Communicating with Your Students About AI

Talking with and teaching your students how to interface with technology鈥�whether that鈥檚 GenAI or another form of technology鈥搃s foundational to a teaching practice that will prepare students for the literacies they will need in their future, whether inside or outside the classroom. 

This VIDEO is a part of the Tutorial that all incoming students are required to watch. We would encourage you to both VIEW this 12-min. video and SHARE with students the first week of class. We feel it will be worth a repeat viewing and offer you the opportunity to review with them your expectations in a clear and transparent way!

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Set clear expectations

The more you can set clear expectations and cultivate trust, the more likely you鈥檒l be to a clear path together through what can feel like uncharted territory. 

  • Providing students with clear zones of engagement with AI encourages them to adopt a mindset around engagement with AI that is context-dependent, teaching them that their interface with this鈥� and any鈥� technology is dynamic and requires flexibility in its appropriate use. 
  • One Faculty Perspective: : Sellers-Garc铆a, Boston College, reflects on what she learned from talking to her students about AI and rethinking some of her assignments.

Recommended Conventions

Below are some recommended visual conventions (please feel free to cut and paste into your own documents) to signal to students how and when to appropriately use generative AI in your classes, whether this is an overall disposition or you want to consider differentiating this by assessment. PLEASE consider putting something like this right on your syllabus and talk about it up front and throughout the semester or even per each assessment! . Download your own copy of the AI Visuals .

red circle that says ai-free human brains only

AI-FREE ASSIGNMENT | No AI use allowed

  • For learning to happen in this assignment, it's necessary to do your own thinking without AI assistance.
yellow circle that says ai-limited, follow guidelines. there is a lightbulb in the center of the image

AI-LIMITED ASSIGNMENT | You can use AI within Guidelines

You can use AI within the guidelines provided in the assignment. Examples include:

  • Ideation and Research (AI can be used to help generate ideas, organization and information gathering)
  • Limited Word Usage (AI language can be inserted but cited within an assignment)
green circle with text that says ai-friendly, use responsibly

AI-FRIENDLY ASSIGNMENT | Use Responsibly

You can use AI in this assignment at will, but it should be cited. See this for guidance.

Update 7/26/2024

Also, please note that 鈥渨riting assistance鈥� services like Grammarly now incorporate chatbot features that function like ChatGPT or Gemini, so please flag this for your students if you are asking them not to use generative technologies in their assessed work. Download a copy of this table .

Additional Resources

  • Ideas for Teaching with AI
  • As teachers at a Catholic university, 黑料论坛 instructors may also find helpful the careful and detailed study of artificial intelligence in today鈥檚 world () disseminated by leading scholars in the area under the auspices of the Vatican鈥檚 Dicastery for Culture and Education. Special sections on relationality, education, healthcare, the economy, and stewardship of the earth are of particular relevance. 
  • Check out this curated  on the topic of the nature and context of emerging generative technologies (like AI, machine learning, and chatbots) from 黑料论坛 Digital Scholarship Librarian Maxwell Gray and Academic Integrity Director Jacob Riyeff. The guide is designed to help students and faculty discern how they may want to use or approach generative technologies like chatbots and related machine-learning technologies in their research, teaching, and learning.

  • Check out this excellent resource from Gettysburg College:

Syllabus Language for Your Students

The use of AI in your classes (sections of the information below are taken from the University of Minnesota and provide guidance on how to communicate expectations to students):

Discussions about the use (and potential abuse) of artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT have been dominating headlines. Our entire university community is learning to adapt to this new terrain, and it can sometimes be hard to know what is or is not acceptable use. The permissibility of artificial intelligence tools will vary from course to course depending on the specific learning and assessment goals of the instructor. You may have already heard from your instructor(s) about their policy in their classes, in their assignments and on their finals. If you have not received clarification from an instructor, and if you are thinking about using ChatGPT or another AI tool for any course assignment, I encourage you to communicate with your instructor to make sure you understand what is permitted.

