Faculty AI Guidelines

Faculty should communicate with their students about the use of AI in their courses. To prevent any miscommunication, faculty are strongly encouraged to outline an AI usage statement in their syllabi. Faculty are encouraged to remind students of the course/assignment AI policy periodically throughout the course and before major exams. This will prevent confusion among the students and allow a clear avenue for reporting any Honor Code violations.

Turnitin provides both plagiarism and AI writing detection reports to faculty. While these reports can be useful in examining the use of unauthorized or inappropriate use of resources, false positives and negatives do occur. For that reason, the score cannot be the sole evidence of academic misconduct when submitting an Honor Code violation. Regardless of the percentage reported, professors should still screen all their assignments for signs of academic dishonesty. Such observations may include, but are not limited to, the following:    

• The submission does not meet the assignment requirements or use concepts addressed within the course content.   
• The submission has obvious signs of AI use (hallucinations, reference to the use of a large language model, etc.).   
• The quality of the submission is inconsistent with other work produced by the student.  

If you suspect that a student has used an unauthorized resource on an assignment or assessment, you may find this blog on collecting evidence for an AI academic integrity case helpful. As always, Honor Code leadership is also here to help.  

There has been growing concern about the use of Chrome extensions to complete online assignments and assessments. We have seen an uptick in students using AI to answer assignment questions, either by copying/pasting questions into AI (such as ChatGPT), or by having an AI browser extension answer the question for them. (Common browser extensions that give students answers are Transcript, Coursology, QuestionAI, CollegeTools, and AnswerAI.) The best way to guard against such extensions is to utilize proctoring tools like Proctorio, ProctorU, and TopHat. Instructors interested in learning more about Proctorio and ProctorU can consult TXST’s Online and Extended programs overview of online proctoring. In addition, the HCC receives information from TopHat for in-class questions, homework assignments, or unmonitored tests. If you have concerns that a student may be utilizing a Chrome extension, please contact the HCC to inquire about the potential use in your class.