Generative AI - a guide for faculty and staff

This guide will forever be a work in progress

TCC GenAI Academic Use Policy proposal sample, and TCC Academic Integrity Policy

Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity refers to the expectation that all course and program-related work must be completed upholding the values of “honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility and courage” (International Center of Academic Integrity).

More questions than answers

More Questions Than Answers

Many instructors in higher education still have plenty of questions about how generative AI will change the way we design learning experiences for students, and the way we assess learning, which includes considerations of academic integrity, chiefly plagiarism and cheating. This section of this guide includes links to resources, examples from colleagues, related to generative AI and academic integrity. 

Q: Why don't we have an generative AI academic integrity policy?

A: We do. It's the academic integrity policy. You also have your own genAI policy in your syllabi.

Students may not cheat, fabricate, falsify, forge, sabotage, or plagiarize (or when it comes to other student conduct requirements: harass or threaten or cause other intentional harm). This literally covers all mis-uses of genAI. So now our job is to both convince and support students through our assignments and our language and our actions that student voice and insights matter, and that mistakes in good faith are of value in the learning process.

Note that at this time, March 2025, there is a Generative AI Academic Use policy proposal awaiting campus-wide adoption. See the box for a sample version of this policy.

In academic work, an important thing we need to stress to our students is the use of genAI outputs as citable sources:

Q: Are genAI outputs "sources" of information for academic work?

A: The foundation of academic/scholarly work is the ability to accurately track. credit, and retrieve the scholarly conversation on a topic or line of research - provenance and retrievability. 

It's important to note that genAI outputs, such as ChatGPT's outputs, are generated using machine learning algorithms. Remember at this time, genAI LLMs use their training and our inputs to create an output of "predicted" word strings for that topic. There is no reliable provenance for this information, and while some subscription-based genAI tools provide public links to specific chats, the provenance problem remains. In addition, outputs may not be accurate or reliable; they are given to bias; they do not cite their sources, or they hallucinate non-existent sources. Additionally, outputs can be influenced by the user inputs that may include misinformation and bias. Generally speaking, genAI should be regarded as a tool rather than an information source.

Therefore, unless the assignment specifically allows for the use of genAI outputs as sources, they should not be used as sources for academic work if this is your intent for your students, to do the work of scholars. It will likely be necessary to instruct students on the work of scholars and the importance and value of provenance in academic work. 

Policy builder tool, and examples of syllabus statements (contact me to contribute yours)

Policy Builder Tool & Examples of Syllabus Statements

Winter 2025 - 5 credit College Success course

About generative AI and Academic Integrity

I have some non-negotiable rules about the use of generative AI (genAI). Please make sure that you understand the following extremely well, and if you do not, please ask me about it, because the use of genAI as a student can be kind of confusing to figure out what's appropriate versus inappropriate use.

  1. No use of genAI in this class that violates TCC Academic Integrity policies is acceptable. See the academic integrity policy above.
  2. For work in this class please do not turn in any work that is not 100% your own authentic work. I want your style, voice, and your ideas centered as you share what you have gained, what you wonder about, what you think.
  3. Work completed through the use of genAI, and not completely transparently cited, is considered work that has been plagiarized, fabricated or falsified, or completed through cheating, depending on the nature of the assignment and the use of genAI. See COL 101 Academic Integrity policy above. 
  4. If you use genAI to help you with any COL 101 assignment or individual task, please informally cite the tool and describe its role in assisting you and why you chose to use it.
    • The format to use for citation: For this question I used ChatGPT to help me ____ and ___ because ________. 
  • When you have any questions or confusion about acceptable and effective use of genAI tools, please ask me, or TCC Librarians, or TCC Tutors.
  • Linked below is a TCC student guide to genAI that may help you learn how to use genAI appropriately, and effectively, as a student.

Artificial Intelligence: We acknowledge the continued growth and sophistication of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Although generative AI (such as DeepMind's Alpha Code, ChatGPT, GPT-3.2, etc.) is a tool that can be used for creativity and learning, this class focuses on developing YOUR skills as a writer, reader, and critical thinker. Unless it is explicitly instructed in the written assignment guidelines to use it, the use of generative AI is prohibited.

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adapted from draft Academic Integrity policy - see box on this page

As faculty we will have different needs within our programs, courses, classes, and disciplines. We are also in a highly experimental stage of working with AI with our students.

  1. Better late than never: Don't be afraid to add an AI-use policy statement into your syllabus mid-quarter. Announce it, be transparent about it. Idea: Have your students help you write one. Doing this now protects and empowers your students and preserves your course learning objectives.
  2. General considerations: Like you would for any aspect of your syllabus: Be knowledgeable about the topic and familiarize yourself with at least one gAI tool; First, be clear with yourself about why you will allow or not allow the use of AI in your assignments or assessments, and if you will, under what specific circumstances and convey that clarity in your policy; Be transparent about your policy, and why and how you think it is important for the kind of work your students do in your courses; After you write your first AI-use policy, evaluate it for tone, clarity, fairness, equity, and inclusion. Keep in mind that our students want to know more about AI, want guidance, and that a majority of them will be using AI daily in their professions.
  3. Seek help: As needed please seek assistance in forming an AI-use policy in your syllabus. There are many colleagues who have been doing this work and would welcome the chance to widen the conversation. 
  4. Request: Please send me your syllabus AI statement to include here so that your colleagues can see many different types, based on course needs and teaching philosophies. Please send to my email, which you can find on the Home page of this guide.

Citing generative AI (example: ChatGPT)

Provenance, retrievability, attributability

AI outputs are not "sources." Sources are a person, thing, or place from which retrievable and/or specifically attributable information is obtained. This is not true for AI outputs. Citations for AI outputs are more about our methodology, so we cite the tool. Especially in terms of academic integrity, and understanding the nature of information and AI, the distinction is important to teach to our students. See the guides and guidelines below for information about citing genAI outputs and genAI use.

Voices on the topic

Voices on the Topic of Ai and Academic Integrity in Higher Education

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