Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom
Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom
In order to uphold Fanshawe’s academic integrity, it is important to be transparent with our students regarding our expectations surrounding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom and within the completion of assignments.
Popenici and Kerr (2017) define artificial intelligence as “computing systems that are able to engage in human-like processes such as learning, adapting, synthesizing, self-correction and use of data for complex processing tasks” (p.2). Large language models such as ChatGPT are often referred to as artificial intelligence and are capable of producing original text from user-initiated prompts.
Students may use AI tools to assist with brainstorming ideas and completing research for various assignments; however, the intent with which the tools are used could result in an academic integrity issue. While the use of AI may not be acceptable in some educational settings, some industries will expect graduates to be experienced with navigating and using AI tools. The Academic Integrity Council of Ontario has produced a white paper to support faculty in deciding how or when to incorporate the use of AI in course activities.
At Fanshawe, all course outlines have been prepopulated to include the following statements, effective Fall 2023:
Students are encouraged to discuss Academic Integrity and Academic Offence-related concerns with their Course Instructors. Specifically, students should speak with their Course Instructors about the use of cognitive offloading tools, which include, but are not limited to: calculators, textbooks, translation tools, course notes and resources, search engines (i.e. Google), and artificial intelligence applications (e.g. ChatGPT). Students should consult with their Course Instructors regarding which cognitive offloading tools, if any, are permitted for a given assessment.
This statement puts the onus on the student to confirm whether or not the use of artificial intelligence is permitted. Below are some suggested instructions you could provide to your students to clarify the permitted use of artificial intelligence when completing an assignment.
Sample Statements for Faculty to use on Assignments – use of Artificial Intelligence
Faculty are encouraged to use these statements to clarify when, or if, the use of artificial intelligence is allowed for coursework.
Use is not permitted:
- This assignment/project must be completed independently, without the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as text generators. The expectation is to draw upon your own knowledge, research abilities and critical thinking skills to complete your work.
**Some use is permitted:
- For this assignment, the final written work or product must be your own creation. You are permitted to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to initiate your research and brainstorm ideas or concepts. Any AI-generated content must be properly cited and referenced and
**Some use is encouraged:
- For this assignment you are encouraged to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT to create text and conduct research. It is imperative to combine your own knowledge, research abilities, and critical thinking skills with any AI-generated content. Ensure that you review, edit and enhance the content for accuracy and relevance to both the topic and the assignment. Any AI-generated content must be properly cited and referenced and should be reviewed and revised for accuracy and relevance. Include a list of the prompts used to find your AI-generated content as an appendix to your final submission.
**No limitations on use:
- You are permitted to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT to create part or all of this assignment. It is your responsibility to review all generated text for accuracy, relevance, proper citation and referencing. Confirm that all AI-generated content is in alignment with your own ideas and understanding of the assignment topic. Include a list of the prompts used to find your AI-generated content as an appendix to your final submission.
**If permitting use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, it is recommended to have the student identify which tool(s) was used, the details of how the tool was used, and how the information was incorporated into the final submission. See the suggested sample below:
Project /Assignment Statement
I state that this represents my project/ assignment and below is a statement of involvement/ help for said project/assignment.
| Course Information: | Project/ Assignment Name: |
| Date: | April 13, 2023 |
| Name: | Honest Integrity |
| Student Number: | 1234567 |
| Assignment topic / Idea: | Academic Integrity |
| AI/ Machine learning tools used: | ChatGPT-4 |
| Prompts Used: | “I need to prepare a presentation for a potential investor on <presentation topic>. Can you give me some guidance on what to include?” |
| How did AI enhance your work? | I used the guidance from the above prompt in Chat GPT 4 to help me generate ideas |
| Level of Importance: | The insights provided by Chat GPT 4 were critical in my assignment completion |
| How important to your final assignment was the content provided by AI tools? | I used Chat GPT to help structure my idea and formulate my presentation |
| Level of AI Used | Human Directed but AI enhanced for insights/ presentation |
| If the AI content was removed from this project/ assignment would it still make sense? | No |
Academic Integrity: The practice of holding oneself and others accountable for performing all academic work in an honest and ethical manner. A136: Academic Integrity Policy.
In keeping with the general policy about academic integrity students must clearly cite their level of AI involvement in their projects. The intention is not necessarily to stop the use of AI, but rather to ensure that assignments are completed according to instructions and proper citations are provided.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Turnitin has detected my student has submitted an assignment with AI generated content, what are the next steps?
- Review the highlighted text that Turnitin has detected as being generated by AI. If you were to remove the AI generated content would the assignment still make sense? What is left over to be evaluated?
- Turnitin is the only AI detection tool that is approved for use by the College. Do not submit student work to any external tools such as zeroGPT. Student work belongs to the student under Canadian Copyright las and serious privacy concerns exist with this practice.
- Does the College have a baseline percentage of AI generated content that determines whether a student should automatically receive an academic offence?
- No, review the highlighted content and determine whether the assignment would still make sense if you were to remove what was generated by AI. You will have to use judgement around intent and match it to the direction you provided to the students about what is allowable in the course.
- Using your own judgement, you can determine whether you would like to issue partial marks for the assignment.
- My student’s assignment contains AI generated content but they are adamant they did not utilize an AI content generating tool. What should I do?
- Ask the student if they utilized GrammarlyGO. GrammarlyGO is different from the licensed educational version of Grammarly provided by the library. GrammarlyGO will not only correct grammar but also generates AI content through its regular operations Many students are not aware that GrammarlyGO is paraphrasing their work while also correcting grammar.
- I suspect my student has submitted an assignment that was completed with the assistance of an AI generator tool when they were expected to complete the work on their own. It has not been flagged by an AI detector. What is my next step?
- AI generated content has perfect grammatical and sentence structure. If the assignment seems to have drastically improved from the student’s previous work, it is fair to have a conversation about how they completed their work.
- Without definitive proof an Academic Offence cannot be issued.
Resources and Tips
- Have students submit their assignments in word documents. When word documents are submitted the properties of the assignment can be reviewed.
- Fanshawe faculty member Matthew Schonewille has created a helpful website titled Getting Ahead of AI in Education. The website contains helpful videos and presents some of the ways AI can be used positively in education. Matthew has created this webpage as a free resource for Faculty and Educators.
- Instructions for citing ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence.