New Syllabus Template
The new UTA syllabus template updated in Summer 2024 for faculty (click here [MS Word Document]) contains updated policy options for creating your own course-specific AI policy statement. The tips and resources below build on this concept.
Why Write a Syllabus Statement about AI Use?
Powerful AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, which use large language models and are trained using open-access materials on the Internet, have been publicly available for about a year now. During this time, many important conversations concerning students’ use and abuse of AI in both high school and college settings have occurred, though perhaps you personally haven’t yet determined ground rules for such tools in your own courses. UTA has not released a formal policy on the use of AI in the classroom, and CoLA has opted not to provide a one-size-fits-all statement for use in the syllabus template. Rather than waiting for someone else to tell you how to use and regulate AI in your courses, consider creating your own policy for the courses you teach. A syllabus statement informs students of the “rules” for permitted and restricted uses of AI in the course, and it can also alert them to how AI can be used constructively in the class for learning (if applicable). The UTA CoLA AI/ChatGPT working group has put together some steps to follow that will help you get started.
How to Write a Syllabus Statement About AI Use
- Begin by exploring AI’s capabilities, especially in relation to the content and competencies you teach. As you experiment, know that the text that AI generates is not “traceable,” meaning that, although software exists that claims to detect AI-written text, no such software is error-proof, meaning that it might label some text written by students as AI, and vice-versa.
- Once you have first-hand knowledge of how ChatGPT works and how a student might use it in your course, write 2-3 bullet points about what AI can and cannot offer your students. Then write 2-3 additional bullet points about what you do or do not want students to use AI to do.
- Next, read examples of others’ AI-focused policy statements. A crowd-sourced resource with 139 example syllabus statements from colleges around the world (and counting!) is linked here (Google Doc). Your initial points may be enriched or strengthened by consulting policies from courses at different levels and from different departments. Observing a variety of pedagogical decisions and course topics could give you ideas.
- From Lance Eaton: “If you would like a more searchable version of this document, try out this (Google Sheet) spreadsheet that allows you to sort by Course, Discipline, Institution, etc.
This resource is created by Lance Eaton (contact him via Twitter, LinkedIn, or sign up for his AI+Edu=Simplified newsletter) for the purposes of sharing and helping other instructors see the range of policies available by other educators to help in the development of their own for navigating AI-Generative Tools (such as ChatGPT, MidJourney, Dall-E, etc).
If you would like to revise your submission, please just fill out the form and clarify in the comments that it’s a replacement.
“Folks are welcome to download or share this resource or parts of it with their colleagues, institutions, and communities of practice.”
- Finally, try writing your syllabus statement. Be open with colleagues as you work, sharing your draft with other instructors in your department, college, and field. If one of the professional organizations you belong to has a pedagogical branch, be sure to network with the members to see what they are thinking about.
- Consider co-writing the AI-focused syllabus statement and policy with your students, having a discussion about AI during the first week of class, and codifying their input as the components of your class policy
- Consider creating very short videos about your AI policies and approaches to post in Canvas
- Post your statement and multimedia about this topic in multiple places in the course
- Update your statement each semester as needed. We recommend sharing your statement with colleagues if you feel so inclined, as this topic is dynamic and changing!
Exemplar (with Video) from Dr. Kim Breuer (History):
- Kim’s approach: “I have created this H5P booklet to teach our history students about the proper use of AI. I will follow up this booklet (four videos covering why we assess, why AI alone is bad, adding the human element in using AI, and why this is important). I will follow this up by having students pick apart an AI-generated response to a prompt to see why it needs the human element (AI is not the shortcut they think it is).
ChatGPT and AI in the Classroom (on H5P.com)
Resource:
- Short piece from Raúl Mora and Peggy Semingson in the International Literacy Association’s “Literacy Today” online magazine! Our feature piece is titled “AI and Literacy Education” (pp. 56-58).
- Link: https://tinyurl.com/LiteracyAI (PDF on Google Drive)
*This guidance statement for faculty was originally written by the COLA AI Working Group (August, 2023): Peggy Semingson, Rebecca Dean, Megan Sarno, Pete Smith, & James Warren. Views are our own perspectives and suggestions. Email Peggy Semingson for feedback or input.