Setting Expectations in Your Classes
It is essential to be transparent with students when it comes to using AI, including when the educator is using generative AI to draft educational materials. Faculty should choose carefully the extent to which they adopt AI in the coming year. Several institutions of higher education have developed policy statements. Faculty who are interested in suggestions for theirs can check the AI Policy Suggestions section in Chapter 2 of this Guide.
Setting clear guidelines will be essential to maintaining a fair and constructive learning environment. When faculty clearly define their expectations (at the beginning of the semester and as it progresses) students will begin to understand how to use AI tools responsibly, ethically, and appropriately. We should continually emphasize the value of critical thinking – to encourage our students to use AI as a resource instead of as a substitute for independent thought.
A syllabus statement can be as broad or specific as you wish. This statement provided by Shyam Sharma (SUNY Stony Brook) discusses the goals of using AI in the course, standards of academic integrity, the acceptable uses of AI, and how it should be cited:
Representing work generated by artificial intelligence as one’s own work is academically dishonest. This class uses AI tools to reinforce your learning, using this approach:
- Learn to use AI tools skillfully, as benefit increases with user skills;
- Cross-check AI tools responses, even factual, against authentic sources, evaluating them carefully;
- Cite all instances of words / ideas borrowed from AI tools using the MLA style;
- For purposes beyond the cited text / ideas, indicate what AI tools you used and how in an endnote;
- Don’t use AI tools when not appropriate such as for logical or ethical reasons.
