SUNY’s AI Integration: A System-Wide Approach Across 64 Campuses With Kim Scalzo

Full Transcript

Dr. Cristi Ford (00:00):

Managing the integration and rollout of generative AI at one campus is challenging enough. What happens if you are doing this across 64 campuses? Join me in today’s conversation where we’ll explore how one university system is tackling this head-on.

Speaker 2 (00:16):

Welcome to Teach and Learn, a podcast for curious educators brought to you by D2L.

Dr. Cristi Ford (00:21):

Each week, we’ll meet some of the sharpest minds in the K to 20 space. Sharpen your pencils, class is about to begin.

(00:28):

My guest today is Kim Scalzo. Kim is the interim Senior Associate Provost for Digital Innovation and Academic Services at the State University of New York, otherwise known as SUNY. She previously led SUNY’s online, the online learning initiative across the state University of New York’s 64 campus system, and has more than 25 years of experience managing a variety of educational programs. Kim, I’m so excited to have you here and so excited for this conversation today.

Kim Scalzo (00:58):

Me too. Thank you so much for having me, Cristi.

Dr. Cristi Ford (01:01):

One of the things as I thought about us prepping for this episode today is that today, every day we see something new coming out around large language models and generative AI, and you are in a very unique position being at a system. And that SUNY is not just working with one campus, but I can’t imagine, but there’s 64 very distinct campuses and institutional types. And so I’m really excited to talk with you today about how you and your team are managing to integrate and roll out AI in a very different way than what one institution may have to look at.

Kim Scalzo (01:43):

Yeah, so, yeah, I’m excited to talk about that as well. Cristi. Do you want me to just jump in?

Dr. Cristi Ford (01:47):

Well, let me just give you maybe a little more framing for the listener. So as we talk about the system and thinking about AI across your campuses, maybe you can give some specific examples or tangent of initiatives of how are you’re going about this. How is AI being integrated into teaching and research and administrative functions at all these campuses?

Kim Scalzo (02:08):

Yeah, great. So we have multiple initiatives and I think we all can remember back in, I think it was the fall of, if I get my years right, 2022, when ChatGPT came out and faculty were starting to experiment. And so as early as the spring of 2023, we started talking about, what is the impact going to be on teaching and learning? And so we right away launched several initiatives that were helping us to prepare for the fall 2023 semester.

(02:41):

And so the first thing was that, and you may remember Cristi, that we talked about SUNY’s Innovative Instruction ecosystem last summer. And so we immediately looked to all the levers in our innovative instruction ecosystem. We have the Faculty Advisory Council on Teaching and Technology, which is university-wide advisory group to the provost on teaching and learning with technology. We have several university-wide programs for online education, OER. Library information services, our digital learning environment. Our Center for Professional Development.

(03:13):

So we looked to all of those and we formed a task group focused on optimizing AI for teaching and learning, that really spent the spring and summer focused on, how can we prepare faculty as they come back in the fall for AI? We launched a webinar series for faculty to get awareness of, what is generative AI, how could I be thinking about this? We prepared for a full day AI symposium that was held at our conference on instruction and technology. Our Center for Professional Development launched two different professional development courses that they offered for faculty and staff. We worked with our partner, Lumen Learning, to develop a new Lumen Circle on generative AI, which really, I’m excited to say has been very successful. And they just launched the second advanced generative AI Lumen Circle. And our Faculty Advisory Council developed a guide to AI and teaching and learning for faculty that went through two iterations and has been published as an OER and is available through SUNY Press and our press books.

(04:26):

So our goal in that first year was really about creating awareness for faculty and to give them some things to think about as they were thinking about how they might consider using AI in their courses and what they should be prepared for with regard to students using them. Everything we did was captured and is available on the website for my organization DS, and that’s at innovate.suny.edu for anybody who wants to check that out.

(04:56):

As we look to what we’re doing this year, we’re really focused on generative AI in action. What are faculty and campuses actually doing? So we performed a new task group, and they’re looking at pilots that are happening around the use of AI and teaching and learning. We’re looking, we’re going to be exploring AI assistive technology. So, how is AI being brought to bear to help students and to improve things like EIT accessibility? And then the third area that they’re looking at is policy considerations. So that task group is getting off and running and working and looking for some updates from them at our conference this May. So, that’s all on the teaching front.

