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Posted on March 20, 2026
Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer on the horizon for UNC Greensboro’s School of Nursing. It is already woven into the fabric of how the school teaches, trains, and prepares the next generation of nurses.
AI tools enhance instructional design, accelerate content development, improve faculty efficiency, and deepen student engagement.
Tommy Mann is one of the School of Nursing’s AI Champions, a formal group of Dean-appointed faculty and staff dedicated to integrating AI into the teaching of nursing. Mann serves as assistant professor and director of the Simulation Center for Experiential Nursing Education (SCENE), a state-of-the-art facility offering hands-on experiences that bridge theory and practice.
Dean Debra Barksdale knows the School of Nursing (SON) needs to be on the “bleeding edge” of AI — and therefore drives her faculty and the AI Champions to achieve this goal.
A self-proclaimed “technology enthusiast,” Mann recognized early that AI was advancing rapidly and believed it could do so much for academia, particularly within curriculum and simulation development.
“This is a large passion of mine,” he says. “We continually seek to understand what’s new in AI and how we can use it, to question whether it has value, and to consider how it fits in our workflow.”
From talking with Mann, it appears AI is all about new ways of thinking, recognizing that the way something has always been done is not necessarily the best way to do it now.
The SON AI Champions use AI in curriculum development, Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) creation, and content generation. In fact, 70% of SON faculty are actively using AI in some fashion.
“By using AI, faculty can engage different student learning styles simultaneously in one classroom,” says Mann, “thus meeting students where they are and enhancing student engagement with the content.”
There is a common assumption that today’s college students, because of their age and generational fluency with technology, are natural AI users. Mann pushes back on that.
“Once they get in the classroom, students are not using AI as much as people believe,” he says.
But Mann knows they could use it to improve their academic performance.
For example, if a student’s schedule demands they need to listen to class material to study, they can use NotebookLM to convert a PowerPoint into a podcast, producing content in a way that meets their needs.
Therefore, the SON is working to support faculty in becoming AI leaders, so they can educate students on helpful AI platforms — pointing them in the right direction and demonstrating effective usage.
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The four-person simulation team, consisting of Merry Prior, Brittany Norman, Derrick Owsley, and Mann, conduct ongoing research to identify the latest generative AI models that meet the Simulation Center’s and faculty’s needs.
Each team member uses AI differently, pulling from resources from the International Nursing Association of Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) and the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), both organizations increasingly focused on AI’s role in simulation.
The team deliberately seeks free, easy-to-use platforms for faculty use, prioritizing tools that lower barriers rather than create them.
Mann provides one example scenario for content generation: A faculty member could use Microsoft Copilot to develop a video script based on research or lecture notes. Then, they could use the video production platform HeyGen to create a video for students.
All of this SON faculty AI training directly benefits nursing students, according to Mann.
“The more we train and integrate AI within the faculty community, the better prepared they are to deliver that content to the students,” he says.
Mann’s team hosts faculty AI training and discovery sessions to better understand the ways faculty experience AI use in the classroom.
The session curriculum explores questions like: How are faculty using AI? What was the outcome for the faculty member? For the students? Was using AI less or more work for the faculty member? Understanding what is working and what is not shapes the team’s next steps.
AI Integration in Simulation-Based Education
ChatGPT serves as the core engine for simulation development.
Claude supports long-form scenario branching, multi-patient logic, faculty guides, manuals, and extended narratives.
Improving Student Learning Materials
NotebookLM creates podcasts, flashcards, infographics, mind maps, and video overviews.
Canva generates visually professional infographics, clinical guides, student handouts, and simulation prebrief slide decks.
Faculty Support and Workflow Efficiency
ChatGPT drafts prebriefing language aligned with psychological safety guidelines.
Claude reorganizes large curriculum documents, strengthens their structure, and supports the creation of policies and manuals.
Copy.ai helps craft student announcements, reminders, and supportive messaging.
NotebookLM summarizes long reference materials, clinical guidelines, and simulation documents into quick-reference formats for faculty use.
AI is not going away, and academia cannot afford to ignore it, Mann says. UNCG’s School of Nursing is leading the way.
This work aligns with a growing national consensus: The National League for Nursing, the American Nurses Association, and the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) recently issued formal statements calling on nursing programs to integrate AI literacy into education and practice.
The AAN “supports the responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a transformative force in health care…,” states AAN. “The rapid and expansive growth in AI technology presents a remarkable opportunity for advancing innovations in person-centered care and health care delivery.”
The school will continue educating its faculty on what AI platforms students can use, how to use them ethically and effectively, and how AI helps students grow and succeed in the classroom.
“The integration of AI across simulation, skills labs, and didactic courses has significantly strengthened our ability to deliver innovative, efficient, and student-centered nursing education at UNCG,” says Mann.
Written by Amy Burtch, AMBCopy
Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications
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