Syllabus and Policy Considerations
Texas A&M students are looking to their professors for guidance on acceptable and allowable use of Generative AI tools. The resources on this page exist to help Texas A&M faculty make decisions about course policies and clearly communicate those policies as well as university policies to students.
When you want to address and/or incorporate Generative AI tools in your course, consider the following principles:
Below are two Texas A&M recommended syllabus statement options for instructors to consider adding to their syllabi, informing students of their stance on the use of AI in the course
This video will help you understand what to add to your syllabus policies regarding Generative AI and AI detection software.
You can find other syllabus considerations here.
Determine your stance on the use of Generative AI tools in your course–will you and your students use it, and if so, what does that look like and what is the rationale? If you choose not to use Generative AI tools in your teaching, be sure to communicate your reasons and rationale clearly and transparently.
Be transparent and clear about expectations and course policies when using AI tools including to what extent and how students can use the tools.
Always closely link any permission or prohibition use of AI tool to learning outcomes and align with appropriate activities and assessments.
Consider building the responsible and ethical use of AI tools into activities, assignments, and assessments. This may also include an honest discussion with students about ethical use of AI tools as well as issues regarding academic integrity. Consider discussing:
Every technological tool has some bias toward normative hearing, sight, and other perceptive sensing. Instructors have a responsibility to ensure a fair and equitable experience for all learners.
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT will impact student writing assignments imminently. Learn more about potential impact and ways to prevent misuse of AI through this article by a faculty member: ChatGPT & Writing Assignments
When you want to address and/or incorporate Generative AI tools in your course, consider the following principles:
Syllabus Statements
Below are two Texas A&M recommended syllabus statement options for instructors to consider adding to their syllabi, informing students of their stance on the use of AI in the course
- OPTION 1: According to the Texas A&M University Definitions of Academic Misconduct, plagiarism is the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit (aggiehonor.tamu.edu). You should credit your use of anyone else's words, graphic images, or ideas using standard citation styles. Artificial Intelligence (AI) text generators and natural language processing tools (colloquially, chatbots - such as ChatGPT), audio, computer code, video, and image generators should not be used for any work for this class without explicit permission of the instructor and appropriate attribution. This includes, but is not limited to,
i. Creating or revising drafts
ii. Editing your work
iii. Reviewing a peer's work
This excludes pre-existing software additions such as spelling and grammar checkers, which are acceptable. - OPTION 2: With the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, the ways in which we define our creative processes continue to transform. AI generators are rapidly evolving from simple editing for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes (Grammarly, MS Word Spell Check) to sophisticated text production (ChatGPT, Google Bard, etc.), as well as image, computer code, and audio generation. The presence of such tools, however, does not replace our need to learn how to draft, revise, and reflect on texts, programs, drawings and how to exercise information literacy and personal responsibility in how we locate, evaluate, incorporate, and cite primary/ secondary sources. For example, the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum states the following:
Writing to learn is an intellectual activity that is crucial to the cognitive and social development of learners and writers. This vital activity cannot be replaced by AI language generators (AWAC).
Engaging in the various aspects of creative pursuits (e.g., writing, coding, drawing) is critical to education in a broad sense. While AI technologies will continue shaping how we approach these creative tasks, the critical work of creativity relies on integrity, originality, and ethical conduct in regard to appropriate representation as an author or creator. Thus, submitting work with a significant percentage of AI-generated content, unless otherwise permitted, can be considered academic misconduct under Texas A&M University Student Rule 20. Students must therefore cite the use of Generative AI tools and document what they have contributed to an assignment.
This video will help you understand what to add to your syllabus policies regarding Generative AI and AI detection software.
You can find other syllabus considerations here.
Syllabus Statements
Determine your stance on the use of Generative AI tools in your course–will you and your students use it, and if so, what does that look like and what is the rationale? If you choose not to use Generative AI tools in your teaching, be sure to communicate your reasons and rationale clearly and transparently.
Clear Personal Perspective
Be transparent and clear about expectations and course policies when using AI tools including to what extent and how students can use the tools.
- See the Use of AI in POLS 207 example
- Generative AI & Academic Integrity (student video)
- See the Aggie Honor System Office definitions of plagiarism and cheating for additional help to define instructor and student responsibilities in this area.
- Keep in mind that new tools are always emerging. Rules, regulations, and AHSO definitions will not name or characterize every learning assistance tool, so you must make decisions that work for your context and be clear about what your decisions are.
Relevance to Learning Outcomes
Always closely link any permission or prohibition use of AI tool to learning outcomes and align with appropriate activities and assessments.
- Leveraging Generative AI to Assist Teaching Faculty with the Course Design Cycle
- Build Students' AI Literacy Skills
- See Briefing Reports AI Worksheet example
Reasonable Integration
Consider building the responsible and ethical use of AI tools into activities, assignments, and assessments. This may also include an honest discussion with students about ethical use of AI tools as well as issues regarding academic integrity. Consider discussing:
- How AI is being trained (what data is being used and what data is not being used);
- Why AI is being used and what tools use them; and
- The outcomes of the tools being developed (e.g., What, if any, bias does AI training introduce? What role does "prompt engineering" play in the results produced by Generative AI? How is this tool being used?).
Accessibility of Integrated Tools
Every technological tool has some bias toward normative hearing, sight, and other perceptive sensing. Instructors have a responsibility to ensure a fair and equitable experience for all learners.
- Can every student implement the tool with reasonable accommodations?
- Does use of the tool require or assume access to additional tools that need to be vetted for accessibility?
ChatGPT and Writing Assignments
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT will impact student writing assignments imminently. Learn more about potential impact and ways to prevent misuse of AI through this article by a faculty member: ChatGPT & Writing Assignments