Guidelines for Teaching with Generative AI

Use College-Supported GenAI Tools
Algonquin College provides faculty, students, and employees access to Microsoft Copilot which can assist your creation of learning content and various types of teaching supports.

As a college-provided tool, Copilot comes with data protection  which ensures that information you provide is not used by Microsoft to train its AI model. Prompt input and output will stay within Algonquin’s cloud instance of Copilot.

Using publicly available tools, especially if they are provided for free, means that sign up information and content that you provide may be collected and used by the company. Therefore, it is important to review the Terms of Use for such tools before deciding to use them.

Be mindful not to share sensitive or personally identifiable student information when using public tools.

For further details, please refer to Responsible Use of AI at Algonquin College. 

Program and Course-Level Planning
When possible, program and course teams are encouraged to meet and confirm an approach to integrating GenAI. Having a consistent direction may facilitate communication and reduce student confusion about what is considered acceptable and unacceptable use of GenAI tools. 

Assessment Review
Before the beginning of a new semester, professors can view their learning activities and assessments to consider how the use of GenAI may impact those experiences. If there is a risk of GenAI misuse by students, revision or redesign of the assessment may be required. Assessment updates may involve revising assessment rubrics and other grading guides to reflect what good use of GenAI in assignments looks like.

Academic Team Discussion Guide

Review Your Learning Activities and Assessments (in Generative AI in Teaching Faculty Guide)

Not All Use of GenAI by Students is Misuse
GenAI tools have tremendous potential to enhance the learning experience for students. As an assistant, it can support aspects of the learning process that are often significant roadblocks to success. It is important to recognize that not all use of GenAI is necessarily misuse. It will depend on the learning outcomes and specific parameters of an assignment.
However, given the power and convenience of these tools, students may be tempted to resort to misuse by allowing GenAI to do much of their learning work. Aside from submitting work that is not truly theirs, they may also submit inadequate work that does not match assignment instructions and course learning outcomes.

Identify and Communicate Clear Expectations for Use of GenAI
To avoid confusion, it is important to establish clear expectations for if and how students can use GenAI for specific assignments and learning activities. When designing assessments, identify and clearly communicate to students what effective use and misuse of GenAI in work looks like.

Support Assistive Use of GenAI When Appropriate
Learners may need guidance understanding the difference between assistive use of GenAI, in which the tool is a partner, and passively using GenAI –generated results without critical review and modification. When appropriate, plan activities in which students discuss or practice the assistive use of GenAI and reflect on how that is different from off-loading significant learning and thinking activities to these tools.

Include Generative AI Use Statements
Start by including Generative AI Use Statements within your course information and assignment instructions that outline what is permitted and prohibited use of GenAI in your course.

Encouraging appropriate use of GenAI can be reinforced beyond the inclusion of statements within course outlines and assignment instructions. Continual conversation about the importance of effective, critically reflective use of GenAI is important for their future careers and for being ethical digital citizens.

Sample GenAI Use Statements

Discuss Appropriate and Inappropriate Use of GenAI  
Consider setting expectations for GenAI use as part of your first day of class activities. Part of this activity could involve discussing the current and future use of GenAI within your industry or discipline. It is an opportunity to discuss the importance of developing foundational skills they need to succeed in their chosen fields by not over relying on GenAI.

Sample “Talking To Students About GenAI in Your Course” – PowerPoint Template

Share specific examples of what GenAI use and misuse looks like in your course.  
Reinforce that use of GenAI to complete assessments that do not follow the expectations that you have set could be considered academic misconduct according to Algonquin College’s Academic Integrity Policy (AA48). Encourage students to review resources provided by the Library and attend workshops hosted by the Student Learning Centre. Also, tell students to ask for early clarification to avoid getting a poor grade due to misunderstanding GenAI use expectations.

Planning a Research Paper Guide, Algonquin Library (includes proper citation and avoiding plagiarism)

Student Workshops, Student Learning Centre Topics include research, GenAI 101, and avoiding plagiarism)

Discuss How You Wish Students to Cite and Acknowledge Use of GenAI Tools 
Share citation and use acknowledgement examples and review guidelines for proper attribution of GenAI tool use.

Use of Detection Tools to Identify GenAI Use is Not Recommended
Current GenAI detection tools are considered unreliable since they provide both false positives and undetected instances of GenAI use at a fairly high rate (Perkins et. al, 2024). Due to these concerns, Algonquin College decided not to purchase an AI detection tool. 

In cases in which students are wrongfully accused of GenAI misuse, it can be a stressful and time-consuming situation that leads to appeals. In some cases, tool detection of misuse may be connected to use of writing assistant tools such as Grammarly. Many students whose first language is not English are accustomed to use writing and translation tools which are embedded with GenAI various features. Many rely on these tools as an assistant for expressing their ideas in English more clearly.

Furthermore, uploading student work to publicly available GenAI detector tools also raises concerns about data privacy and how companies are using that shared information. 

To support academic integrity, a more proactive approach may be to design assessments that emphasize process over product and are scaffolded into smaller parts rather than one high-stakes submission. Also, providing examples of what appropriate and inappropriate use of GenAI in student work looks like can help students understand what is expected.

Review Your Learning Activities and Assessments (in Generative AI in Teaching Faculty Guide)

Identifying Potential Misuse of GenAI 
For certain kinds of student work, there are characteristics that may indicate misuse of GenAI. These characteristics become especially apparent when different forms of student learning are observed at different times. It is recommended that professors take a multi-pronged approach to fairly identifying GenAI misuse. 

Faculty Guide for Identifying and Investigating GenAI Misuse, Algonquin College’s Office of Academic Integrity 
Fairly Investigating Misuse of GenAI (pdf)

Use College-Supported GenAI Tools to Support Teaching Work
Many specific GenAI tools are being marketed to provide time-savings ways to complete teaching tasks. These include specific tools for creating syllabi, rubrics, and lesson plans. For data protection and security, professors are asked to use Algonquin College’s approved GenAI chatbot tool which is Microsoft Copilot. For more information about using GenAI tools, see the GenAI Use and Data Protection section for more details.

Students can access Microsoft Copilot via https://m365.cloud.microsoft/.

Acknowledge Use of GenAI for Creating Course Material When Appropriate
To model transparency and attribution practices to students, professors are encouraged to acknowledge use of GenAI in the creation of course learning materials.  Consider acknowledging content that is directly created by or significantly influenced by GenAI. Attribution may include citing the use of GenAI  or including a statement of acknowledgement within your materials. When incorporating GenAI content, ensure that you carefully review the content for accuracy and potential bias

Citing AI Content by Citation Style, Algonquin Library

How to Attribute GenAI Use 

Avoid Using GenAI Tools for Grading
To speed up the grading process, it is tempting to use chatbot GenAI tools such as ChatGPT to grade student work. However, GenAI grading can introduce inconsistencies and bias into grading results.
Research has shown that small changes in prompt wording and input can lead to drastically variable results (Furze, 2024). Furthermore, uploading student assignments to publicly available tools (other than organizationally licensed and data protected tools such as Algonquin’s Microsoft Copilot) carries the risk of sharing personal student information and student work with companies for their use. Most importantly, the impersonal nature of GenAI-created feedback may hinder the development of authentic relationships with students. Authentic assessments offer a more learner-centred approach that offer students opportunities for more personalized feedback.

Creating Authentic Assessments