Dr. Cristi Ford (05:40):

Wow.

Kim Scalzo (05:42):

On the research front, in the fall of 2023, our Senior Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development launched a task force across the system on artificial intelligence. It was one of three task forces that she led, and I was really excited to be able to work with her to get that organized and structured in a way that enabled us to work with the community of researchers across the system. To think about, their charge was to outline a three to five year strategy for AI across SUNY, and they have published a strategic plan document that’s on our website, and that work was done through five working groups of faculty and researchers. The five working groups were research and infrastructure, workforce and industry, education, which aligned with that faculty council group that I mentioned earlier. They looked at social impact, and then the fifth group was data privacy and security.

(06:42):

So a lot of work that happened over the last academic year, they published the strategic plan. And I’m really pleased to say that SUNY Leadership has been successful in working with the governor in our state, and there’ve been several investments that are being made at the state level in AI infrastructure around AI policy. We’re establishing new academic departments focused on AI. So that’s really been exciting.

Dr. Cristi Ford (07:12):

Man. I mean, you all won’t let any grass grow under your feet.

Kim Scalzo (07:17):

Yeah, there’s a lot happening, yeah. So it’s been really fun, it’s been really exciting.

(07:21):

The other thing that I get to the pleasure to do is we have an innovative instruction technology grants program. And so for last year and this year, we have focused those grants on artificial intelligence. Really trying to encourage faculty to embrace AI, to explore, to try it out, and share with everybody what they learn. That’s going to be really important. Then finally, our SUNY OER services team is participating in a grant funded by Axim. It’s the AI for Learning Network grant, and that’s with Carnegie Mellon, College of the Canyons, California community colleges, and United Negro College Fund network of colleges, to develop openly licensed professional development materials and a credential for faculty on using AI.

Dr. Cristi Ford (07:21):

Wow.

Kim Scalzo (08:08):

And to go beyond that to assess the impact of what they’re doing on course design and student learning outcomes. So, a lot of different efforts on the research front, and I’ll say research and innovation front. So yeah.

(08:21):

On the administrative front, I’ll just say quickly, our focus has been really on exploration and understanding what’s possible. What are the big wins? I would say we’re less organized and structured on that front than what we’ve been doing in research and teaching, but I see opportunities for operational efficiencies and the ability to enable our faculty and staff to leverage the computing power of AI to do those labor-intensive tasks, and be able to spend more of their time doing things that humans should be doing. And I think if you talk to anybody in higher ed, I don’t think there’s anybody who feels like they have time on their hands. We all have more to do than we can get to. And so how can AI help us?

Dr. Cristi Ford (09:01):

Gosh, I mean, as I just listened to you in these first couple of minutes, one of the things that I’m just so inspired by is one, you got in there early, wanted to create capacity and awareness when the advent of LLMs and ChatGPT first hit the scene a couple years ago. Then hearing about you moving forward and galvanizing around research, and I love this AI and action approach. So then you were able to move to, what are people doing? How can we showcase that work? And then I love the work that you talk about with these grants, because now you’re also talking about how you’re lifting all sales, right? How can faculty, institutions really galvanize around an area of interest at their campus and really see where they can make this work happen? And then the last piece around the admin front, around operational efficiencies. I really feel like we could take just this question here and unpack this and have you come back.

(09:57):

And listeners, if this is blowing your mind, we’re going to make sure that we have links to all of the resources and materials and the pieces that Kim has mentioned so far, so that you can go and take a deeper dive on some of this. But as I’m listening to you, thinking about what I know that you do really well around change leadership and really thinking about the systematic approach around the last couple of years, what would you say have been some of the biggest challenges that SUNY’s faced in really trying to implement AI in an ethical and responsible manner across the system?

Kim Scalzo (10:32):

Yeah, yeah, it’s a good question. And I think the first thing I’ll say is that one of our challenges, it’s also an opportunity, is our size and the diversity of our system, right? So we have really every sector that you could think of in higher ed. We have community colleges, we have technology focused campuses, our comprehensive colleges, and doctoral granting institutions. So whenever you think about doing anything across the system, you have to think about, how do we account for those different sectors and the types of students that they serve, the types of faculty that they attract, and that are on their campuses? And some of them are very focused on research, some of them are not, so it’s really the diversity is sometimes a challenge. However, I think it is also an opportunity because it allows us to think about all the facets of higher education.