The following syllabus statements act as a resource for faculty and instructors, with options ranging from 鈥渘o restrictions鈥� to 鈥淐hatGPT and other AI tools may not be used under any circumstances.鈥� These statements may be adopted or adapted to reflect a given instructor's course learning objectives and instructional/assessment style.

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For instructors who wish to embrace ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence (AI) language models, such as ChatGPT, may be used for any assignment with appropriate citation. Examples of citing AI language models are available at the APA Style website [or provide an alternative reference appropriate for your class].

NOTE: You are responsible for fact checking statements composed by AI language models.

For instructors who wish to allow limited usage of ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence (AI) language models, such as ChatGPT, may be used for [assignment types A, B & C] with appropriate citation, but not for [assignment types D, E & F]. If you are in doubt as to whether you are using AI language models appropriately in this course, I encourage you to discuss your situation with me. Examples of citing AI language models are available at the APA Style website [or provide an alternative reference appropriate for your class].

NOTE: You are responsible for fact checking statements composed by AI language models.

For instructors who wish to prohibit the usage of ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence (AI) language models, such as ChatGPT, and online assignment help tools, such as Chegg庐, are examples of online learning support platforms: they cannot be used for course assignments except as explicitly authorized by the instructor. The following actions are prohibited in this course [remove bullets as necessary]:

  • Submitting all or any part of an assignment statement to an online learning support platform;
  • Incorporating any part of an AI generated response in an assignment;
  • Using AI to brainstorm, formulate arguments, or template ideas for assignments;
  • Using AI to summarize or contextualize source materials;
  • Submitting your own work for this class to an online learning support platform for iteration or improvement.

Excerpts from University of Minnesota. (2023). ChatGPT Syllabus statements.

PROHIBITING OR LIMITING AI/LLM: Talking Points

From Director of Academic Integrity, Jacob Riyeff

  1. Remember that automation bias shapes many of our behaviors and responses in the world we share. While we value the tools we use regularly, this doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean that machines and algorithms are 鈥渂etter鈥� at certain work than you are. Even in view of the 鈥減roduct鈥� of finished writing, humans are still often far superior to llm-based chatbots in specific insight, precision of response, and grounding in basic facts.
  2. I want to hear your own voice in your assigned work, because your voice is important and because I can鈥檛 help you develop and strengthen your voice unless I hear it. Using systems like Grammarly and QuillBot obscure your voice, and chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard can remove your voice completely from the process of doing assignments. Your voice is unique because you have a particular history that no one else has, so please let me hear it. Also, if you rely on automated services to 鈥渟mooth鈥� or 鈥渇ix鈥� your voice, you will only learn to rely on those services rather than learning how to express your ideas for yourself in dialogue with me and your other instructors.
  3. While the interfaces of llm-based chatbots are designed to make the responses they give look like whole new answers that have been thought out, they are not. They are statistically derived word sequences based in the intellectual work of many people who did not give their consent to have their work used in this way. This process is further supported by teams of people who continue to 鈥渇ix鈥� the algorithms to work the way the parent companies desire. In this way, massive amounts of human labor are hidden from view whenever you receive a response from a llm-based chatbot, much of it underhanded and/or exploitative. A response from a chatbot is not 鈥渘ew鈥� and 鈥渙riginal鈥� but derivative and very much 鈥渇rom a source.鈥�
  4. I know that a big part of the cultural discourse out there is that 鈥済enerative AI鈥� is inevitable and that teachers should encourage students to use it since they鈥檒l be using it all the time in the professional world. First, that鈥檚 marketing that the media has largely accepted uncritically and magnified. Second, human actions are not inevitable, but the result of responsible decisions. Marshall McLuhan said, 鈥淭here is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.鈥� And even if you will be using these systems in your professional lives, you need your own background knowledge and critical skills in order to use them properly anyhow, and that鈥檚 what I鈥檓 trying to help you develop. To use 鈥淎I鈥� responsibly, ethically, and effectively, you need to have the kinds of knowledge and skills that a university education aims to provide you.