This week, the Butler County Community College debuted a new version of an English course focusing on the ethics of artificial intelligence-powered text generators.

As the new school year begins, the local community college also added a virtual option to its medical coding and billing specialist certificate program and introduced the first of two successive workplace certificate programs intended to help manufacturing employees develop skills for advanced positions in operating, testing and maintaining electromechanical or robotic equipment.

The changes are in line with what area employers look for, one professor said.

“This is not going to go away,” said Mike Dittman, a professor in BC3’s liberal arts division about AI. “This is something that employers ask for.”

BC3’s English 101 college writing course stresses the writing process of planning, organizing, drafting and editing essays. Ten classes in the course are being offered on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township, including one initiated by a professor and author designed to sharpen students’ skills and deepen their understanding of AI’s ethical dimensions.

AI-powered text generators can be prompted to write in styles ranging from Ernest Hemingway’s short, direct sentences to William Faulkner’s long, sparsely punctuated paragraphs and in numerous industry-related applications in between.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT was released in November 2022 and Google Gemini in February.

ChatGPT is being used to create automated responses in customer service and intelligent tutoring systems in higher education, to write video-game story lines and movie scripts in entertainment and to analyze and interpret medical literature in health care, according to a 2023 report in Forbes.

“And that is why I wanted to jump on it and get a start immediately, to be proactive rather than reactive,” Dittman said.

Dittman is the author of “Who Holds the Devil,” “Jack Kerouac: A Biography,” “Masterpieces of the Beat Generation” and “Small Brutal Incidents.”

Objectives of his course include a student being able to analyze and write a literary essay on a piece of literature integrating AI themes; to draft and format professional business letters addressing AI concerns; and to create nonprint or digital media documents exploring ethical issues in AI.

“Our whole division has had several discussions about how to deal with AI in instruction,” Steve Joseph, dean of BC3’s liberal arts division, said. “Mike has been a proponent for incorporating it directly into instruction.”

Among discussions with students in his course will be how they will apply AI ethically, Dittman said.

“The most obvious thing is that you are not going to ask it to write your essay for you,” Dittman said. “It’s not your work if it does that. There is a question about how much is too much AI, and there is not really an answer to that. Different disciplines are going to have different approaches and answers to that.”

All students pursuing an associate degree at BC3 are required to take college writing, Joseph said.

“There will be students of all different programs in this class,” Dittman said. “We will discuss the ethical foundations of AI in a student’s field, ask students whether they understand those principles and how they can make AI work best for them while still preserving their voice and their ideas.”

BC3’s virtual medical coding and billing specialist certificate program brings the number of virtual credit programs established for students in the past year to 14.

The position is considered a high-priority occupation in Western Pennsylvania, according to the state Department of Labor & Industries’ Center for Workforce Information & Analysis.

Pennsylvania trails only California, Texas and Florida in employing the highest number of medical records specialists in the United States, according to the bureau. The job is projected to see an 8% increase in openings in the next eight years.

Among BC3’s certificate or workplace certificate programs, the program had the highest number of graduates in the college’s Class of 2024 and enrolls the most students this fall, according to BC3 administrators.

Medical records specialists compile, process and maintain patient files, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. They also may classify and enter patients’ medical information into the health care industry’s numerical coding system, according to the bureau.

BC3’s 32-credit medical coding and billing specialist program within the college’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health prepares students to take professional licensure or certification examinations.

The college launched a virtual option to 13 associate degree, certificate or workplace certificate programs in fall 2023.

Each of BC3’s 14 virtual programs has an in-person counterpart. Nearly a quarter of students this fall in those programs have selected the virtual format.

Medical coding and billing specialist is a program popular with students who want to work from home, said Ann McCandless, dean of BC3’s educational technology division.

“The virtual programs appeal to students who may have busy lives, or who have other commitments and the standard class times or on-campus requirement may not work for them,” McCandless said. “Our virtual programs give them flexibility in when and how they study.”

Additionally, the college’s new workplace certificate programs in mechatronics will be instructed in person on the college’s main campus and introduce students to a technology that combines electronics and mechanical engineering.

In July, the manufacturing field employed the second-highest number of workers in Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties, and the third-most in Armstrong County, according to the state Department of Labor & Industries’ Center for Workforce Information & Analysis.

“Manufacturers would definitely benefit from having employees who have the skill sets these programs provide,” said Matt Kovac, dean of BC3’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics division.

The college’s 16-credit mechatronics I program addresses industrial mechanics, fundamental electronics, manufacturing processes and materials, and automation and robotics technical skills. The 15-credit mechatronics II includes instruction about electromechanical, digital and industrial electronics.

Sam McCrea, of Butler, is employed as an operator 2 at Bayer in Saxonburg, and is among the company’s employees enrolled in BC3’s mechatronics I program.

“This will help to further my career opportunities,” McCrea said. “You can’t really learn all this on the job. It is nice to be able to sit in a classroom, which is a good environment to absorb the information that I really need to know to do the things I’m doing at work and will be doing in the future.”