Five Principles for Effective and Ethical Generative Ai Use in Your Class

Description

This introduces 5 principles to support instructors in transitioning their assignments and assessments in the wake of developments in Generative AI.  More importantly, it helps instructors consider the effective and ethical use of Generative AI in a discipline specific manner that they will then teach to their students.  

Objectives

Provide a broad perspective for a fulsome approach to education.  

Student-Centered approach 

Objectives AI 

Assessments and activities are designed with AI in Mind to: 

Reflect the world the students will experience as graduates.  

Avoid assignments and assessments where GenAI is “tacked on”.  

Steps for Activity 

Instructors preparing their course syllabus, lesson plans, educational activities and assessments consider the 5 principles to meaningfully integrate GenAI into their educational plan.  

The Model 

Why? 
  • Generative AI is reshaping society for good or ill. Industry expects Post-secondary will determine the ethical and effective way forward. This is another way of saying Industry isn’t remotely interested in figuring out the ethical or effective use of GenAI.  We need to introduce our learners to GenAI early on and contextualize it in society, and their chosen discipline academically and for their careers.  
How? 
  • Update course content to include current and expected future impacts of GenAI within the discipline.  
  • Discuss GenAI openly, how it is being used and how you have used it your selves.  
  • Emphasize that learning to use and critique GenAI is critical to their education and careers. 
  • Openly discuss integrity (academic and in general) as part of their education and career from a discipline specific perspective. 
Why? 
  • Students need clear guidance and practice on ethically and effectively using GenAI without crossing integrity lines. 
How? 
  • Your choice of educational activity or assessment have direct impact on integrity questions. Be deliberate with your choices. 
  • Appropriate use will differ discipline to discipline, class to class. Full, clear guidance must be explicit for each activity or assignment.  
Why? 
  • Students must develop their own awareness of when and how to effectively and ethically use these and other tools to advance their learning.  
  • While the student is ultimately responsible for the choices they make, as educators, we must do what we can to educate our students well so they may make informed decisions.  
How? 
  • Understand and discuss how and when using AI will deepen learning.  
  • AI for learning and AAI for professional competency may be different. Understand this and discuss openly with your students.  
  • Often subject competency at higher levels requires competency at lower levels.  To develop lower level competency, AI use may be restricted. Understand this and discuss it with the students when restricting use.  
Why? 
  • Learning how to leverage a tools strengths and weaknesses promotes deeper learning of the tool and the content.  
How? 
  • Understand the tools strengths and weaknesses yourself.  the T&L commons and other departments have produced reams of resources to support your role, and none of these will be discipline specific. Then best way to obtain this discipline specific information is to work with the tool yourself.  
Why? 
  • AI may change what students need to learn, how they learn it and how we assess them.  
  • Since GenAI can pull up names, dates and write coherent works instantly, do your students need to do this? How else can they be assessed?  
How? 
  • Update curricula to include GenAI as a professional tool.  
  • Assessments should reduce AI misconduct and be authentic demonstration of knowledge skills and attitudes. 
https://lx.uts.edu.au/collections/artificial-intelligence-in-learning-and-teaching/resources/five-principles-for-effective-ethical-use-generative-ai/