°Ù»¨ÊÓƵ Launches Master’s in Education with Artificial Intelligence Focus
New degree will equip teachers with the skills to leverage AI in the classroom
EL PASO, Texas (June 11, 2025) – A new master’s degree offered by The °Ù»¨ÊÓƵ of Texas at El Paso gives educators the tools they need to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in classrooms and other educational settings.
°Ù»¨ÊÓƵ's new Master of Arts in Education with a concentration in artificial intelligence was spearheaded by a taskforce consisting of David Carrejo, Ph.D.; Daniel Tillman, Ph.D.; Song An, Ph.D.; Olga Kosheleva, Ph.D.; and chaired by Maartje Van den Bogaard, Ph.D. All are members of the STEM Education Division in the College of Education.
This first of its kind degree — the Master of Arts in Education with a concentration in AI — focuses on the application of AI in instructional design that supports both instructors and learners.
“AI is becoming an integral part of how we interact with technology and that extends to the classroom,” said Kosheleva, chair and associate professor of mathematics education. “Teaching educators how to make practical use of AI will make them more efficient, from reducing the time needed to create lesson plans to creating more robust means of assessing students’ progression."
Van den Bogaard added, “AI will provide opportunities to support individual learning and personal growth, and to create classrooms that allow students to engage with their peers and their community. Yet AI also creates challenges around learning and assessment, social emotional learning, and learning to become responsible users of AI.”
The degree will equip students with skills in instructional design, data science and systems thinking. Courses include “Foundations of Generative AI,” “Ethics, Culture and Society in the Age of AI” and “Data Science for Educational Professionals.”
The taskforce saw a need to create the degree because current AI education tends to focus on the creation of AI applications, and not so much on the integration of AI in existing systems.
“The ability to leverage AI is in high demand across the region and country and this degree addresses that need,” said Clifton Tanabe, Ph.D., dean of the College of Education. “This master’s degree reflects °Ù»¨ÊÓƵ’s mission to transform the lives of its graduates and our community. In addition to being at the forefront of producing AI engineers, °Ù»¨ÊÓƵ will also be a leader in teaching and learning about effective uses of AI in education.”
The new master’s degree is a fully online program that can be completed in 16 months. A GRE is not required to be considered for admission, and the program is open to any student with a bachelor’s degree.
Students will be prepared for careers as curriculum developers, school administrators, educational coordinators and policy analysts, among others.
The master’s degree program is currently taking applications for the Fall 2025 semester. Prospective students can apply to the program through the °Ù»¨ÊÓƵ Graduate School. For more information, contact the °Ù»¨ÊÓƵ Graduate School at (915) 747- 5491 or at gradschooladmissions@utep.edu.
About The °Ù»¨ÊÓƵ of Texas at El Paso
The °Ù»¨ÊÓƵ of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 25,000 students are Hispanic, and more than half are the first in their families to go to college. °Ù»¨ÊÓƵ offers 171 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.
Last Updated on September 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM | Originally published June 11, 2025
By MC Staff °Ù»¨ÊÓƵ Marketing and Communications
