Artificial Intelligence at PC
Artificial Intelligence at PC
Artificial Intelligence (AI) – specifically generative AI programs, such as ChatGPT – has emerged throughout the education landscape. In many ways, AI could enhance teaching and learning. In other ways, this technology could pose challenges related to academic integrity, bias, and accessibility. (UNESCO, 2023) Since the AI landscape is so vast and diverse and because it will continue to evolve rapidly, faculty should think carefully about how they want to shape and govern AI use in each of their classes. Here are a few tips to get you started and to share with your students, and some helpful links to more information on how AI is being used and addressed in higher education.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
There is no single or fixed definition of AI, but there is common agreement that machines based on AI “are potentially capable of imitating or even exceeding human cognitive capacities, including sensing, language interaction, reasoning and analysis, problem solving, and even creativity.” (UNESCO, 2023)
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a language model that allows people to interact with a computer in a more natural and conversational way. GPT stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer” and is the name given to a family of natural language models developed by open Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is also known as a form of generative AI because of its ability to produce original results. ChatGPT uses natural language processing to learn from Internet data, providing users with artificial intelligence-based written answers to questions or prompts. (UNESCO, 2023)
Think about the emergence of AI as an opportunity to reconsider learning goals and objectives for your course(s): how might different AI capabilities enhance or threaten those goals? Establishing clear course policies governing AI use – and using course learning objectives to help frame those policies – is an important step to mitigating misconduct.
Course policies around AI should also be informed by the types of tasks being assigned to students. Before revising your policies to address AI, consider possible changes to assignment design, structure, and sequencing that might significantly reduce the likelihood of students using AI maliciously and, instead, enhance learning goals.
Revise course policies in your syllabi and assignments to be clear about what tools students are and are not allowed to use for your class.
Don’t let your syllabus speak for itself – make sure to address AI usage early and often in class so that students know and understand your position, as well as what does and does not constitute appropriate use of AI in your course.
Guidance for PC Faculty on AI-enabled Tools
Every instructor is entitled to her or his own policy governing the use of AI in the courses they teach, and students are required to abide by those policies. Accordingly, reading your syllabus carefully and referring to it regularly is important. Be sure that you are clear about what tools you are allowed – and not allowed – to use in each class and/or assignment.
If there is no language governing AI use in a course syllabus, talk to your instructor and address any questions or concerns you might have about course policy. When in doubt, you must assume that using generative AI tools to complete an assignment without disclosing that use is a violation of the College’s academic integrity policy.
Remember the purpose of your education. Providence College is committed to fostering critical thinking, moral and ethical reasoning, and engaged learning among students. These goals become impossible when students use AI to simply generate plagiarized work, and those who do so are cheating themselves out of the very education they invested in. Let there be no mistake: passing off AI-generated products as your own original work is plagiarism and will be handled according to the College’s standing academic integrity policies.
Resources & Additional Information
