Crafting Policy for Student Use of Artificial Intelligence

Human holding technical-looking graphics and the letters "AI" in hands

This document provides guidance on writing policy language to share with your students to inform them how they are and are not allowed to make use of AI tools for completing work in your course. 

The pages below begin with guidance and suggestions in regular type, followed (where relevant) by proposed text (italicized in front of light taupe background) which you may want to copy/paste and use as a basis for your own statement. 

University Policies 

We recommend that you begin by informing students about the Committee on Academic Misconduct's policies about AI use. 

The OSU Committee on Academic Misconduct has provided the following  policy on the use of AI by students in academic courses: 

"All students have important obligations under the Code of Student Conduct to complete all academic and scholarly activities with fairness and honesty. Our professional students also have the responsibility to uphold the professional and ethical standards found in their respective academic honor codes. Specifically, students are not to use “unauthorized assistance in the laboratory, on field work, in scholarship or on a course assignment” unless such assistance has been authorized specifically by the course instructor. In addition, students are not to submit their work without acknowledging any word-for-word use and/or paraphrasing” of writing, ideas or other work that is not your own. These requirements apply to all students — undergraduate, graduate, and professional. 

"To maintain a culture of integrity and respect, these generative AI tools should not be used in the completion of course assignments unless an instructor for a given course specifically authorizes their use. Some instructors may approve of using generative AI tools in the academic setting for specific goals. However, these tools should be used only with the explicit and clear permission of each individual instructor, and then only in the ways allowed by the instructor." 

In accordance with this policy, in our course we will use (and not use) AI in the following ways. If you are not sure if a tool you wish to use is permitted for our course or you wish to use a tool for specific purpose you think does not violate the principles articulated here, please contact me to discuss it first.

Course-level Prohibition of Student Use of AI 

If students may not make any use of AI in your course, we recommend a statement along the following lines:

Because you will best accomplish the goals of this course by undertaking all activities and assessments without AI assistance, you are not permitted to use any AI tools in this course. If you are uncertain about any part of this policy or its application to any assignment or activity in the course, consult with me before proceeding. 

Some of the tools and uses that are most likely to be an issue in this course, and which you should especially avoid include: 

  • [Tools] 
  • [Features] 
  • [Activities/Assignments] 

Course-level Permission for Student Use of AI 

If you want to permit students to use AI, it is important to provide clear and precise parameters about the kind of use you will permit, in order to avoid misunderstandings. This may vary by assignment and activity, and type of AI tool. (Note: for this step, the TILT framework for assignment design is helpful; focus on the Purpose and Task of the assignment, as well as the Criteria you will use to assess student work.)

When detailing for students when AI use is appropriate, we recommend that you address the following questions: 

  1. Which tools or types of tools? 
  2. Which features of those tools? 
  3. What assignments and activities? 
  4. In what specific ways can they use AI for those assignments and activities? 
  5. Are any features, assignments, or activities specifically off-limits for use in your course? 

Once you have determined the kind(s) of use students may make of AI in your course, compose your policy into a clear guidance statement for students. For a specific application of a given tool, we would recommend something like: 

As an exception to the default prohibition on using AI tools for this course, 

You may use [which tool(s) or types of tools]: 

  • [category+ examples + links when appropriate] 
  • For the following assignments and activities and in the following ways: 
    • [list individually or by group] 
      • [clarify permitted uses] 
  • However, uses like the following are still not allowed: 
    • [clarify improper uses when you worry they will be common] 

Additional Considerations

The definition of Artificial Intelligence, especially as a practical matter, continues to evolve as advances in the basic technologies of machine learning and analysis advance. At present, AI refers to computational equipment that uses iterative statistical algorithms and recursive comparison to accelerate and automate the production of inferences and predictions. 

AI is software that analyzes large sets of data to abstract general rules about the kinds of objects included in those datasets, generally by producing novel objects according to those rules. 

Student on Laptop

The potential ways that AI tools might be used to conduct academic activities remains an emergent list and a topic of intense discussion. For purposes of considering ways that students might use AI tools in your course, the following list covers most of the most common uses to which these platforms are currently applied: 

  • Text-creation 
  • Image-creation 
  • Translation 
  • Summary and Explication 
  • Brainstorming and Planning 
  • Substantive Feedback 
  • Editing and Proofreading 

Grammar checks, plagiarism checks, citation generation, text and image generation, essay writing, academic assistance/consulting “bots”, text auto-paraphrasing and summarizing are all commonly sought features of AI tools in academic contexts. Students have grown accustomed to using many of these to complete their coursework, so while they are all prohibited by COAM by default, it will be helpful for you to try to anticipate and articulate their appropriate and inappropriate uses in your specific context. Please keep in mind as well that use of these tools can unfairly advantage users who can access these tools more easily than others. 

For a more detailed explanation of AI, its intersections with learning, and ideas for ways students might make use of available tools, see the Teaching and Learning Resource Center article AI: Considerations for Teaching and Learning https://teaching.resources.osu.edu/teaching-topics/ai-considerations-teaching-learning 

Examples

Because the core goal of this course is to strengthen your ability to imagine and articulate creative ideas and stories, the use of AI beyond basic internet search functions like Google and Bing at any stage of the ideation or composition process are not permitted. For example, you may not use generative AI composition tools like ChatGPT, nor should you use tools like Google Translate or Grammarly to assist you with your writing. If you are uncertain about any part of this policy or its application to any assignment or activity in the course, or you have an idea for a creative use for AI tools to complete your assignments, consult with me before proceeding. 

The goal of these discussions is to generate personal, original insights about our texts through interaction in our unique learning community. For this reason, use of generative AI composition tools like ChatGPT and Bard is not permitted to complete these assignments. However, since we are not focused directly on your writing ability in these posts, please feel free to use the help of grammar checkers and translation tools, with the understanding that they are fallible and that all errors leading to misunderstandings or lack of clarity in your writing is your responsibility. 

You may also make use of citation generators like EasyBib and Zotero to help you maintain your research records and cite sources for all assignments in this course. 

A core goal of this course is for students to gain the ability to solve mathematical problems independently. However, the process of gaining independence can be improved by judicious use of AI for initial comprehension and for practice. Thus, it is permitted to make limited use of AI to further your math skills, but you may not use AI for any purpose in timed examinations. All inaccuracies generated by these tools are your responsibility to recognize and correct.

  • You may use [which tool(s)]: 
    • ChatGPT and similar tools
  • For the following assignments and activities: 
    • Comprehending course materials and concepts, including texts and lectures 
    • Solving problem sets 
    • Generating practice tests
  • In the following ways: 
    • To help you comprehend course materials, you may use ChatGPT to seek alternative explanations of concepts presented in the textbook or in class (i.e. you may use paraphrase prompts to generate explanations of key concepts)
    • When solving problem sets, you may use ChatGPT to seek hints and guidance about how to solve a particular problem but the overall solution presented must be yours
    • You may ask the tool to generate additional problem sets for you to practice solving
  • However, the following uses are still not allowed: 
    • You may not use any AI-assisted tool in any way during timed assessments, including both quizzes and exams. 

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