Creating AI Policies

Under Penn’s Code of Academic Integrity, students may not use unauthorized assistance in their academic work. It is up to you to decide what that means and communicate that definition to students.  

While some instructors may consider any significant use of AI to be an academic integrity violation, others may allow students to use AI in specific ways or for particular parts of an assignment.

Students might share course materials with AI tools to study, simplify complicated instructions, prepare for class, or support academic accommodations such as live notetaking. For example, a student might ask AI to create a practice quiz based on a course reading or locate a particular diagram within a large collection of lecture slides.  

Sharing copyrighted materials with AI for “educational purposes” may be permissible if it meets the criteria for Fair Use and complies with the publisher’s guidelines. For material that is your own, you can decide how it may or may not be shared. If you are concerned about privacy, you may wish to set a policy that prohibits sharing your materials with AI tools that are not Penn-licensed. As with other aspects of AI-related policy, it is important to clearly communicate these expectations and the reasons behind them to your students. 

If students are allowed to use AI for assistance with their coursework, you may want to define how they should acknowledge AI’s contributions. Students could embed screenshots of AI output, submit transcripts of AI interactions, or share the prompts they entered. Less formally, you may ask students to submit an AI-assisted learning disclosure or reflection. 

If AI is referenced as a source in a bibliography, several common style guides have released advice on formatting: 

• APA 

• Chicago 

• MLA 

You may either create a standalone AI policy or add a statement about AI to the academic integrity policy already in your syllabus and on Canvas. Some examples include: 

• You may not use generative AI for your work in this class. The work you produce should be your own, free from any AI assistance. Submitting work that contains AI-generated content will be considered a violation of Penn’s Code of Academic Integrity, and suspected use will be referred to the Center for Community Standards & Accountability (CSA). 

• It is plagiarism to submit work produced by generative AI as your own without attribution. Any use of Al must be in alignment with assignment guidelines, and all AI-generated contributions should be properly cited like any other reference material. Note that AI will not be considered a “scholarly source” for assignments requiring specific types of references.  

• You are welcome to use generative AI for any purpose in this class, provided that you cite it properly. However, note that all AI tools are prone to errors, including falsifying sources, and may even generate offensive content. You will be responsible for the accuracy and quality of the work you submit, regardless of whether it was generated by you or an AI tool. The university’s policy on plagiarism still applies to uncited or improperly cited work, whether from an AI or another human being. 

• CETLI has gathered sample AI policies from Penn faculty. 

Your expectations for individual assignments may vary based on the learning goals of each task. When introducing a particular assignment, be sure to clarify any specific AI-related expectations beyond your general policy. Some examples include: 

• This assessment will be completed in class using a secure browser; therefore, use of generative AI will be prohibited. The goal of this task is to produce evidence of your unaided critical thinking, not to evaluate the quality of your writing. I am interested in your ability to develop and communicate your original ideas, even if they are not fully polished in the limited time allotted for this exercise. 

• Remember that generative AI is not considered to be a scholarly source for the purpose of this assignment. If you select a source that was suggested to you by an AI tool, you are responsible for evaluating its quality and content. Relying solely on an AI-generated summary rather than reading the original source may lead to false claims or citations, both of which constitute plagiarism. 

• Along with your completed assignment, you are required to submit an AI-Assisted Learning Disclosure acknowledging the ways you did or did not use generative AI assistance. There are no “correct” answers. I encourage you to be honest in your responses, both as a way of practicing academic integrity and to help us learn together about specific uses that helped or hindered your process.