Moravian University is piloting a new artificial intelligence program called BoodleBox in President Bryon Grigsby’s English course, Black Death & Other Pandemics (ENGL 395), as part of an effort to provide students with equitable, structured access to AI tools while studying the cultural and historical effects of pandemics.
The platform, designed specifically for educational use, enables faculty members to monitor how students are engaging with generative AI in their coursework and helps ensure that it be use responsibly. According to Grigsby, the pilot has already led to “sophisticated work and reflection” from students who are learning to use AI as a “co-pilot” in their research and writing.
“It provides tutoring services, responds to writing,” he said. “I’m amazed at the level of sophistication and reflection that students are doing.”
BoodleBox integrates several AI models, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and LLaMA, into one secure, campus-licensed system. It gives students and faculty access to multiple tools without their needing to subscribe to each of them.
Grigsby said that one major advantage of the BoodleBox platform at Moravian is that it “levels the playing field” for students who cannot afford premium AI features.
In the age of AI, providing access to Boodlebox is another step towards the university’s goal of providing all students with access to technology in higher education, including Apple MacBooks, iPads, Apple Watches, Adobe Suite, and other resources.
“Some students can’t afford it, so it provides them with the technology to use,” Grigsby said. “There’s no downside; it gives access to almost every platform out there and helps them get comfortable with whichever one they will use in their career.”
The platform also offers data privacy, FERPA compliance, and the ability for faculty to create custom chatbots for specific courses. One such chatbot, “The Contagion Lens,” was built by Jenifer Norton, well-being psychology program director and assistant professor of practice at Moravian, exclusively for the Black Death & Other Pandemics course to help students use AI to explore historical topics.
The idea to bring BoodleBox to campus began when Grigsby attended the ASU+JSV technology conference in San Diego this summer, where representatives from the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), of which Moravian is a member, introduced the tool. Within a week, CIC signed a partnership with BoodleBox, opening access to member schools, including Moravian.
Back on campus, Grigsby enlisted Norton to help design the course and oversee the pilot. Norton said the decision to use BoodleBox came down to safety, access, and educational value.
“I like the model and the fact that it’s a safer space [than open-source AI],” Norton said. “It’s not pro [features], but it’s good enough because it has so many different tools.”
She added that finalizing the pilot was “a scramble at the end” before the semester began, but that the system has helped both students and faculty navigate a fast-changing AI landscape.
Through feedback surveys, Norton found that student reactions have been mixed. Some are excited to use AI, while others fear they will over-rely on it.
“There’s resistance and uncertainty,” Norton said. “We have such a mix of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds; some can pay for advanced AI models and others can’t. That disparity shows up in how comfortable they are using these tools.”
BoodleBox’s advantages include its controlled learning environment, data protection, and the ability for faculty to monitor student activity. However, Norton noted that it still shares the same limitations common to all large language models, including hallucinations and context window issues, where AI forgets earlier parts of a conversation or confidently generates false information.
“It’ll start running out of room,” Norton explained. “You can’t just put in a prompt once; you have to follow up and feed it more context to get better answers.”
Despite these challenges, Norton and Grigsby agree that BoodleBox provides students with valuable exposure to AI in a responsible manner.
Moravian’s pilot is part of a growing trend in higher education, with more than 900 colleges and universities now using BoodleBox under the CIC partnership. A full rollout for Moravian students is expected in Spring 2026, according to administrators.
