AI & the Academy

Academic departments are to use the below principles and questions to create their own generative AI academic integrity practices that adhere to the following guidance.

1. Tools to detect the use of generative AI are currently primitive, and they have shown a high false-positive rate. AI detection tools alone should not be used as dispositive evidence of academic dishonesty. 
2. AI academic integrity practices should be made at the highest level practicable for the department. If department-wide practices are not possible, they may be made at the prefix/program level. Practices may not be made at the course level.
3. Departments will create standard syllabus language defining their AI practices for students that will be included on all department syllabi. Faculty and instructors will also discuss these expectations with students within the first week of each semester.
4. Due to the rapidly increasing sophistication of generative AI tools, departments will revisit and revise their practices annually to ensure currency and relevance.
5. Departments/programs may determine whether to require usage of generative AI tools in coursework if doing so is relevant to the field of study (e.g. Computer Science).

Usage of generative AI should be considered within the bounds of academic integrity if such usage adheres to the following principles.

1. Usage/application of the tool does not interfere with student achievement of the learning outcomes for the department/prefix/program.
2. Usage/application of the tool potentially enriches or enhances the student educational experience without violating principle one. Constructive uses of generative AI may include brainstorming, refining the learning processes, and editing for succinctness.
3. Usage/application of the tools aligns with the above principles, is acknowledged by the student, and is accurately documented as appropriate (e.g. follows APA guidelines for documentation of generative AI sources).
4. Tools are employed in a manner that is consistent with the professional practices within the field of study.

Departments may use the following guiding questions for discussion as they develop their practices.

1. Are there any uses of generative AI that should be universally permitted or universally forbidden for students working in your field(s) of study?
2. Is your proposed policy consistent with CCA’s existing academic integrity policy and its commitment to education and restoration rather than punishment?
3. How do you envision AI complementing or enhancing the work of students in your department?
4. How can members of your department teach students about the ethical use of generative AI? How and to what extent can assignments in your discipline(s) be structured to teach students to use generative AI ethically?
5. For which types of assignments or parts of assignments will students find generative AI most helpful? Is it possible to design these assessments to incorporate thoughtful, reflective use of AI? Discussions can also include how to preemptively design assessments that do not facilitate the unethical or forbidden use of AI.
6. Is generative AI used by professionals in or adjacent to your discipline? Is there any way to model this use in the classroom while maintaining high academic standards?
7. A practice is useless if it cannot be enforced. How will your faculty and instructors identify and enforce student compliance with the practice that you craft? How will your department ensure that faculty and instructors are applying the practice and enforcing it appropriately?
8. What training and resources do you believe would be most beneficial for faculty and staff in your department to teach students to use generative AI effectively?

SP 2-60a - Artificial Intelligence - Colorado Community College System / System Procedure

Start on day 1. Highlight the AI policy in the syllabus along with the academic integrity policy. Clarify the relationship between the two.

Ask students to discuss any prior use of AI. Do they know how to use the tools you want them to use?

Discuss the goals of AI use. Do students need to know how to use it in their future or current careers?

Have conversations about the benefits & limitations of AI.

AI Conversation Starters

• Reflect on prior AI experience or knowledge. What have students learned about AI?
• Discuss goals for AI use. What do you want students to learn from the tools?
• Share examples of AI use in the field. How can students apply AI tools in their careers?
• Discuss concerns around AI, What do students need to be aware of as they use these tools?
• Brainstorm assignment ideas, ways to use AI in coursework. What ideas can students share with you? How have they used AI in coursework before?
• Facilitate post-assignment reflections. What do students learn from using AI in their assignments?

*inspired by "AI Teaching Strategies: Having Conversations with Students" from The Ohio State University Teaching & Learning Resource Center

If you expect students to use AI, show them how you want them to engage with it. Demonstrate the tools to them. Discuss ways you use AI in your personal or professional life.

Be transparent about your own use of AI. Cite tools you use and share the prompts you use. Help students craft prompts that will get them the results they want.

Model critical thinking and evaluating the output of AI tools. Demonstrate questioning the information AI gives you, where it comes from, and sources it may provide.

What would you do if...

• A student uses AI to generate misleading information or altered content that they then share with classmates, intending to cause them to fail an assignment.

• A student uses an AI tool to analyze their peers and decides to exclude certain individuals from a group project based on biased predictions about their abilities.

• In a research project, a student uses AI to create false data that, when combined with real data, support their hypothesis, presenting the fabricated data as real.

• A student inputs their lecture notes into an AI tool to generate concise study guides. The guides help them study efficiently, but they didn’t create them entirely on their own.

• A student uses AI translation tools to complete a foreign language assignment. They understand the general meaning but rely on AI for accuracy.

• A student uses an AI tool to help rephrase sentences and improve grammar in their essay. While they still wrote the original content, the AI significantly enhances the final product.

• A student uses an AI tool to generate summaries of academic articles for a literature review. They read the summaries but not the full articles.

• A student uses AI to create a piece of digital art for an assignment. While they selected the parameters and provided some creative input, the final artwork is mostly AI-generated.

• A student uses an AI tool to help debug and optimize their code for a computer science project. The AI suggests improvements that the student implements.

• A student uses AI to analyze past exams and predict which questions might appear on the upcoming test. They focus their studying on those predicted topics.

• A student uses an AI tool to help them generate constructive feedback for a peer review assignment. While the AI enhances their feedback, it raises the question of whether the feedback is genuinely their own.

• A student uses an AI tool to create a personalized study schedule based on their habits and strengths. The AI guides their study sessions, but the student follows the plan without critically engaging with their own learning process.

• A student uses an AI tool to brainstorm ideas for a creative writing assignment. The AI suggests plot twists and character developments that the student wouldn’t have considered on their own.

*these scenarios were created with the assistance of ChatGPT 4o. The prompts were "Write 10 scenarios that demonstrate potentially unethical uses of AI by students" and "Write 10 more scenarios, but make them more ethically ambiguous."

Elements of AI: Introduction to AI by University of Helsinki & Reaktor. A free online course with 6 chapters.

Introduction to Generative AI by Google. A free online course with 5 modules.

AI for Everyone by Andrew Ng of DeepLearning.AI. Free to audit without certificate, with 4 modules.

Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals by IBM. Free online course with digital badge.

Generative AI for Educators by Google. Free online course.

AI Foundations for Educators by Common Sense Education. Free online course, sign-up required.

AI 101 for Teachers by Code.org, Educational Testing Services, International Society for Technology in Education, & Khan Academy. Free series of videos.

Introduction to AI for Teachers and Students by Wharton School. Free series of videos.

Empower Educators to Explore the Potential of Artificial Intelligence by Microsoft. Free online module.

2024 AI Literacy Canvas Module by the Center for Teaching Excellent and Innovation at Rush University, CC BY-NC-SA. Link directs to Google Form for requesting access. Free Canvas Module.