(11:24):

I will say, when it comes to implementing AI ethically and responsibly, there’s I think a balance across our faculty and staff of a excitement and energy around AI, and concern and skepticism and awareness of risk. And so I think that’s a healthy balance, and I think that’s one thing that we are kind of acknowledging and embracing both of those perspectives. I will say we have, our state came out with a policy around IT that provides a bit of a guardrail for us that we have to account for. We just came out with the New York state law around the responsible use of IT.

Dr. Cristi Ford (12:06):

And is that around data privacy, Kim, in those areas?

Kim Scalzo (12:10):

Yep, yep. So I think data privacy, security. How are we making sure that users are aware if AI is being used? Things like that. So being responsible about it, making sure that AI is not making decisions that humans should be making, right? Things like that. So I think what we’re trying to do is think about what makes sense in terms of policy versus guidance at the system level. Our campuses are looking at their own policies. So I think the question is, do we need more policy? Do we need guidance? Do we support? Do we need support? That’s what we’re talking about.

(12:52):

And you mentioned change leadership, Cristi, and that’s something I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about and trying to, I’ve seen a lot of change in my time in higher education. And I think that one of the ways that we are really trying to make sure that we do this well is by engaging the stakeholders across the system. That’s what we did with the teaching and learning work, that’s what we did with the research work, and I think that’s really what we have to do.

(13:22):

The last thing that I’ll mention is that we work with so many vendor partners, and so we’re also trying to think about, how do we embed the guardrails and the requirements that we have around our use of AI into procurements and contracts? And so that’s happening now. And so it’s a lot to wrap our arms around, but we’re really trying to work on it at all fronts.

Dr. Cristi Ford (13:47):

What I really appreciate about what you’ve shared thus far, even thinking about maybe what may be a challenge in terms of the distinct nature of all the institution types. The asset-based approach that you’ve taken. So the ways in which you’ve looked at how each of the distinct characteristics can actually provide you opportunities to have a really large conversation. When you talked about the different task force, I heard you mention workforce, I heard you mention research. I mean, these are things that typically, historically on one campus may get siloed or we have this divide between what is workforce doing? What is research one doing? And so I really appreciate that approach. And I also will say, if you can just share a little bit more in terms of the ecosystem that you’ve developed and probably how that foundation is really helpful for this work as well.

Kim Scalzo (14:37):

Yeah, so on the teaching and learning side, we have this Innovative Instruction ecosystem that really tries to bring to bear all the activities and the groups and the organizations, the investments that we’re able to make to support teaching and learning with technology. And so we have in my organization, a series of university-wide shared services. We have SUNY Online, we have our Office of Library and Information Services, the SUNY OER Services Initiative, open educational resources. I have responsibility for electronic and information technology accessibility, our digital learning environment, which is our Brightspace implementation across the system, our innovative instruction technology grants, the Faculty Advisory Council on Teaching and Technology, and our Center for Professional Development is an adjacent group to us that we leverage significantly.

(15:35):

So all of those groups, all of those staff, those people, those initiatives, come with a series of activities. There are regular ways we can provide webinars and professional development, we host conferences. We have communities of practice that we engage with through monthly meetings or through Listservs or through online collaboration spaces. We hold these one-day symposia, we form these task groups. So all of that can be brought to bear when we want to tackle something like, what is the impact of AI on teaching and learning? And so what I’ve been really trying to do is think about, how do we connect the activities in that ecosystem so that what we might do in an innovative instruction technology grant, a seed grant initiative, could be maybe taken to scale with larger funding investments? How do we think about bringing some policy and recommendations around that with a task group? So, how do we connect all those activities to really strengthen the impact of the work that our faculty and staff do?

(16:44):

And the last thing that I guess I want to say about that is, I’m talking about a lot of these things with you today, but there is a whole team in the provost office-

Dr. Cristi Ford (16:58):

[inaudible 00:16:58].

