About
Two departments decided to stop teaching this separately.
Employers on LBCC's advisory committees kept saying the same thing: they need graduates who understand AI in a business context, not one or the other. AI Innovators is the Business and Computer Information Systems departments' answer to that.
The model
A learning community is more than a shared schedule.
Co-enrolling students in two courses is the easy part. The work is in the coordination: shared assignments, a joint rubric, integration points mapped month by month, and faculty who plan together instead of teaching side by side.
Students move through the full year as one group. That continuity is the intervention. It's what turns a class into a cohort and a cohort into a network.
What we're testing
This is a pilot, and we mean it.
- Does integrated AI-and-business instruction produce stronger outcomes than teaching them apart?
- Does the cohort model improve persistence from Fall into Spring?
- Can a coordinated, cross-departmental design be documented well enough for other programs to adopt?
Findings and the curriculum framework will be published at the close of the grant year so other colleges can use them.
Who's behind it
Project team.
Project Lead
Yolanda Villacreses
Business Administration. Leads curriculum design, cohort management, and the capstone event.
AI Co-Lead
Vincent Calip
Computer Information Systems. Leads AI curriculum integration, faculty training, and program data.
Contributing Faculty
Karen Faulkner
Business Administration. Curriculum review, cohort support, and industry partnerships.
Funding
How this is paid for.
AI Innovators is supported by a 2026–27 Workforce Education grant from the California Community Colleges Strong Workforce Program, administered through LBCC's Workforce Education office.
Grant funds cover curriculum development, faculty professional development, instructional materials and equipment, certification exam vouchers, and capstone event operations. They do not fund payments to students.
Your information
What we do with what you submit.
Forms on this site collect contact details so project staff can follow up about enrollment, information sessions, and events. We use that information for this program only.
- We don't sell or share your information with outside organizations.
- We don't ask for your Social Security number or financial information — ever, on any form here.
- Program outcomes are reported to the grant funder in aggregate. Individual students are never named.
- Ask us to remove your information at any time and we will.
Form responses are stored in an LBCC-managed account and follow LBCC's student records practices.
Questions we haven't answered?
Email a project lead directly. A real person replies.
