What is generative artificial intelligence?

• Generative AI (GenAI) is a type of artificial intelligence that is capable of generating text, code, images, and video. GenAI includes a number of different types of AI models, including Large Language Models (LLMs), which can generate text in response to written (and sometimes video or image) prompts.

Are students ever permitted to use AI in their coursework?

• As of March 2024, the University of Windsor created resources for course instructors which guide the use of GenAI in the classroom. These guidelines give instructors the option of implementing policies regarding GenAI for their own courses. Therefore, each course will require GA/TAs to understand the policies set by the instructor they are working with. Bylaws 54 and 55 require course instructors to include a statement regarding acceptable and unacceptable uses of GenAI in their course. As such, all GA/ TAs should review and understand the relevant policies and procedures regarding GenAI by consulting the course syllabus and discussing expectations with the instructor prior to commencement of GATA duties.

How can I detect AI in student assessments?

• Keep an eye out for hallucinated references or parts of prompts and AI responses left in submitted assignments. There are also forms of wearable AI. If you suspect a student is using wearable AI during an assessment task (e.g., examination) you should document this information and immediately report it to the course instructor.

What should I do if I suspect unpermitted AI use in student assignments?

• Document evidence which suggests AI usage in the assignment (e.g., hallucinated references, parts of assignment instructions etc) and bring them to the attention of the course instructor. Do not contact the student directly.

Can I use AI to grade student assignments?

• AI should not be used to grade student assignments. This is problematic for several reasons. Firstly, this would require the submission of student work to the AI platform which may lead to the student’s intellectual property being used to train future models without their consent. Secondly, it would also require the submission of an instructor’s rubric and/or marking criteria to the AI platform which again would may lead to the intellectual property of the instructor being used to train future models without their consent.

How can I use AI in my GA/TA work?

It is possible that GenAI may be legitimately and intentionally designed into the teaching, learning, and assessment within the classes you support, and in those cases, you may be required or encouraged to use AI for certain tasks. If that is the case, the course instructor should provide very clear and explicit instructions about what their expectations of you are.

Below are a few examples of how you might use AI to support learning. Though, before using AI to assist with any GA/TA related duties, this should be discussed with the course instructor to ensure transparency, integrity, and appropriate usage.

• Generating alternative explanations: You may find in grading students’ work that there is a consistent misconception you are seeing. AI can be very helpful in creating alternative explanations or even a model answer to share with students.
• Checking tone, clarity, and grammar of student comments: AI can be helpful in checking the tone, clarity, and grammar of messages (e.g., feedback, emails) you plan to send to students. If you are struggling to write a piece of feedback in a supportive way, AI can offer suggested phrasing.
• Lesson planning: If you are tasked with running tutorials or review sessions, it can help you generate ideas for activities to support learning, or different and creative ways to explain particularly tricky concepts. You also have access to Microsoft Copilot chat in Office 365, which can be helpful in working with Excel spreadsheets (e.g. if you are tracking grades externally), improving written documents, enhancing PowerPoint slides, finding emails, drafting email responses and so on. Copilot is the only institutionally supported enterprise AI tool available at present, and it keeps any data you share with it inside the University’s environment, so is safer to use than many other public alternatives.

In all cases, it is worth discussing with the course instructor how you would like to use AI and to gain their permission to ensure no violations to others’ copyright materials.