UC Irvine Division of Teaching Excellence & Innovation

UC Irvine IMPACT Program

Innovative Methods for Pedagogical AI Course Transformation

About UC Irvine IMPACT Program

The campus has made available $1 million to fund up to 30 course transformation proposals for faculty and graduate students to engage in these activities. Through the intentional incorporation of AI in the curriculum, the IMPACT Program aims to transform the traditionally impersonal large enrollment, introductory course experience to one where every student is provided with a personalized learning ecosystem. UC Irvine IMPACT projects will serve as examples that can be replicated across the campus and beyond.

Program Benefits & Impact

Through the UC Irvine IMPACT Program, UC Irvine will continue to be leaders in the teaching and learning space to provide our students with a first-class education, while also being thoughtful regarding how AI has the potential to impact the student learning experience.

Project participants will gain access to not only the program funding, but also DTEI staff expertise, and other relevant teaching and learning resources the campus has to offer.

Proposal Instructions

A young person writing algebraic equations on a whiteboard.

Who can apply?

Proposals can come from individual Senate faculty, small teams of faculty (both Senate and Unit-18), or larger numbers of faculty across a department/major program.

When is the application due?

Date: 5pm Friday, October 17, 2025

Proposal Components

Course(s) to be transformed

Target course(s) must be taught by the proposing faculty in both the 2025-26 and 2026-27 academic years

Participant Information

Participating faculty names and email addresses

Proposal Track

  • Track 1: Faculty who are currently innovators in the AI and teaching space who want to take their course transformation to the next level
  • Track 2: Faculty who are interested in AI-driven course transformation but are lacking the expertise to accomplish on their own

Grand Challenge(s) that your proposal will address

Select 1 or more of the following and feel free to add additional challenges that impact the teaching of large enrollment, introductory courses

  • Authentic assessment
  • Personalized learning/tutoring
  • Incorporation of active learning
  • Writing (or other assignment) feedback
  • Student sense of belonging
  • Support for self-regulated learning
  • Inclusive excellence
  • Managing course content and/or integration of theory into practice
  • Other (please describe)

Upload a PDF with the following

  • Course Transformation Proposal: Describe (200 words or less) how you plan to incorporate AI in your course to address the above grand challenge(s).
    • Include a brief description of how you will incorporate UC Irvine AI-tools (e.g. ZotGPT or ClassChat) or why this is not possible for your proposal.
  • Proposal Team Rationale: Describe (200 words or less) the proposal team’s prior experience with AI and integrating AI into the classroom (Track 1) and/or the proposal team’s prior experience with innovation in the classroom to support student success (Track 1 and 2).
  • Budget and Budget Justification: (200 words or less) Briefly outline your proposal budget and total requested funds. Anticipated expenditures include faculty summer salary (Summer 2026) and/or graduate student support (2025-26 academic year) for course development, software costs, or professional development activities, although applicants are free to propose additional budget items. Single faculty proposals have a maximum budget of $30,000 while teams of faculty or department proposals can request up to $100,000.

Confirm that if awarded funds, you will

  • Participate in a DTEI-led faculty learning community in 2025-26 and 2026-27
  • Contribute to both student (course surveys) and faculty (survey/interview) data collection to examine the impacts of UC Irvine IMPACT

Selection Criteria

A team of faculty reviewers drawn from across campus will be responsible for reviewing the proposals and making recommendations to the OVPTL leadership team regarding proposals to be funded.

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Focus on large enrollment, introductory courses with total students impacted being a key selection criteria.

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Highlight the feasibility of their plan to incorporate AI in the classroom.
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Provide a strong rationale for how the course transformation will address the selected grand challenge(s).
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Demonstrate the prior experience the participating faculty have in incorporating AI in the classroom (Track 1 proposals).
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Demonstrate the proposal team’s prior experience innovating in the classroom (Track 1 and 2 proposals).
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Incorporate faculty reflection on these prior experiences.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Associate Dean of DTEI, Brian Sato (bsato@uci.edu).