomes and foster innovation in teaching and scholarship.

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We conducted an extensive review of scholarly literature published between 2023 and 2025, synthesizing key insights and emerging trends in AI integration within higher education. Building upon this foundation, we iteratively developed and refined the content of the OER guide, incorporating feedback from instructors who participated in pilot testing and usability evaluations. This iterative process allowed us to address instructors’ specific needs, enhance the OER’s usability, and ensure its alignment with best practices in AI-enhanced pedagogy.

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AI Literacy in Teaching and Learning: A Durable Framework for Higher Education

EDUCAUSE

The framework equips students, faculty, and staff to engage effectively and ethically with AI technologies in academic and professional contexts.

Headshot of Bethany MickelHeadshot of Fang Yi
Bethany Mickel, Fang Yi

This comprehensive AI literacy framework, developed by EDUCAUSE, addresses the need for institutions to adapt to the rapidly evolving landscape of AI. The framework equips students, faculty, and staff to engage effectively and ethically with AI technologies in academic and professional contexts. 

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The framework emphasizes proactive fostering of AI literacy to mitigate risks, maximize potential, and maintain a competitive edge. It emphasizes responsible AI use, addressing issues such as bias, privacy, and data security.

Recommendations include adopting and adapting this framework to institutional needs, developing comprehensive training programs, integrating AI literacy into existing curricula, establishing policies for responsible AI use, fostering continuous learning, and regularly assessing AI literacy initiatives.

By implementing this ALTL framework, institutions can lead in AI integration in education, preparing their communities to thrive in an AI-driven world while upholding ethical standards and fostering critical thinking.

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The Dimensions of AI Literacies

Opened Culture

The Dimensions of AI Literacies embrace a pluralistic perspective, recognizing that individuals can develop and apply a range of interconnected, socioculturally-situated competencies.

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Bethany Mickel, Fang Yi

The Dimensions of AI Literacies framework offers educators a flexible and transformative way to understand and integrate AI into teaching and learning. By recognizing AI literacy as a constellation of interconnected competencies—technical, ethical, cultural, and social—it empowers educators and learners to engage with AI critically. This shared vocabulary supports reflection, collaboration, and the meaningful adoption of AI in education.

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10 Step AI Challenge

UVA Library

The UVA Library created this resource to encourage students and faculty to explore and experiment with AI tools and technologies. It's geared toward those relatively new to generative AI.

Headshot of Bethany MickelHeadshot of Fang Yi
Bethany Mickel, Fang Yi

Created by librarians, the 10 Step AI Challenge provides an excellent entry point for students and faculty eager to engage with generative AI in meaningful and practical ways. Each activity combines hands-on exploration with reflection, encouraging participants to think critically about how AI can support research, teaching, and creative work. With flexible, self-paced challenges covering text, image, and multimedia generation, the guide makes it easy to learn, experiment, and consider the ethical dimensions of AI in academic life. This resource serves both as an introduction to AI tools and a springboard for deeper exploration. 

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You’ll work with tools that generate text, images, and other media, while examining their role in research, teaching, and creative work at UVA. Through these activities, you will:

  • Become familiar with generative AI tools available at UVA and beyond
  • Explore how AI can support written, visual, and multimedia content creation
  • Reflect on the ethical use of AI in scholarship, instruction, and academic life

Each challenge includes four sections:

Learn (background information),

Challenge (hands-on use of AI), 

Reflect (apply and evaluate what you’ve learned), and

Learn More (for those wishing to take a deeper dive into the topic)

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AI Pedagogy Project

metaLAB

The AI Pedagogy Project, created by the metaLAB (at) Harvard, helps educators engage their students in conversations about the capabilities and limitations of AI informed by hands-on experimentation, to foster their AI literacy.

Headshot of Bethany MickelHeadshot of Fang Yi
Bethany Mickel, Fang Yi

The AI Pedagogy Project maintains a growing collection of curated assignments from educators around the world that can be customized to your own pedagogical values and classroom needs.

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Do-it-yourself Workshop Kits

Stanford Teaching Commons

Stanford’s Do-It-Yourself Workshop Kit is designed as modular, 60-minute workshops aimed at helping participants move from apprehension to curiosity by building foundational knowledge such as defining AI concepts, exploring how generative AI tools operate, and reflecting on emotional responses to AI in education.

Headshot of Bethany MickelHeadshot of Fang Yi
Bethany Mickel, Fang Yi

These workshop kits can help you facilitate your own customized session on various topics related to AI, such as writing a clear AI course policy statement and developing student assignments that leverage AI. The kits typically contain a resource list, sample agenda, presentation, an evaluation tool, and more.

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