Guidance on Teaching Use of Generative AI

[March 2025]

T&L Commons Statement for Teaching with AI 

The decisions to use or not use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in a course lies with individual instructors except in cases where the learning outcomes specify the use of GenAI. As KPU strives to support innovation and creativity, and as interest in GenAI tools grows, it is crucial users are well prepared to teach with GenAI and to choose these tools responsibly, minimizing risks to KPU and our students. Required use in a particular course is acceptable provided the technology is selected from the list of reviewed and approved tools and the Notice of Use document is included in the syllabus.  Students may be required to secure their own paid version of these tools.

*The Notice of Use document is available at Notice of Use – Required GenAI in this course.

Use of GenAI should be guided by the following principles

It is essential that we clearly articulate to students what is or is not permissible along with our rationale for these decisions.  We are not just establishing our use, but we are teaching our learners why GenAI is or isn’t appropriate in this context.  Key elements should be included in your syllabus, and we encourage you to have discussions with your students to enhance their knowledge and skills and answer their question. More recommendations can be found on the communicating with students page. <https://dev.wordpress.kpu.ca/generativeaitlkpu/recommendations-for-communication-with-students/>

AI tools can significantly enhance productivity and are known to provide inaccurate and biased information.  It is up to the human user to review and verify any material generated by AI for accuracy before using it for any purpose.  The tools help create and the user is accountable for anything that is put into use.

GenAI tools have inherent risks related to privacy, security, equity, academic integrity and ethics in general. Additionally, our risk review acknowledges that all AI tools may produce inaccurate, biased, or offensive outputs, and that they collect data to improve the Large Language Models (LLM) powering them. This data collection may raise concerns about copyright or intellectual property violations. These are important topics of discussion and suggested consideration are available on the communicating with students page. <https://dev.wordpress.kpu.ca/generativeaitlkpu/recommendations-for-communication-with-students/>

The constantly evolving nature of these tools require us to iteratively develop our knowledge and skills to increase our digital literacy related to AI and to support our students in doing the same. Check out the page to explore resources for assessing GenAI readiness for both students and instructors. <https://dev.wordpress.kpu.ca/generativeaitlkpu/assessing-readiness/>

Look for opportunities to prepare our learners for the future while exercising relevant caution. As we experiment with these tools in our learning activities and assessment we need to reflect, revise and refine our practices. Context is important and what makes sense in one discipline may not make sense in another.