• • If possible, require students to provide in-text citations and a list of their sources for written assignments, including discussion posts, projects, and papers.
  • Consider changing the resulting assignment submission from written to creative and visual or oral. Instead of a paper, require students to create presentations, infographics, concept maps, videos, etc. Also ask students to include a reflection along with their submission, where they talk about the process and what they learned.
  • Consider varying the types of information that you provide for students to use when completing an assignment. Instead of or in addition to written information that can be found online, include in-class guest speakers, videos shown in class, online videos such as TedTalks, interviews, virtual environments, etc.
    • Although created during the pivot to remote learning, instructors may find the information on that site helpful for addressing ChatGPT and academic integrity issues
    • Communicate to students via conversation, a Canvas announcement or email acknowledging your awareness of A.I. tools like ChatGPT and what your expectations are for use of these technologies in your course.
    • Add a statement about the use of AI to existing assignments. For example:

    You must complete this work entirely on your own. You may not help other students or use any online sites, technologies, tools, or sources that are prohibited. If you use any ideas, images, or word phrases created by another person or by generative technology (such as ChatGPT), you must identify their source. You may not share any information about, or from, this assessment with others.  If you have questions about these instructions, you should discuss them with your instructor before you begin.

• Assignments (and rubrics) that stress structure over process through awarding most points for organization, word counts, types of paragraphs, grammar, etc.
• Assignments that ask students commonly used questions about topics that are used for a particular subject matter. These questions typically have one correct answer and do not allow for individual interpretation in the students’ responses.  For example, asking the students to summarize a well-known theory, discuss the symbolism of a historical painting, critique a famous speech, state the pros and cons of a political policy, etc.
• Assignments that do not require students to use in-text citations and a list of sources.

It is recommended that instructors visit ChatGPT and input the text of the assignment into the chat prompt and use the tips below. Note that although access is free, you must create an account  to use the technology.

• Regenerate the response multiple times or slightly alter the initial prompt, as the results will be different each time. This will give you a sense of the variety in the responses.
• If your assignment has multiple sub-prompts, input each of them separately during a single chat session to get higher-quality results.
• Utilize the back-and-forth dialogue to refine your answers to determine the level of detail that can be obtained by more user-savvy students.

Generally speaking, you may take two positions on the use of A.I. writing tools: 1) explicitly prohibit their use, or 2) constructively incorporate their use into your instructional approach. To modify your assignments, consider the recommendations below. Your local support resources can also help.

View writing as a process rather than an outcome.  By using the writing process, the instructor can make assignments more personalized and become familiar with the students’ thought process and writing style. Use unit-long or semester-long assignments that follow the writing process, including brainstorming topics, creating an outline, writing the first draft, revising the draft and reflecting on the writing process. Require students to revise drafts based on the instructor’s review and feedback. If peer review is used, ask the students to submit their peers’ feedback along with their final draft. Consider using fewer writing assignments to ensure the instructor has enough time to carefully evaluate the students’ submissions. 

Teach skills for finding and citing sources. Using in-text citations and a list of sources can assist instructors in checking the accuracy of the students’ responses. Although ChatGPT can include in-text citations in its output,  theyare usually incorrect or contain false information. Penn State’s library offers some excellent resources for students to learn about research, including “How to” guides for research skills and information on commonly used academic citation styles. See the links below:

• https://libraries.psu.edu/guides/howto
• https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/CitationStyles

Situate your assignment in personal, local, or recent issues.  AI tools like ChatGPT are only capable of providing general information about a topic based on what is in its database, which currently only includes information prior to 2021. By using personal or local issues, a student will be limited to a generic response that they can use as a starting point, but it will require additional information from them to meet the requirements of the assignment. Students may also find this type of assignment more interesting and be more likely to write it without assistance.

Use an Experiential Learning approach: Consider elements of experiential learning, including using authentic, real-world contexts (field trips, case studies, school or work scenarios, virtual environments); presenting the assignment as a challenge; requiring students to make decisions to reach an authentic outcome; and asking students to look back and reflect on their experience.

