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Title
Developing Course Guidelines on the Use of GenAI
Category
courses
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626fd6809c9b4e30a60fc1c41b5d2371
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https://academicintegrity.ubc.ca/generative-ai-syllabus/
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https://academic.ubc.ca/teaching-learning/generative-ai-teaching-and-learning
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2026-03-11T02:48:34+00:00
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Developing Course Guidelines on the Use of GenAI

Source: https://academicintegrity.ubc.ca/generative-ai-syllabus/ Parent: https://academic.ubc.ca/teaching-learning/generative-ai-teaching-and-learning

Generative Artificial Intelligence Syllabus Language

Developing Course Guidelines on the Use of GenAI

GenAI is powerful, continually evolving and being used by UBC students. It is important to clarify your expectations for GenAI use with students. The use of GenAI tools by students for their academic work at UBC is a course or program-level decision. Whether use may be appropriate differs according to disciplinary context and course learning goals, and instructors should set clear expectations around the use of these tools as with any other tool or mode of working (group work, etc.) and reinforce this messaging through the term. Below you will find suggestions for developing course guidelines and syllabus language around student use of GenAI and communicating with students about your approach and expectations.

Considerations when developing GenAI course guidelines

GenAI course guidelines outline how and why students may or may not use GenAI in their assessed work.

As you develop your guidelines, consider the following:

Start with course learning goals

Reflect carefully on what students should know and be able to do by the time they finish your course. Consider whether student use of GenAI to complete any stage of assessments might augment or hinder their achievement of these learning goals. Might there be some assessment or aspects of assessments that students could use GenAI for while still achieving the learning goals? What do students need to learn to do themselves?

Focus on student use of GenAI to complete assessed academic work

Focus course GenAI guidelines on whether students can use GenAI to complete assessed academic work used to measure achievement of learning outcomes, rather than any and all uses of GenAI in the course. Many students are already using GenAI to support their learning in various ways (ex. searching for course-related information, explaining or clarifying concepts from classes, preparing exam study aids such as practice questions, etc.)

Consider that different approaches may be needed for different assessments

Different kinds of assessments may call for different guidance for students on how they may/may not use GenAI to complete them. For example, while in a course it may make sense to restrict GenAI usage for exams, it may be that student use of GenAI to generate an outline for an essay, or to proofread an essay, could fit with the course learning goals. Your GenAI course guidelines may need to be granular to specific assessments, or even to separate stages of some assessments.    \

Consider GenAI and assessments frameworks

The AI and Assessment Design resource on the UBC AI in Teaching and Learning website provides ideas on designing assessments that incorporate the use of GenAI and those that may help to mitigate such use. The Faculty of Arts also has a resource on designing AI-resilient assessments. Beyond UBC, the AI Assessment Scale suggests several ways that GenAI may be used in assessments (or not at all). The Digital Education Council has developed a framework that categorizes assessments into AI-free, AI-assisted, and AI-integrated, along with examples of each.  \

*Adhere to privacy and security requirements*

As noted on the UBC Privacy Impact Assessments Guidelines for AI tools, if publicly available GenAI tools require personal information for registration, instructors should make use of such tools by students optional or provide alternatives, such as letting students use an alias when logging into the site or providing an alternative non Gen-AI-based software. Note also that UBC maintains a list of AI tools that can be required for student use in courses. Avoid inputting personal or sensitive information into Gen-AI tools, and never provide your UBC credentials to anyone, including non-UBC Gen-AI tools and agents.

**Follow other UBC, Faculty, or unit guidance****

Keep in mind UBC’s AI principles and AI in Teaching and Learning Guidelines when developing your course policies, and consider including links to guidelines for reference where relevant. Also check if your Faculty, department, and program have their own requirements about GenAI course or program guidelines: some may have developed their own approaches to guide what faculty can or should include in their own course guidelines, to ensure consistency of approaches in a given academic unit.

*Take advantage of learning opportunities*

The functionality and capabilities of GenAI tools are continually changing, and while it is not necessary to keep up with everything, taking opportunities to learn about what GenAI can and cannot do, and how students may be using such tools, can be valuable for generating clear and effective course guidelines. UBC provides multiple learning opportunities, many of which are collected on the UBC AI in Teaching and Learning website.

