Module 0 · Getting Started
AI in This Course
Objectives
- 1.1 Explain why employers expect AI skills, and the real costs of AI. (Course Competency 1; Understand)
Overview
This course uses generative AI tools (Google Gemini) in assignments, as recommended by our industry advisors. Students use AI for research, writing and feedback, and create their own design work.
Our industry advisory board encourages us to teach current industry practice, and employers now expect graduates to work with AI. In Microsoft and LinkedIn’s 2024 Work Trend Index, 66 percent of business leaders said they would not hire someone without AI skills.
The rules
The AI rule in this course. Use Gemini with your Maricopa account only, never a personal account. When you need a notebook built from your own sources, use Gemini Notebook, not Gems. Gemini writes, it never designs: it helps with research, writing, feedback and planning, and every mark, layout and visual decision is yours. The one exception is the Design History project, where Gemini also builds the presentation from requirements you write, and you verify every fact in library databases. Every use goes in your AI-use log.
If you are under 18, your Maricopa Google account blocks some Gemini features (for example Deep Research and image editing). No assignment requires a blocked feature. If Gemini refuses a step, post in Discord or send a Canvas Inbox message and you will receive an alternate step that meets the same objective.
Using AI here is not cheating. Cheating is turning in work you did not do as if you did. In this course, AI use is assigned, it is disclosed in an AI-use log with every assignment, and you are graded on your own thinking: your research, your decisions and your design work. Other courses may set different rules, and those rules apply in those courses.
Your work is not used to train AI. Under the district’s Google for Education agreement, what you enter with your Maricopa account is not reviewed by people, not used to train AI models, and not used for ads. Your instructor will not put your work into any public AI tool. Do not enter personal information, such as your student ID or phone number, into any AI tool.
AI does not make your work. Gemini helps with research, writing, feedback and planning. It never designs: your marks, layouts and visual decisions are your own, and you show your process. No AI-generated images appear in your design work. In the Design History project, Gemini may also build the presentation from a requirements document you write; the historical artwork stays real and sourced, and you verify facts in library databases.
You will learn to question it. AI makes confident mistakes and reflects bias in its training data. This course teaches you to check every answer and to think critically about what AI gets wrong and what it costs.
The AI-use log
Keep one Google Sheet all term with four columns: date, tool, what you asked, what you kept or changed. When you used no AI, write “No AI used.” Submit the row (or a screenshot) with each assignment.