Kim Scalzo (16:57):

… across the system office. It’s not all me, right? We have incredible colleagues, we have incredible leadership with our chancellor and our executive leadership team. And really, I said the other day, I’m really proud to be at SUNY now and to be part of the work that we’re doing.

Dr. Cristi Ford (17:16):

As I’m listening to you and just feeling so encouraged about the spaces in which institutions are coming together at SUNY, which faculty are coming together, I kind of want to shift a little bit and talk a little bit about students. I had an opportunity to work with the College of Business faculty last week and we were talking about, how are we preparing or how are they preparing students for the workforce of tomorrow and an AI powered workforce? And so I guess I’m wondering, as I’m thinking and listening to all of the initiatives and the task force and the ways in which you’re thinking about teaching and learning, are there specific curricular changes or new programs that are being developed to be able to equip your students in the SUNY system with the AI powered future of tomorrow?

Kim Scalzo (18:04):

Yeah. So I mentioned part of that research strategy was to develop new departments around AI, and that certainly will spawn new whole credentials and degree programs, right? But beyond that, we want to make sure that really, every SUNY graduate comes out of their programs or their campuses with some competency in AI that they can take into the workforce. So to that end, our faculty across the system recently approved a new competency in AI literacy, which is part of our information literacy requirement for general education. So, all SUNY students have to complete those gen ed requirements in our degree programs. And so that is being implemented now, and we’re really excited for that to be rolled out across the system.

(18:54):

I’ll give you one example of that, which we saw early on from the university at Albany. I love to share this example. They have created a three-part micro credential in artificial intelligence that they want to be available to all students at the university at Albany. And basically, it’s three courses that students can take. The first one is basically, what is AI? Just kind of laying the groundwork for what is artificial intelligence? Then there’s a more technically oriented AI fundamentals or foundations course. And then there is a third course, which is AI in the discipline, which any department can really determine what does that look like in their field and their discipline. And so across the university at Albany, that micro credential is being rolled out and students will graduate, that’s how they’re going to meet that information, that AI literacy competency.

(19:48):

And then the last thing that I’ll mention is that the workforce and an industry is a big focus. One of the four priorities under our current Chancellor, John King, is upward mobility and economic development. And so really, a lot of effort being placed on workforce training and industry programs, and AI is going to be an important component of that as well.

Dr. Cristi Ford (20:09):

That’s really great, because I think that’s the piece that we’re still trying to figure out is that this is about lifelong learning or Marshall Weiss calls long life learning, and being able to upskill career changers or people who are coming back. And so I’m really glad to hear that that workforce and training-

Kim Scalzo (20:25):

And people who are currently in the workforce, right? We always talk about preparing people to go into the workforce, but people who are already there in jobs and need these additional skills and competencies. So I think I always talk about continuing education, as well as workforce development.

Dr. Cristi Ford (20:40):

That’s a good call out, that’s definitely a good call out there. As I’m listening to all the things you’re doing, gosh, this is more… And to your point, this is a concerted effort with several colleagues across the system working to be able to make these innovations, these initiatives happen. But as you think about what’s the most exciting maybe emerging technology that SUNY is exploring, and maybe how do you anticipate some of these technologies shaping the larger future of higher education?

Kim Scalzo (21:11):

Yeah. So I think that certainly AI is one of those technologies, and we’re thinking about that on multiple fronts, but I’ll just call out two things. I think when we talk about accessibility at SUNY, there’s a lot of work around, how do we make sure there’s access to a SUNY education for all New Yorkers? And we think about things like non-native English speakers. Did I say that correctly, right? How do we think about translation software? People with disabilities, and the ways in which AI has really advanced things like captioning and just making education accessible to students. I think that’s really exciting way that we’re leveraging AI and technology.

(21:59):

We’re also talking about an AI-based tutor, right? And so how can we think about making tutoring support available to students in ways maybe that they’re not even, they don’t even have to ask for it, it’s just made available to them? Remove that stigma of having to go to the tutoring center or those time constraints that students have. So I think that’s, when I think about AI, those two use cases come to mind for me.

