UL Lafayette Guidance on Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

Generative AI in the Classroom

The proliferation of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools is rapidly changing higher education. GAI can synthesize and curate existing knowledge, it can answer questions, formulate problems, serve as a brainstorming partner, and it can even generate whole essays. It accomplishes these things often instantaneously in response to prompts from human interlocutors. Although AI can fuel innovation and there have been great advances in accuracy for GAI tools, studies show that AI can also deliver results that contain significant inaccuracies and conscious and unconscious biases.

As a Carnegie R1 institution, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is training the future workforce of Louisiana and beyond, a workforce that is increasingly exposed to and engaging with Generative AI tools. While it is essential that we sustain pedagogical excellence and continue to teach specialized academic curricula that impart a range of academic competencies, we now do so in an academic ecosystem where GAI is an undeniable presence. It is our responsibility to ensure that we engage with AI in a manner that safeguards academic integrity in keeping with the university’s mission to “develop citizens, leaders, and innovators who create solutions to community and regional challenges.”

Scope and Purpose:  This guidance applies to student intellectual coursework products at the graduate and undergraduate levels. The purpose of this guidance is to promote ethical engagement with AI across the University.

This guidance encourages academic colleges, departments, and individual faculty to develop specific policies for their students. UL Lafayette reflects a broad range of disciplines and sub-disciplines across its many colleges and departments. Ethical engagement with GAI, including restrictions, guardrails, or complete integration of GAI into assignments, will vary significantly across disciplines, and even among classes and individual faculty, depending on the skills and learning outcomes they seek to impart. All faculty have academic freedom in their classrooms and will be the ones to determine what constitutes proper use of GAI in their classroom.

Because different classes may have different AI policies, it is the students’ responsibility to familiarize themselves with relevant expectations and policies.

Policies should consider some of the following (potentially overlapping) areas:

Define the range of uses of AI and be explicit about what you allow in your class.

Some examples include:

• Use of GAI to brainstorm and conduct preliminary research for assignments.
• Use of GAI to summarize articles and other readings.
• Use of GAI to analyze quantitative or qualitative data.
• Use of GAI for proof-reading, grammar assistance, or to adjust style and tone.
• Use of GAI to develop graphics or foreign language translations.
• Use of GAI to produce a draft or outline of a work product that is critically edited and expanded upon by the student.

Articulate responsible usage

• Reaffirm that students are responsible for accuracy, bias, and integrity of any use of GAI. Articulate for students the limitations of AI and their responsibility to fact-check AI for both accuracy and bias in results.
• Define the importance of being transparent about AI usage. For courses where students may use GAI, require citations where there is AI usage. There may also be other ways to document AI usage like saving and uploading for instructor review transcripts of GAI interaction, or screenshots of GAI sessions.
• When possible, encourage students to participate in trainings that teach proper AI usage.

Articulate penalties

• Be specific about how these apply to different types of AI, potentially differentiating between grammar/punctuation assistance GAI and other forms of GAI.
• If students are not permitted to use GAI or a form of GAI in a course to author or assist with any portion of the final assignments or intellectual scaffolding leading up to it, then the use of GAI in that course constitutes academic misconduct.
• Indicate grade penalties (if applicable) clearly and specifically.

Resources for instructors

How to Cite ChatGPT from the APA
How to Cite Generative AI from the MLA
How to Cite Generative AI from the Chicago Manual of Style
Sample Assignments redesigned to incorporate GAI

Examples of sample syllabus language:

Sample Statement Prohibiting Use of AI-generated Material (UL Distance Learning)

All work submitted for this course must be your own original production. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate material is strictly prohibited. Submission of material generated by AI for written assignments and projects in this class will be considered a violation of the University’s academic integrity policy. This includes AI-generated material that you have summarized or edited. [This excludes AI-supported tools providing spelling and grammar checks.]

Sample Statement of Mixed AI-Usage Policy

In this class, you may use generative AI tools for brainstorming and research but must develop and compose your final assignments independently. If you have questions or suggestions for potential exceptions, please email me at [instructor email] and I would be happy to discuss further.

Sample Statement Encouraging Use of AI-generated Material
You are responsible for the content of any work submitted for this course. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate a first draft of an assignment is permitted, but you must review and revise any AI-generated material before submission. In addition, you are required to be transparent about your use of AI-generated material by following citation and documentation guidelines provided in this course. Keep in mind that while AI generators can be useful tools, they are prone to factual errors, incorrect or fabricated citations, and misinterpretations of abstract concepts.