Optional Guidelines for AI Use in Courses

Purpose

These guidelines give instructors and students a shared vocabulary for when/how AI may be used in any course context. This complements the Academic Integrity Policy (see Academic Integrity) as well as any department- or college-specific policies. The recommendations here are guidelines only and do not constitute official university policy.

Instructors are invited to select and integrate the items that make the most sense for them, given their course and curricular contexts.

Faculty should consider taking Teaching with AI at Auburn, offered through the Biggio Center, assigning A Guide to AI Enhanced Learning to your students, and seeking relevant programming from University Writing.

Students should consider taking A Guide to AI Enhanced Learning, created by Auburn Online and hosted by AU Libraries, and seek additional guidance from the Miller Writing Center and Academic Support.

Guiding Principles for Students

Faculty may share these principles with students as a point of discussion about AI ethics and acceptable practices.

Responsibility: You are responsible for the work you submit and for meeting learning goals.
Transparency: You should be explicit about whether, how, and why AI was used (see AI Contributions).
Documentation: You should document prompts, decisions, and verification steps proportionate to the assignment (for example, brief notes for small tasks and fuller records for major projects); talk with your instructor for assignment- or course-specific guidance.

Guiding Principles for Faculty

Faculty should discuss their own practices and principles related to AI ethics as well. In general, faculty should consider:

Acknowledging your use of AI tools for creating course materials
Disclosing your use of AI tools
Avoiding submitting personally identifiable or FERPA-protected student information to AI tools that have not been vetted and approved by the university, including for purposes of automated assessment
Reducing or eliminating the use of AI detectors, which are unreliable and easily fooled

Usage Level Selection

Faculty may select from among four different permission levels for their assignments, courses, or curricula.

Option 1, Open Use: AI is encouraged across the workflow (brainstorm → draft → revise) while meeting learning goals; students must disclose use and verification.
Option 2, Moderate Use: AI use is allowed for most stages; students must include an AI disclosure note describing how they used it and how they verified results.
Option 3, Moderate Prohibition: AI may be used for tasks not directly related to the creation of a final product (e.g., debug hints, study tool).
Option 4, Strict Prohibition: AI use is not permitted.

The following language (courtesy of the Biggio Center) can be adapted to syllabi and assignment prompts to describe expectations for these usage levels.

AI Policy: Permitted in this Course with Attribution

In this course, students are encouraged to use Generative AI Tools like ChatGPT or Copilot to support their work. To maintain academic integrity, students must disclose any AI-generated material they use and properly attribute it, including in-text citations, quotations, and references. Students should exercise caution when using public AI tools that may not guarantee data protection, now or in the future (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.), and avoid sharing any sensitive or private information. Examples of such information include personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), financial data, intellectual property (IP), and any other legally protected data. For those seeking a private AI tool with Enterprise Level Data Protection, Microsoft Copilot is available by logging in with their AU email and password. This ensures that chats will not be used to train external AI tools, and data will remain within the Auburn University ecosystem.

A student should include the following statement in assignments to indicate use of a Generative AI Tool: “The author(s) would like to acknowledge the use of [Generative AI Tool Name and version], a language model developed by [Generative AI Tool Provider], in the preparation of this assignment. The [Generative AI Tool Name] was used in the following way(s) in this assignment [e.g., brainstorming, grammatical correction, citation, which portion of the assignment].”

AI Policy: Permitted when Assigned in this Course with Attribution

In this course, students are permitted to use Generative AI Tools such as ChatGPT or Copilot for specific assignments or activities, as designated by the instructor. To maintain academic integrity, students must disclose any use of AI-generated material. As always, students must properly use attributions, including in-text citations, quotations, and references. Students should exercise caution when using public AI tools that may not guarantee data protection, now or in the future (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.), and avoid sharing any sensitive or private information. Examples of such information include personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), financial data, intellectual property (IP), and any other legally protected data. For those seeking a private AI tool with Enterprise Level Data Protection, Microsoft Copilot is available by logging in with their AU email and password. This ensures that chats will not be used to train external AI tools, and data will remain within the Auburn University ecosystem.

AI Policy: Not Permitted in this Course for Assignments

In this course, it is expected that all submitted work is produced by the students themselves, whether individually or collaboratively. Students must not seek the assistance of Generative AI Tools like ChatGPT or Copilot for graded assignments. Use of a Generative AI Tool to complete an assignment constitutes academic dishonesty. Students may use Generative AI tools as a study tool, but be forewarned that AI tools are not trustworthy.

AI Policy: Not Permitted in this Course

In this course, it is expected that all submitted work is produced by the students themselves, whether individually or collaboratively. Students must not seek the assistance of Generative AI Tools like ChatGPT or Copilot. Use of a Generative AI Tool to complete an assignment constitutes academic dishonesty.

Options for Allowable AI Use

If faculty elect to allow AI use, especially in limited cases, they should select one or more of the following descriptions of use types, copy the text into the syllabus or assignment, and customize as needed.

Clarify concepts, suggest readings, pose practice questions, help brainstorm, or ask questions for understanding.

✔ Allowed options by assignment type:

Short-form & essays: generate questions to plan an outline; clarify terms; simulate an audience.
Research & literature reviews: brainstorm search terms; map debates using your provided sources.
Lab reports & data analysis: explain methods, units, or statistical ideas (no data generation).
Coding/homework: explain error messages; suggest debugging strategies (no final solutions unless allowed).
Presentations: practice Q&A; outline talking points.
Study aids & tutoring: create practice questions; simulate step-by-step walkthroughs of techniques