Setting Expectations and AI Policy
Decide how you want to treat the potential use of AI in your courses, and let your students know about it in the syllabus and on the first day of class. Outlining your expectations and your reasons for them will help your students understand why you have designed your course and its assessments in the manner that you have. Don’t assume that your students’ prior experiences will align with your expectations. Students will come to your class with experiences that range from “anything goes” to highly secure, proctored examinations.
One great resource that we can recommend is the AI Assessment Scale by Leon Furze et al. This diagram provides educators with guidance on the degree of AI integration they might want to consider for their courses. Reviewing the scale should give you a better sense for what’s possible with AI and help you adjust your expectations accordingly.
| NUMBER | LEVEL OF AI USAGE | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
1 | NO AI | The assessment is completed entirely without AI assistance in a controlled environment, ensuring that students rely solely on their existing knowledge, understanding, and skills You must not use AI at any point during the assessment. You must demonstrate your core skills and knowledge. |
2 | AI PLANNING | AI may be used for pre-task activities such as brainstorming, outlining, and initial research. This level focuses on the effective use of AI for planning, synthesis, and ideation, but assessments should emphasize the ability to develop and refine these ideas independently. You may use AI for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas. |
3 | AI COLLABORATION | AI may be used to help complete the task, including idea generation, drafting, feedback, and refinement. Students should critically evaluate and modify the AI suggested outputs, demonstrating their understanding. You may use AI to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any AI-generated content you use. |
4 | FULL AI | AI may be used to complete any elements of the task, with students directing AI to achieve the assessment goals. Assessments at this level may also require engagement with AI to achieve goals and solve problems. You may use AI extensively throughout your work either as you wish, or as specifically directed in your assessment. Focus on directing AI to achieve your goals while demonstrating your critical thinking. |
5 | AI EXPLORATION | AI is used creatively to enhance problem-solving, generate novel insights, or develop innovative solutions to solve problems. Students and educators co-design assessments to explore unique AI applications within the field of study. You should use AI creatively to solve the task, potentially co-designing new approaches with your instructor. |
Adapted from Perkins, Furze, Roe & MacVaugh (2024). This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Suggested Syllabus Language
The Center for Teaching & Assessment at the University of Delaware and the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) at Florida International University have outlined four general approaches to creating an AI syllabus policy. Each of these approaches can be taken as is or combined into something more comprehensive.
- Use Prohibited
- Use is freely permitted with no acknowledgement
- Use only with prior permission
- Use only with acknowledgment
You can review these approaches with examples and details by reviewing CAT’s Syllabus Language AI document. This document is taken from a longer, crowd-sourced resource created by Lance Eaton, which houses various AI policy examples from professors across the globe.
First-Day AI Conversation
Be clear with your students about how AI will be used in your classroom. Point to your specific AI syllabus policy and answer any questions that may come up during the discussion. You may want to provide specific examples of what may or may not be considered acceptable practices. For example, consider how you will handle instances of students using Grammarly or other such tools that may seem like gray areas. Explain to your students that you may be using an AI checker like Turnitin to determine if their work is original and express to them the importance of using AI as a tool rather than as a substitute for their own thinking. Lastly, be ready to have this conversation not only on the first day of class but also as a reminder throughout the rest of the term.
Academic Misconduct
FIU’s Student Conduct and Academic Integrity (SCAI) office is charged with handling all university cases of academic misconduct based on the Student Conduct and Honor Code. This includes instances of cheating or plagiarism based on how a student may have used AI (or automated tools) in the classroom. Here’s how SCAI differentiates between the two:
Cheating — the unauthorized access or use of any materials, information, study aids, automated tools, or assistance from another person on any academic assignment or exercise.
Plagiarism — the submission of any work authored by another person or automated tool without proper acknowledgment of the source, whether that material is paraphrased or copied in verbatim or near-verbatim form.
One important thing to keep in mind is that the burden of proof is on the university for all academic misconduct cases. What this means is that FIU faculty are required to report all misconduct instances to SCAI. SCAI is responsible for determining whether a reported case of cheating or plagiarism with AI has occurred, and they make this determination based on the reporting professor’s AI syllabus policy.
In instances where you suspect that your student may have used AI to cheat on an assignment, SCAI recommends that you follow these three steps:
- Meet with the student to discuss the assignment to gather more information about what may or may not have occurred.
- If you believe the student used AI to complete their assignment following your meeting, submit a report to the Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity. In your report, include supporting documentation.
- Once a report is submitted, the student should receive an Incomplete (IN) pending the outcome of an investigation.