Elements of GenAI course guidelines

When developing your GenAI course guidelines, be sure to include the following elements:

Information about academic integrity

It is important to provide general guidance to students about academic integrity in your courses along with your GenAI course guidelines on the specifics of GenAI use. This can include links to the Academic Calendar policies (Vancouver and Okanagan), UBC resources on academic integrity, and why academic integrity matters in your course and in their discipline. A high-level statement on academic integrity is available, which you could use or adapt, and your Faculty, department, or program may have their own academic integrity guidance available. Your specific GenAI course guidelines can then accompany this broader academic integrity guidance. Remind students that if their use of generative AI tools on assessments is outside of what is explained in the course AI guidelines, this might be considered academic misconduct.

Specifics on if, when, and how students may use AI in assessments

Provide information on whether students can use GenAI tools in completing their assessed work at all, and if so, be as clear and specific as possible about when and how they may do so. This may differ among various assignments within your course, and if so, be sure to provide specifics for each assignment (whether in the syllabus and/or in the assignment instructions).

*Rationale*

It is important to include a rationale in GenAI course policies to explain the reasoning behind your choices. For example, you could explain to students how and why particular uses of GenAI may augment or hinder their learning and achievement of the course learning goals, and how those goals can be valuable for them in their future studies or work.

**Attribution/disclosure requirements****

If students are allowed to use GenAI tools in their assessed work, clarify how they should attribute or disclose this use in your course. In some contexts, instructors may wish to ask students to keep records of their interactions with GenAI tools and/or document their processes in other ways. For guidelines on how to cite generative AI, see the Generative AI Tools FAQ.

Communicating AI course guidelines

It is important to talk with students about how they may or may not use GenAI for assessed coursework multiple times and in multiple ways throughout the term. GenAI course guidelines should be included in course syllabi so students can understand expectations at the start of the term. While it is not required to include academic integrity and GenAI statements in your syllabus, it is considered best practice and a way to actively promote and support academic integrity and ethical approaches to GenAI use.  Academic Calendar policies are the source for required elements in a syllabus (Vancouver: Senate Policy V-130; Okanagan: Senate Policy O-130).

Consider also having a discussion with students in class about the course guidelines and the rationale behind them, providing an opportunity for raising questions and concerns that may support further learning about ethical and responsible GenAI use. Continue to remind students of your GenAI guideline expectations during class and on assignment instructions. 10 Things UBC Students Should Know About Generative AI, a resource created by UBC students, can be a useful discussion starter or prompt and resource to share with students.

Different assessments may call for different guidance on GenAI use for students, and it is important to be as clear as possible with students about specifics. One option is to include all of these details in the syllabus. Another is to include them in separate assignment instructions, with a broad statement in the syllabus pointing students to the detailed guidance in those instructions. Sample language for both options can be found below.

Sample syllabus language

The following examples provide illustrative syllabus language for course guidelines around student use of GenAI for assessed work. This language can be adapted based on specific needs and particular contexts. The following is not recommended language but rather provides sample ways that an instructor can approach communicating their course AI policy on their syllabus.

Departments and Faculties may have their own syllabus language around GenAI use available. If you are unclear about particular course or program guidelines, or have questions about expectations for courses with multiple sections, contact your Department Head.

*Sample broad syllabus statements*

These are examples of types of GenAI course guidelines statements that may be used in a short section of a syllabus, with more details provided in assignment instructions.

**Sample longer statements about GenAI use for assessments****

**These are examples of longer syllabus statements that provide a few more details, though it may be helpful to elaborate further in class or on assignment instructions.****

Research paper

This course is designed to help you develop your own research and writing skills. You may use GenAI tools to support some of the steps in the research paper projects, but your writing must be your own.

GenAI tools may be used to:

GenAI tools may not be used to:

Disclosure requirement:

Problem Sets

There are weekly problem sets in this course that are for practice and marked for completion. The focus is on your effort and learning, and working on the problem sets will help you prepare for exams in this course.

GenAI may be used to: Get help with one or more problems if you find yourself stuck. To best support learning, try the problems yourself first, and then if you are having trouble you could ask a chatbot for help as you might ask a professor or TA (rather than asking it to simply solve the problem, which won’t necessarily help you to understand how to do so.)

Disclosure required: If you do use GenAI on weekly problem sets, you must submit an explanation of the tool you used and a description of how you used it, as well as a screen shot of (at least part of) a chat or a link to the chat.

Group projects

The group project needs to demonstrate what your group has researched and learned, and so while GenAI may be used to help with planning and preparation, your group members must complete final deliverables without GenAI.

GenAI tools may be used to:

GenAI tools may not be used to:

Disclosure requirement:

AI disclosure: ChatGPT was used to suggest revisions of some of the text above to make it more concise; any such suggestions have undergone human review & revision.

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