(Delaware and Chester Counties, PA)— Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay.

A Delaware County Community College English professor thinks that—rather than banning it from the classroom—schools and colleges should teach ethical AI literacy to help students and educators use it effectively while avoiding plagiarism.

“My classrooms are filled with recent high school graduates who have been taught that AI is little more than a contentious cheating machine,” says Susan E. Ray, Ph.D., associate professor of English at DCCC and a national consultant on college AI instruction. “They want to know: ‘How is AI going to affect my future job?’ Faculty are concerned that the AI tool ChatGPT kills critical thinking. The truth is there will always be a need for the latter—and students can learn how to use AI as a tutor, not a solution.”

That is why Ray has swiftly integrated AI into her English classes at the College—with DCCC’s full support. In the spring 2025, she surveyed her students about AI. Among the 66 respondents, 82% said they felt positive about using AI in college courses, yet 42% had never been taught how to use it before. One student wrote, “If instructors gave clear examples of good vs bad use, it would build trust instead of fear.”

Ray was awarded a grant through DCCC’s Carter Center for Excellence to build a comprehensive approach to AI integration. The mini-grant funds OpenAI subscriptions for students, helps integrate Pangram (an AI detection and feedback tool), and supports the development of a faculty resource hub and professional learning events.

This summer, Ray tested a fully AI-integrated version of her accelerated English Composition II course—and saw striking results: 100% retention, no academic integrity violations, and increased rates of A’s and B’s compared to previous terms. Students reflected positively on the experience. “At first I was wary of using it,” one student said. “But I now feel more confident as a writer and a thinker.”

Her classroom approach begins with low-stakes, curiosity-driven exploration. In week one, students uploaded the course syllabus into ChatGPT and asked it to analyze how the course might align with their strengths and struggles as learners. “The results were eye-opening,” Ray says. “Students reported feeling more prepared and reflective before reading a single assigned text.”

The work caught national attention. In August, Ray was invited to serve as a faculty consultant for the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) 2025–2026 Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum. She is one of the first community college professors selected for the role, joining a team of educators from institutions including Berkeley College, the University of Central Oklahoma, and the University of Georgia. The year-long appointment will allow her to provide practical guidance on curriculum design and student engagement while representing the community college perspective in national AI conversations.

Ray’s course design encourages creative, critical use of AI, not shortcuts. In a recent assignment, students designed high school lesson plans for Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, each including an AI-based activity. Student-generated ideas included rewriting scenes as text threads, staging family therapy sessions, and even creating a Blanche DuBois chatbot.

“It’s about helping students use AI in ways that deepen their thinking, not replace it,” she says. “By teaching them to engage with AI transparently and responsibly, we help close gaps in digital literacy and ensure they’re prepared for a future where AI is already shaping the workplace.” One of the most memorable student reflections came from an adult learner in her fifties: “Dr. Ray, I never understood what all this AI stuff was before. I never thought I would learn how to do it in an English class!”