Generative AI in Education

Optional Syllabus Language for ChatGPT Use

• Strategy 1. Forbidding ChatGPT Use

  Sample statements for syllabi recommending against or forbidding the use of these tools. (The first two are taken from Advice Concerning the Increase in AI-Assisted Writing, PDF.)

  Sample Syllabus Language

  It is not permitted to use ChatGPT for any submitted and assessed assignments in this course. The use of AI software or apps to write or paraphrase text for your paper is not permitted. The use and submission of AI software or apps to write or paraphrase text for your paper constitutes fraud, as you did not author these words or ideas. You may not represent the output of an AI / machine-learning tool as your own work. This would be dishonest, and is a violation of the academic integrity codes of New York University. For instance, if an algorithm constructs an image, a block of code, or a paragraph in response to a prompt, it's dishonest to turn it in as your own creation without disclosing that fact.

  Faculty wishing to adopt this strategy will need to be explicit about the value you expect students to get out of any given assignment — what is the purpose of having them write and edit a document themselves when this is now automated? What do you think they will learn from the various stages of composition? How do generative tools interfere with those goals? What is your rationale for disallowing use of these tools? Note that there are currently no software sources able to reliably detect the use of generative AI.

• Strategy 2: Limiting the Use of Generative Tools

  Limiting the use of these tools requires explaining to your students where they are and are not appropriate. Perhaps you want to allow the use of these tools to brainstorm ideas, or to produce first drafts, but you expect the students to make substantial changes to the final product. Perhaps you want to allow use of these tools, so long as students include their prompts, and the unedited output, so they can demonstrate critical use of these tools.

  Like the strategy of resisting these tools altogether, this strategy requires enlisting students in the shared project of using generative AI in a relatively small number of approved ways.
  

  Sample Syllabus Language

  You are allowed to use ChatGPT to brainstorm and draft ideas in this class. The use of generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Dall-e, Codex, etc.) is permitted in this course for the following activities: Brainstorming and refining your ideas; Fine-tuning your research questions; Finding information on your topic; Drafting an outline to organize your thoughts; and Checking grammar and style. 

  The use of generative AI tools is not permitted in this course for the following activities: Impersonating you in classroom contexts, such as by using the tool to compose discussion board prompts assigned to you, reading summaries, or content that you put into a Zoom chat. Using ChatGPT to complete group work that your group has assigned to you is not allowed, unless it is mutually agreed upon that you may utilize the tool. It is not permitted to use ChatGPT to write a full draft of a writing assignment. Writing entire paragraphs or papers to complete class assignments with ChatGPT  is not appropriate nor permitted. TurnItIn can be used in this class.

• Strategy 3: Integrating the use of Generative Tools

  Integrating the use of generative AI tools requires explaining to your students where these tools can help their thinking, and where you think these tools may end up being used in related professional practice. This is on a spectrum with specifying limited use of these tools, but with greater acceptance that any structured work you receive will be a hybrid of student and machine work. 

  Embracing these tools provides the greatest range of strategies. You could:

  • Have students use ChatGPT to write a response to their question or challenge.
  • Ask students to reflect on ChatGPT’s output (e.g., what is correct, incorrect, what they don’t know if it is correct or incorrect, what should they look up elsewhere to verify, what should they ask ChatGPT next).
  • Using Track Changes in MS Word or Suggesting in Google Docs, have students improve the output of ChatGPT (e.g., correcting errors or misinformation, expanding on shallow content). Have students submit their prompt and the improved ChatGPT response with their added content highlighted.
  • Ask students to individually identify a major question or challenge in your field or discipline that ChatGPT could write about. Have students use ChatGPT to write a response to their question or challenge.
  • Have students revise ChatGPT’s output from a different angle. For instance, take a different perspective, apply a critical lens, expand on a particular concept, or correct aspects of the output that could cause their peers to misunderstand or misinterpret.

  (Examples drawn from "Update Your Course Syllabus for ChatGPT.")

  Sample Syllabus Language

  Use of ChatGPT and related tools is allowed in this class, but only in ways noted in the assignments. When you use any of these tools, you must include a note describing how you used them with the assignment. Please consult the assignment descriptions to learn more about appropriate use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools.

  (Source: much of the content here is developed by the NYU Informal Working Group on ChatGPT and Generative AI)