(22:26):

Virtual reality is something that we’ve been talking about actually for several years. We had one of those faculty advisory council task groups on virtual reality several years ago, and two recent examples that I’ll mention are, we’re doing more with nursing simulation labs. And so, how are we doing that with virtual reality? Also in our educator prep programs, there was a really interesting demo that I saw of faculty at our campus in Buffalo helping prepare students for classroom management with some virtual reality experiences. And we all know there’s so much happening with other virtual labs in the sciences, so I think that’s getting traction and being deployed more. And I think that’s really going to change the way we do those programs and those courses, where typically you had to be in a lab and in a space with your instructor.

(23:24):

The other thing I’ll mention is open, an adaptive courseware. We’ve been working a lot with Lumen Learning and Carnegie Mellon’s OLI initiative to develop highly interactive, open and adaptive courseware. Really with a focus on improving student engagement, supporting students through the learning path in ways that meet their needs, so that we can improve student learning outcomes. And so that’s been really exciting and we’re going to continue to do more work there. And I think that’s that’s going to change the way faculty think about the design of their courses and that ultimately, with the goal of helping students learn better.

Dr. Cristi Ford (24:06):

As I think about neurodivergent learners, as I think about the future of education, the adaptive space, all of those pieces are really transforming the way we think about where learning is going, where higher education is going. I know for us at D2L, we’re so happy to be able to partner with you on some of this work and really be able to stretch the boundaries of, how do we think about this as a multi-tenant approach to help us to meet learners where they are? So I’m really, really excited to hear that.

(24:39):

As I think about the work that you’ve shared so far, SUNY is preparing for, there are also potential disruptions in AI and other emerging technologies. You’ve talked about VR and AI and adaptive. What are some proactive measures that you’re taking? And really, how are you thinking about just being prepared for a future and technological advancements that we don’t really know? We don’t know in six months what’s going to happen with these LLMs. So how are you thinking about that work? I just would love to share with our listeners that.

Kim Scalzo (25:15):

Yeah, so I think the way we think about that is the way we think about everything that we approach. And the FACT task group on AI was a good example of this, where as soon as we knew, as soon as we had a glimmer, as soon as we had a sense that something was coming, we engaged our community of practice of faculty and staff. And both helped them to bring forward, what are the issues, what do we need to account for? And also to be part of providing resources, support, guidance to faculty. And so I think just getting out ahead of that and being able to engage the community is a really key part of how we can be proactive. Building on that, we can provide that grant funding that we have and the investments that we have in our ecosystem to leverage, to support whatever the emerging technology or the disruption is.

(26:11):

And I really think it’s our community, it’s the diversity across our system, and the excitement that we have amongst the faculty. When we can bring that together and give them space to help support each other. We also bring in, as you know, bring in folks from outside of SUNY. We’re not just insular, right? So who are the experts out there in the field that we can bring in to help the work that we’re doing? It’s just an incredible community and an incredible resource, an asset that we have to leverage for whatever’s coming our way.

Dr. Cristi Ford (26:49):

Yeah. As I think about other higher education institutions or educators who may be listening and thinking about their own AI strategies, maybe particularly maybe in their course or at leadership levels at their institutions. I just wonder, maybe what advice would you give? I will preface that question by saying, I was on a different campus two weeks ago giving a keynote around AI and I did a follow-up workshop. And one of the faculty in the audience raised their hand and said, “What is generative AI? What is an LLM?” And so it reminds me, even in all of this advancement, sometimes we have to slow down to speed up. And so, I would love to hear what your call to action or maybe your lessons learned and advice you’d offer to those listening today.

Kim Scalzo (27:38):

Yeah, so I think when it comes to thinking about your own AI strategy, I always… so my background is computer science, right? One of the lessons I learned really early in my career is that technology is an enabler. Technology is not the goal, right? And so as higher ed institutions, we have goals. Everybody has a strategic plan for their institution. And so whatever you’re going to do in AI should align with, enable, support your business needs or your strategic goals. That’s what should be driving. And so the question is, what are you trying to do and how does technology or AI help you get there? So, being clear about what are your biggest challenges, and what are you trying to accomplish, and how can AI be brought to bear to help?

(28:30):

I think when it comes to AI, looking for the ways to embrace it, right? Embrace the opportunities presented by AI, but making sure you do so with guardrails that you need to manage the risks and to ensure that your community is comfortable with where you’re going. And then the thing that I always say, I’ve said this multiple times here, engage your community of stakeholders. I think our strategies have come out of stakeholder engagement, and at SUNY, we leverage those communities of practice to enable change. And in my experience, when stakeholders are engaged, they are invested. They help you make the best decisions, and then they’re going to play a key role in executing whatever your strategy is. So that’s usually what I come back to, right out of my kind of change management playbook.

