Michigan State Launches AI Essentials Course for Undergrads

Michigan State University on Monday, 5 October 2026, launched AI Essentials: What Every Spartan Should Know, a one-credit, self-paced online course that any MSU student can take to learn how to understand, evaluate and responsibly use artificial intelligence. The course runs across fifteen interactive lessons, and students who finish it earn an MSU micro-credential plus a LinkedIn digital badge. It was paid for by a faculty grant program that has funded 18 AI teaching projects worth more than $500,000.

The university announced the course in an MSUToday release, positioning it as a foundation layer for every undergraduate rather than an elective for computer science majors.

What MSU’s AI Essentials course covers

According to MSU, the course is open to all students regardless of major and is designed to be completed anytime and anywhere. Its fifteen lessons focus on three skills: understanding how AI systems work, evaluating what they produce and using them in academic work, research and the workplace. The lessons also include insights from AI leaders and industry experts.

The credential is a central part of the pitch. MSU says the micro-credential and badge give students portable evidence of foundational AI knowledge and responsible practice that they can show when applying for internships, graduate programs and jobs. That framing treats AI literacy less like a single class and more like a skill certificate that travels with a student’s profile.

Assistant Professor Mohammad Ghassemi of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering developed the course. In the release he describes AI literacy as quickly becoming a foundational skill whatever a student studies, and says the goal is to give every MSU student enough understanding of these systems to evaluate their outputs critically, recognize their limits and use them effectively and responsibly.

President Kevin M. Guskiewicz said AI presents opportunities and challenges across every discipline and nearly every workplace, and that the university wants to equip students with skills for a future-facing economy. He tied the course to the university’s Green and White Council, which named AI readiness as one of its key initiatives.

How the AI-Ready Spartans grants paid for it

The course was funded through the AI-Ready Spartans Education Innovation Grants Challenge, which MSU describes as an institutional call to action asking faculty and academic partners to design learning experiences that prepare graduates to lead in an AI-driven world. The challenge produced 18 awarded projects across 2026 and 2027, with total funding of more than $500,000.

AI-Ready Spartans is one of the council’s transformational initiatives aimed at developing talent for in-demand jobs in Michigan. MSU says it gives faculty the lead role in integrating AI across the undergraduate experience while partnering with industry leaders for employer insights, with the stated goal that every graduate has ample opportunity to learn to use AI well. The university notes that it already offers more than 30 AI-related courses and that faculty across many disciplines have taught and researched AI for years.

That structure matters. Rather than buying a vendor course or signing a campus-wide chatbot license, MSU is paying its own faculty to build curriculum, with a shared baseline course sitting underneath discipline-specific work. Other universities have taken a more partnership-led route, including when Ohio State and Google Cloud launched a campus AI fluency pact earlier this month.

Why schools are splitting on student AI use

MSU’s move lands in the middle of a sharp divide over how much access students should have to AI. In Boston, the city and Boston Public Schools launched a first cohort of 25 secondary school teachers as AI Educator Ambassadors after a summer institute in late August, part of a literacy initiative with entrepreneur Paul English and UMass Boston that English seeded with a $1 million gift, according to Boston.gov. PromptCrates covered that program when Boston launched its BPS AI Educator Ambassadors.

The two largest US districts went the other way. Speaking at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum in September, Mayor Michelle Wu said Boston would not follow peer cities such as New York and Los Angeles in pausing or restricting AI in schools, The Harvard Crimson reported, arguing instead for teaching students to use the technology responsibly. PromptCrates reported on those restrictions as NYC schools banned student AI through eighth grade and LAUSD blocked student generative AI on school devices.

Universities face a different problem from school districts. Their students are adults who already have AI tools on their phones and laptops, so blocking access is rarely realistic. The live question on campus is whether students learn to judge AI output critically or simply lean on it, and MSU’s course is built around that judgment.

What students and employers should watch next

For MSU students, the immediate decision is simple: the course costs one credit and can be done at their own pace, and the university is actively encouraging undergraduates to enroll. Enrollment details are on the course website linked from the MSU release.

The bigger test is whether the micro-credential carries weight outside East Lansing. Digital badges are only as valuable as employers believe them to be, and AI skills change quickly, so a course built this year will need regular updates to stay relevant. It will be worth watching how many students complete it, whether MSU makes it a requirement for any programs, and what the other 17 funded projects deliver inside individual disciplines.

For other universities, MSU offers a reusable model: a short, credit-bearing course that any student can take, built in-house by faculty, paired with a grant pool that pushes AI into regular courses rather than isolating it in one department. As K-12 districts split between bans and teacher training, MSU is betting that literacy, not restriction, is the right default for higher education.

• MSUToday: MSU launches AI Essentials course for undergrads
• Boston.gov: Boston and BPS launch inaugural cohort of BPS AI Educator Ambassadors
• The Harvard Crimson: Wu says Boston won’t follow New York’s lead in restricting AI in public schools
• PromptCrates: Ohio State and Google Cloud launch campus AI fluency pact
• PromptCrates: Boston launches 25 BPS AI Educator Ambassadors
• PromptCrates: NYC schools ban student AI through eighth grade
• PromptCrates: LAUSD blocks student generative AI on school devices