NMC adds first AI course, aims to lead regional training
NMC will launch its first AI course this fall, while a new strategic plan ties classroom training to workforce readiness across northwest Michigan.
Northwestern Michigan College will add its first dedicated artificial intelligence course this fall, a three-credit class with no prerequisites that puts AI literacy, ethical use and critical thinking into the curriculum for Traverse City students headed to work or transfer programs.
The new course, CIT 115: Introduction to Generative Artificial Intelligence, will cover how models learn and generate results, prompt engineering, model types, responsible use and ethical, legal and intellectual-property issues. It also prepares students for the Certiport Generative AI Foundations certification, giving the class a credential pathway as employers across northwest Michigan adjust to workplaces where AI tools are becoming routine.
Terri Gustafson, NMC’s director of academic affairs, said the college’s aim is not simply to teach students how to use AI, but to make sure they know when it is appropriate, how to judge its outputs and how to use it responsibly. The course outcomes go further, explicitly addressing hallucination, bias, privacy, intellectual property and job displacement, topics that now shape everything from office work to technical support and campus operations.
AI is also built into NMC’s long-term strategic plan, Anchor and Edge: Modernizing for what’s next. The Northwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees approved the plan on Dec. 15, 2025, and Year 1 begins July 1, 2026 and runs through June 30, 2027. Strategy 1, Future-Focused Education, is aimed at strengthening student outcomes, institutional performance and workforce readiness by embedding responsible and effective use of AI across teaching, learning and operations. Stephen Siciliano and Gustafson are named as champions of that strategy.
NMC says the planning process included outreach to stakeholder groups in October and early November, along with input from the Leadership Council, the Strategic Plan Steering Committee and two Board of Trustees study sessions. That matters in a college that sits at the center of higher education and career training in Traverse City, where families want credentials that hold value and employers want graduates who can use new tools without creating risk.
The college’s AI Working Group is meant to help faculty, staff, students and the community navigate the changing digital landscape with confidence while keeping work ethical, secure and aligned with academic standards. NMC’s AI hub also includes student guides, syllabus-statement resources, a newsletter, cybersecurity quick bytes and employee-only learning materials, signaling that the college is treating AI as a training issue as much as a policy issue.
NMC says its broader impact is to deliver education and training essential for the region and to grow through distinctive programs that help drive northern Michigan’s future. The college has said it wants to become a regional leader in AI education over the next five years, a goal that now reaches from the classroom to the local job market.
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