Dr. Cristi Ford (29:13):

I love that, the enablement part, the engagement part, because in creating those communities of practice, you’re having those larger dialogues and you’re creating those communities to be able to really figure out, how do we leverage all these desperate parts and all these unique opportunities for the betterment of the system? So I really appreciate that.

(29:32):

I guess as I’m thinking of just, I could talk to you for another hour and a half, but as I think about wrapping up this conversation today, I guess I want to ask you kind of to look forward. What are some of your biggest hopes or aspirations as you think about how SUNY can continue to leverage AI to improve the lives of your students and contribute to the society? Or are there other things that you’re thinking about for the horizon of the future?

Kim Scalzo (30:01):

Yeah, so I do just want to mention that the STRIVE task outlines SUNY’s aspirations for AI, and there aren’t many. So I would encourage folks to look at that, because I think there are some really good work that came out of that. In my and teaching and learning with technology, I really hope we empower faculty to embrace AI, to transform the way they design and deliver courses for increased student success. I feel like we’ve talked about that, we’ve been working on that, I’ve been in higher ed for many years now. That’s always what we’re trying to do, but I really think AI is transformative, and I hope we embrace that.

(30:39):

I hope for our students that we leverage AI to provide more personalized learning support, so that they can achieve student learning outcomes, and that we can do that for all students. I hope that we can leverage it to close equity gaps, eliminating barriers for students with disabilities. I hope that we can prepare AI literate graduates to go out into the workforce prepared to use AI in their fields for social good, things like improving healthcare access, community outreach for AI literacy and other things. I hope for our faculty, staff and campus leaders that we find the ways to leverage AI to improve our data infrastructure. We have so much data and to show the true picture of how students are doing, where there are equity gaps in student success, and what the impact is of interventions that we’re deploying to close those equity gaps. We have been asking that question for many years, that would be amazing.

(31:33):

So yeah, I mean, I think there’s lots of things that are possible. I’ve been in higher ed a long time, more than 30 years now, and I’ve seen a lot of change. I’m really excited to be here at this time though, when AI provides us with an opportunity to really, truly transform the way we teach, learn, and work. And I feel like we’ve only just begun.

Dr. Cristi Ford (31:54):

I would wholeheartedly agree with that, and I have been so pleased to be able to watch the work that you’re doing and be in partnership and community with you around this work. I do think, to your point, this is a tall order that you’ve put before us in terms of what we have to look forward to, but I think you’re right. We’re moving away from just having these conversations around the philosophy or the rhetoric around where we need to move some of these initiatives, and really have the opportunity with the enablement of technology now to be able to do that.

(32:24):

So Kim, I’m so glad to have had you here. Thank you for the conversation. Thank you for being willing to really share what SUNY is doing to be able to help other institutions as they’re thinking about this work. So, thanks for coming to be with us today.

Kim Scalzo (32:39):

My pleasure, and thank you for the invitation, Cristi, and for the wonderful, wonderful conversation. I feel like I learned so much from you, even just in the questions that you ask and the way that we think about it together. So, thank you.

Dr. Cristi Ford (32:52):

So thank you to our dedicated listeners and curious educators everywhere. Please remember to follow us on social media. You can find us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, or Facebook at D2L, and subscribe to our D2L YouTube channel where you are watching this now. You can also sign up for the Teaching and Learning studio email list for the latest updates on new episodes like this one, articles and master classes. And if you like what you heard, please remember to rate us, subscribe, share, review this episode, and make sure that you don’t miss anything we have in store.

(33:23):

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Speaker 2 (33:28):

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Dr. Cristi Ford (33:42):

And remember to hit that subscribe button, and please take a moment to rate, review, and share the podcast. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, school’s out.

Resources Discussed in the Episode

• Suny's Dept Of Digital Innovation And Academic Services
• Suny Strive: Task Force On Ai
• Suny's Artificial Intelligence Strategic Plan
• Suny Faculty Advisory Council On Teaching And Technology