LOGAN, Utah — The College of Arts & Sciences at USU is adapting to the rapidly changing technological landscape with an innovative course that brings artificial intelligence into the social sciences classroom. The course, Sociology of Artificial Intelligence (SOC 4800), equips students with practical AI skills while encouraging critical thinking about the technology’s broader societal impacts, a combination designed to prepare graduates for careers, internships and graduate school in an AI-driven world.
The class is taught by Zubair Barkat, a doctoral candidate in sociology, teaches the class. His research focuses on leveraging AI for social science research, and his dissertation explores how structured collaboration between AI and human experts can enhance scenario planning for the future of U.S. rangelands.
Barkat designed the course to bridge a gap he experienced as a graduate student trying to learn AI methods independently.
“The idea of this course is twofold,” Barkat said. “One is to explore the sociological theory around AI and give them hands-on training about AI tools. I teach at least 10 large language models so that they know where to look for AI information and how to utilize them. We are doing this course in a boot camp style format where students actually practice it in the class.”
Collaboration and experimentation plays a large role in the course. Students work together in real time, testing prompts, comparing results across different AI models and sharing strategies.
“In the classroom, students take turns solving problems because everyone approaches them in a unique way. There is no fixed recipe,” Barkat said. “You learn from your classmates and from the instructor. Everyone is learning from everyone.”
Beyond technical skills, the curriculum also addresses ethical and social questions surrounding AI. Students learn prompt design, research brainstorming, qualitative data coding and best practices for addressing bias, privacy and transparency, while also examining how artificial intelligence influences employment, climate discussions and public perception.
Barkat believes the timing of the course is critical.
“AI will change the way we learn, doing research or teaching,” he said. “Students taking the class right now or who will take this class in coming months will be ahead of their peers and feel better prepared for graduate school, for jobs, for internships. Through AI teaching, research and continuing education projects, I aim to enhance AI literacy at USU, benefiting students, faculty, staff and community members. This initiative aligns with USU’s land-grant mission to translate knowledge into public benefit.”
Students from a range of majors, including technical communication, dietetics, and design, are currently enrolled, reflecting the relevance of AI across disciplines.
Liv Colton, a senior majoring in technical communication and rhetoric, said the course has already made a difference in her professional work.
“I work at the Digital Accessibility Services Center, and we use AI daily to help us write code, edit code, read documents and help us edit documents,” Colton said, “and I’ve gotten a lot better at prompting the AI to do what I want it to do. I get my work done a lot faster, and I’ve become a lot bigger asset to the team because of this.”
Colton added that AI literacy is quickly becoming a universal career skill.
“I’ll have to use it no matter what job I get into, and knowing how to use it and putting that on my resume is going to make me a valuable asset to almost any team because it’s integrating itself into every single part of our lives,” she said.
The class has helped Clarissa Richins, a senior dietetics major, connect AI tools directly to her future profession.
“Career wise, I’ve used AI a little bit, but there’s so much more potential, and if I want to be the most effective, I need to know how to use it,” Richins said. “With dietetics, ChatGPT has helped me to craft culinary lesson plans and come up with meal ideas based on the foods my students like for them to learn how to cook. And there’s many more uses for AI that I haven’t yet discovered for my field, and this class is helping me realize them.”
As industries implement AI into standard practices, courses like this emphasize USU’s commitment to preparing students to grow with technological change and become innovators in their fields.
For more information about courses offered within ArtSci, visit the website.
