Understanding and Addressing Use of AI

Allison McComb Updated by Allison McComb

Understanding and Addressing Use of AI

As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools becomes more prevalent, it is essential for eCornell to establish clear guidelines for their use within our courses. This page outlines our policy on the appropriate use of AI, emphasizing academic integrity, proper attribution, and permissible use. It also provides practical guidance for addressing suspected misuse of AI by students in alignment with eCornell’s Code of Conduct and facilitation standards.

Ultimately, eCornell students are allowed to use AI to help enhance their own responses. However, they may not use it to solely create their responses, per the eCornell code of Conduct. Notable information from our code of conduct in regard to AI include:

Permissible Use: AI tools may be used for specific course-related tasks as long as they comply with the course guidelines. If the course or assignment specifies limitations on AI use, students are expected to adhere to those rules.

Prohibited Uses and Academic Integrity: Using AI to create false, misleading, or harmful information is prohibited and may result in disciplinary action. When using AI tools, students must ensure that work remains original and reflects their own understanding and analysis. AI should not be used to solely complete assignments.

Proper Attribution: If students use AI tools to support research or writing, they should provide reference where applicable.

Responding to suspected AI use:

Our general stance regarding AI, similar to other sources of information, is if we are certain a student uses AI in their work (i.e, verbiage that indicates “Written by Chat GPT”, for instance), we are able to reference the source and indicate the requirement for an original response.

If you are certain a student used AI to create their response, it would be reasonable for you to comment on the students assignment with guidance such as the following:

"Hi [Student Name] it appears much of your course project has been AI generated, can please update your response using your own words and content from this course [provide an example of a tool they may find the needed information in within the course]? Thank you! 

Please note, per the eCornell code of conduct, which you can find on this page, that we do require any use of AI to be properly attributed, and that students may not use AI to solely create their assignment responses”

Oftentimes AI-generated responses do not cite specific tools and information found within the course at hand. You may find it helpful to, when asking a student to re-submit or use first person statements, encourage them to use specific resources found within the course. In these situations, directing students to relevant tools, videos, or page names within the course may help them resubmit without the use of AI.

Once the student resubmits their work, as long as they meet passing requirements for the assignment, you are able to provide them a passing grade. If a student disputes their use of AI after you have asked them to resubmit, do your best to grade impartially based on the assignment rubric alone. In accordance with our standards of facilitation it would be appropriate to request resubmissions, accompanied by specific feedback, if a student has not met passing qualifications. 

If a situation should escalate to be disruptive or disrespectful, please reach out to Facilitation Support Team (ec_facilitation@cornell.edu), with your PFM included to advise on next steps

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