Literacy and Action Lab
The Challenge
Students today have access to an entire suite of AI tools to draft papers, debug code, brainstorm and complete tasks. But without institutional support, students and faculty lack the shared vocabulary needed to responsibly apply these tools in their specific disciplines. The unintended result could be a university where AI literacy develops by accident rather than by design, where the institution has no reliable way to know what its graduates actually understand about the technology shaping their fields.
UVA has chosen a different path by building a structured, evidence-producing approach grounded in a published scholarly framework and a strategic partnership between the UVA Library and the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
What the Lab Is
A joint initiative of the UVA Library and the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, the AI Literacy and Action Lab is a structured, evidence-producing program where students and faculty develop AI judgment by working on real projects in their own disciplines, supported by trained librarian facilitators and grounded in a published scholarly framework.
The Lab is intentionally framed as an action lab where people develop AI judgment by bringing work they care about to the lab and its leaders. The Lab's pilot projects use AI to advance that work and to reflect honestly on what happened, including where AI failed, introduced bias, or where human judgment was irreplaceable.
Why the Library and Arts & Sciences?
AI literacy requires an unusual combination of capabilities:
Disciplinary depth so students learn AI within real intellectual work
Interdisciplinary reach so the approach scales beyond a single school
Expertise in information evaluation and critical thinking
Infrastructure to document, publish, and share what works
No single unit at UVA offers all of these capabilities. Together, the Library and the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences provide the foundation, and the partnership is designed so additional schools can add disciplinary depth as the Lab grows.
The Library brings interdisciplinary reach, expertise in information and data literacy, source provenance and ethics, assessment infrastructure and open-access publishing capacity through LIBRAopen and the Aperio press. The College offers the full spectrum of disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences and many applied sciences, as well as the talents of its faculty and students to signal the institutional standing necessary to emphasize AI literacy as a liberal arts imperative.
What Makes this Model Different
Universities are responding to the call for AI literacy through drop-in studios, resource centers, standalone courses and research institutes. Each has value, but few combine what the Lab is designed to deliver: structured, evidence-producing AI literacy development embedded in disciplinary work.
Several design choices set the Lab apart:
A published framework
All programming is grounded in the AI Literacy Framework (Lo, 2025), identifying five interconnected competencies: technical knowledge, ethical awareness, critical thinking, practical skills, and understanding of societal impact. The framework is published, DOI-assigned, and adopted at multiple universities nationally.
Coached practice, not tool access
Librarian facilitators trained in the framework serve as coaches, helping participants notice how AI affects their thinking, not only what it produces. The Lab does not just solve an access problem; it illuminates judgment challenges.
An evidence pipeline
Every pilot produces pre/post student learning data, faculty experience reports, and a published case study. The Lab generates learning evidence that the institution can cite, not just activity metrics.
Open educational resources
Case studies, assignment templates and training materials are published as OER through the Library's infrastructure, positioning UVA as the institution others learn from.
Scalable architecture
The founding-partner model allows additional schools to join with faculty engagement and shared investment, using the framework and governance infrastructure established by the Library and College together.
Faculty pilot courses
Faculty pilot courses are the Lab's primary pathway and the focus of its first year
Faculty bring a proposed course, assignment, or research project to an intake conversation, where it is mapped against the five-domain framework. They are matched with a librarian who joins the course as a collaborative partner, complementing the faculty member's disciplinary expertise with the critical and ethical dimensions the framework emphasizes. Students produce tangible portfolio work, and faculty receive assessment data about their students' growth. Every pilot produces a published case study with faculty co-authorship, contributing to a growing national evidence base.
Where It's Headed
Community engagement projects with local organizations are scheduled to begin the summer of 2026 through a partnership with the AI4VA program, connecting student consulting teams with Virginia small businesses and nonprofits. By fall 2026, the Lab plans to expand to up to six pilot teams across multiple departments, open a dedicated space in the Library, and launch one-credit seminars connected to the Lab. Those seminars will include "Thinking in the Age of AI" and disciplinary AI literacy sections developed with Arts & Sciences faculty. Longer-term plans include expansion to additional schools, national-scale delivery through online platforms, and edited scholarly volumes.
For More Information
Leo S. Lo
University Librarian and Dean of Libraries
leolo@virginia.edu
Bill Ashby
Senior Associate Dean and Chief Operating Officer, Arts & Sciences
wla4f@virginia.edu
Mira Waller
Associate University Librarian for Research and Learning Services
mpw3v@virginia.edu