Artificial Intelligence FAQs

The increased availability of AI writing and design tools has raised a number of questions for instructors and students alike. Recognizing that the pace at which these technologies are developing, as well as the infancy of established best practices for AI in postsecondary education, below are the university’s current recommendations in the form of questions and answers.

Instructors who'd like to learn more about AI in higher ed are encouraged to review the Centre for Excellence in Learning & Teaching's new Teaching Resources page, join our community of practice (external link) (CoP) and/or to explore the faculty-led video presentations that have taken place during our CoP Lunch and Learns.

Should students use AI?

Unless explicitly stated by the instructor, students should assume that using AI to complete assessments is prohibited. If students use AI to complete assessments, instructors may consider it 1) misrepresentation of personal identity or performance and/or 2) plagiarism and/or 3) cheating.

For more detailed information, please see our in-depth resource: (google doc) FAQs: Academic Integrity and AI Use at TMU (external link) .

Does Policy 60: Academic Integrity prohibit student use of AI for assessments?

Policy 60 defines academic misconduct as "Any behaviour that undermines the university’s ability to evaluate fairly students’ academic achievements, or any behaviour that a student knew, or reasonably ought to have known, could gain them or others unearned academic advantage or benefit, counts as academic misconduct." (Section 3.1)

Additionally, Senate has approved the following changes to Appendix A of Policy 60, specifically, under the category of "Misrepresentation of Personal Identity or Performance":

5.5. submitting work created in whole or in part by artificial intelligence tools unless expressly permitted by the Faculty/Contract Lecturer;

5.6. submitting work that does not reasonably demonstrate your own knowledge, understanding and performance

The submission of false or fabricated material, such as data generated by artificial intelligence tools, may also be considered as cheating under Policy 60, Appendix A, Section 3.7, "presenting falsified or fabricated material, including research results".

Can instructors prohibit and/or authorize student use of AI on assessment?

In either case, yes, but be mindful of a few things:

Learn about the technology (external link, opens in new window) , external link and read OpenAI’s Educator Considerations for ChatGPT (external link, opens in new window)
Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of AI Large Language Models (LLMs) with your students
Set very clear academic integrity parameters (Are translators allowed? Grammar correctors? Can students use it to brainstorm?)
Establish citation expectations (See below for an APA example you can use until an official practice is established.)

Tool (version). Prompt: “Prompt.” Retrieved from url on date retrieved.

For example,

OpenAI (version 4.0). Prompt: “How should I cite text generated by OpenAI?” Generated at https://beta.openai.com/playground on December 6, 2022.

Can students use AI to assist with graded assignments and/or tests?

Not unless the student receives permission from the instructor.

What are some example applications that professors might consider to be academic misconduct if used for a graded assessment?

Grammarly, Quillbot, ChatGPT, ParaphraserAI, DeepL Translator, Google Translate, OpenAI Playground

Where can instructors learn how to revise assessments in light of this technology?

Practical Responses to ChatGPT (external link, opens in new window) , external link from Montclair State University

Artificial Intelligence and Writing (external link, opens in new window) , external link from the University of Central Florida

AI Technology and Academic Integrity (external link, opens in new window) , external link from York University

Eight ways to engage with AI writers in higher education (external link, opens in new window) , external link from Times Higher Education

Educator Considerations for ChatGPT (external link, opens in new window) , external link from OpenAI

Assessment Design (external link, opens in new window) , internal link from the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

What should an instructor do if they suspect a student may have used unauthorized AI when completing an assessment?

Follow the (google doc) formal process (external link, opens in new window) , external link for academic misconduct concerns. The heart of this process is a non-adversarial conversation between the student and the instructor where the instructor will be able to assess the student’s understanding of their work and educate the student on appropriate vs inappropriate use of AI.

Does the AIO endorse any AI detection tools?

No. There are a number of tools available as well as a significant amount of research dedicated to effectively watermarking AI generated text, but the tools are unreliable and potentially raise privacy concerns.

For more on AI detection, see:

Kirchenbauer, J., Geiping, J., Wen, Y., Katz, J., Miers, I., & Goldstein, T. (2023) A Watermark for Large Language Models. arXiv:2301.10226.

Kirchner, J., Ahmad, L., Aaronson, S., & Leike, J. (2023, January 31). New AI classifier for indicating AI-written text. https://openai.com/blog/new-ai-classifier-for-indicating-ai-written-text

Mitchell, E., Lee, Y., Khazatsky, A., Manning, C., & Finn, C. (2023). DetectGPT: Zero-Shot Machine-Generated Text Detection using Probability Curvature. arXiv:2301.11305.

Can instructors use AI to assist with marking and/or providing personalized feedback for student assignments?

AI can be leveraged to improve the quality of your feedback for student assignments. However, it's important to ensure that you're aware of the data privacy policies for any external tools intend to use and that you make sure you're not entering students' sensitive information or personal identfiers.

What support is the Academic Integrity Office and the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching providing for instructors?

The Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching will provide updates and resources for faculty through their new Generative AI (opens in new window) page, and is maintains a curated list of (google doc) ChatGPT/AI resources (external link) . (opens in new window)

The AIO provides presentations and workshops on AI Literacy, Leveraging AI in the Classroom, and Mitigating the impact of AI on Student Assessment. If you'd like to request a presentation, please complete (google form) this form (external link) .

Additionally, a community of practice has been formed to share resources and discuss best practices. If you'd like to join the community of practice, you can do so (google form) here (external link) .

The AIO also encourages faculty to explore these tools, test them, learn about how they work and what their limitations are, so that they're better equipped to address these matters in the classroom.

Sample syllabus statement suggestions:

“If you submit work that doesn’t reasonably reflect your knowledge of the material and/or the skills being assessed, that work will be considered to be in breach of Policy 60: Academic Integrity.”
“The unauthorized use of Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Quillbot, Grammarly, Google Translate) is prohibited and will be considered to be in breach of Policy 60: Academic Integrity.”
“Generative AI may only be used for idea generation or as a study aid, but not for the creation of submitted work.”
“Falsified citations or misrepresentation of source material will be considered a breach of Policy 60. You are responsible for the accuracy of the work you submit.”