Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Faculty and Staff guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI can significantly enhance learning and decision-making processes, promote efficiency, and cultivate a well-
rounded academic experience. Maintaining academic integrity and character remains at the core of our
institution’s values. GCU policies about AI use are designed to prevent any violation of academic integrity
while also ensuring that our students’ privacy is well protected.

There is tremendous potential of AI to enhance the learning experience and can be used to support learning,
such as by aiding in understanding complex concepts, organizing thoughts, generating ideas, and facilitating
more effective study and research strategies. GCU stresses the importance of an individual’s direct involvement
and commitment to their academic development. AI should be used to complement, rather than substitute the
intellectual investments necessary for achieving meaningful educational outcomes and future career skills.
GCU’s Code of Conduct policy is clear on academic integrity; students must produce original work, cite their
sources, and present assessments that showcase their own learning outcomes.

Guidelines for using AI:

  • Unless explicitly approved by college leadership, AI-generated text and images are not allowed for any
    type of graded assessments, benchmark assignments, papers, projects, quizzes, presentations, and
    Discussion Questions – coordinate with discipline Chairs, course leads and the college to integrate such
    assessment practices.
  • For tasks unrelated to graded assessments, such as brainstorming topics, developing study plans,
    identifying alternative ways to complete problems, summarizing long texts, and proofreading writing,
    students are permitted to use AI like any other type of academic source material; encourage AI’s use for
    intellectual curiosity exploration.
  • Students must give credit to the AI tools they used by citing sources in accordance with university
    guidelines or via syllabus/instructor expectations, see below for format.
  • Encourage students to use AI wisely with the aim of deepening understanding to support learning.
  • Consider the variety of educational approaches that AI can bring to the classroom, such as the different
    ways to assess learning and engage students leveraging application, analysis, evaluation, and creation.
  • Slight changes of a prompt can lead to different output compromising the validity and reliability of the
    AI source – it cannot be assumed to be correct. Some AI tools struggle on recent/new information;
    current events may not be reflected in output.
  • Do not disclose personal or confidential information.
  • Do not use any offensive, discriminatory, or inappropriate content.
  • Verify the accuracy or reported facts with other trusted sources.
  • Citation and reference to an AI source format is below (APA):
    • Format:
      • Author. (Year). Title (version) [Description]. URL
    • Example:
      • OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version). https://chat.openai.com/chat.
  • If using AI detection tools to evaluate the likelihood of AI tool usage in student submissions, remember
    that these are only a guide and may not always be accurate (Singh, 2023).
  • Threats & Limitations: Any private, proprietary such as course examination or assignment materials, or
    confidential data/information put into an Open AI tool becomes available to everyone using the Open AI – it is
    not secure or private in any way. There is significant risk to personal and institutional data if caution is not used.

    Using AI tools requires the user to be mindful of protecting student privacy in compliance with Family
    Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Academic records such as examinations and course assignments
    are considered student records and protected by FERPA. Generative AI should not be used to draft initial
    feedback on a student’s essay if the input included the student’s personally identifying information. Asking the
    AI tool to respond to questions or analyze written content would not be a FERPA violation if no student
    information is provided to the AI tool.



    This document will be updated/revised as needed, Aug 22, 2023