Create assignments that use a combination of visual and written resources. Provide students with a variety of formats to inform/guide their work. Use guest speakers, videos, podcasts, virtual environments, interactive case studies, etc., in addition to textbook readings and articles.

Use course-based research. Use assignments that require active cognitive learning. Students can create and investigate research questions through interviews, surveys, experiments, and observations. These types of assignments will keep the students engaged and require them to analyze data, arrive at a conclusion that is unique to their situation, and explain how their research changed their thinking.

Consider writing alternatives. Ask yourself if original writing is an outcome of the course. If not, consider what might be the best modality for equitably assessing student learning.  There are myriad ways to assess student learning alongside authoring traditional papers, from portfolios to journals to presentations (live or recorded), to podcasts, meme assignments, and a host of other creative strategies. For now, though, instructors could measure how well a student’s thesis is supported by ideas, evidence, and arguments, and whether optimal organization is used. This could lead to presentations in place of written papers, or even collaborative writing sessions during class, if appropriate for the course outcomes.

• • Faculty should consider the following before using AI detector tools to check students' work: 

    • AI detectors may flag text that is edited by AI embedded/hidden in commonly used applications (e.g., Grammarly)
    • The accuracy of a particular detector depends on the version of the detector and both the version and the source of the tool that generated the writing
    • Instructors who believe that a student used a prohibited tool to generate coursework should discuss their concern with the student and check the student's submission for fabricated information (e.g., quotes, sources)
    • Once information is submitted to an AI detector, the detector's company can use and share that information freely

• • Given these considerations, there are several tools which claim to be able to detect A.I. writing (some are free or require payment)  including:

    • GPTZero
    • OpenAI Text Classifier
    • Originality.ai
    • Content at Scale
    • Writer.com

    You may also direct students to these sites to check their own writing.

    NOTE: many of these tools provide a percentage confidence that the submitted writing is generated by A.I. This is not definitive proof that a student used A.I. or otherwise plagiarized their work.

The academic integrity issues around A.I. generative technologies are not new and are like those around the use of more constrained generative technologies (e.g., a language translator in a language course) or the use of other prohibited sources, tools, or aids. 

Per policy G-9: Academic Integrity, an academic integrity violation is defined as “an intentional, unintentional, or attempted violation of course or assessment policies to gain an academic advantage or to advantage or disadvantage another student academically.” At Penn State, submitting artificially generated text to gain an academic advantage would qualify as an academic integrity violation if course or assessment policies prohibit use. G-9: Academic Integrityalso provides information about common types of academic integrity violations, including the use of unauthorized/prohibited tools and technologies and the misrepresentation of one’s work, words, results, processes, or ideas, in whole or in part, without attribution.

Yes,  A.I tools go beyond just writing and impact many different fields, for example:

• Arts and Architecture: Image generation tools exist that can create impressive works of art, including DALL-E and MidJourney.
• Computer Science and Information Science and Technology: ChatGPT, GitHub CoPilot and Codex assist with creating code.
• Mathematics: ChatGPT can perform mathematical calculations including algebra, calculus, geometry, number theory and probability and statistics. Its mathematical capabilities were updated on January 30, 2023.
• Medical Education: Glass AI creates treatment plans based on diagnostic data that is entered into the system.

AI tools like ChatGPT that are used in a course must go through Penn State’s Courseware Review process. In February 2023,  a request for university-wide use was submitted for ChatGPT, but it may take several months to get the necessary approvals. Once approved, instructors who use ChatGPT may want to include a module or tutorial in the first week of their course that addresses AI literacy to assist students in using the tool effectively and evaluating the information that it provides. Expectations for the use of the AI tool must be clearly explained to the student in the syllabus and on the first day of class.

While this is one option available to instructors, there are many considerations that you should be aware of prior to adopting online proctoring. Penn State has provided a document outlining these considerations. In summary, online proctoring is not the only or even the best approach to ensuring academic integrity and it should be used judiciously, and generally limited to high-stakes exams.