3 types of faculty AI policies your institution needs to have

Faculty must transform what and how they teach to prepare students for an AI-infused future. But, two years after the public release of ChatGPT, fear and uncertainty are stalling faculty progress: only 18% of faculty understand the teaching applications of generative AI and many faculty still think AI syllabus statements are optional.

However, as AI teaching and learning expert Marc Watkins writes, faculty don’t need to become AI users themselves to engage with AI in the classroom, helping students develop AI literacy and make informed decisions about whether to use AI. It’s time to create clear faculty AI policies that outline how faculty need to engage students with the reality of AI in their teaching and curricular practice.

Academic integrity policy alone isn’t enough

Many institutions have changed their existing academic integrity policy to allow students to only use AI in ways authorized by their instructor. While giving faculty autonomy around AI use in the classroom can be appealing; on its own, this approach ultimately leaves faculty with more questions than answers, such as:

• Does my institution have a preference on whether I allow students to use AI?
• Am I allowed to use AI?
• Do I have to talk to my students about AI?

In EAB’s conversations with 50+ institutional leaders and AI experts, we learned that institutions need to think about faculty AI policies beyond academic integrity. ‘Policy’ can mean official policy, like in faculty handbooks or institutional regulations; guidelines or guardrails to help interpret policy in light of a new technology like AI; or a mission or vision statement. To carry AI guidance through to every level of the organization and create a cascade from institutional vision to daily practice, institutions need all three of these things.

Create faculty AI policies at three organizational levels

1. Institution level: Publicly commit to embracing responsible AI innovation and AI literacy

An institutional statement communicates the institution’s overall position on AI and sets the tone and context for all other faculty-facing policies. The 24 U.K. research universities of the Russell Group released their principles on the use of generative AI in education in which they commit to supporting the development of faculty and student AI literacy and incorporating responsible AI use into teaching and assessment.

2. Academic affairs level: Enact AI use guidelines for students and faculty that align with institutional policy on data privacy and academic integrity

Many faculty are still uncertain about AI use because they lack clarity about what broad, high-level university AI policies mean for their day-to-day work (e.g., can I use ChatGPT to grade?). McMaster University’s Guidelines on the Use of Generative AI in Teaching and Learning provide detailed guidance on how students and faculty should responsibly communicate about AI and use AI tools for teaching and learning activities. These guidelines tell faculty and students how to apply existing policies to AI and can be adjusted as needed without lengthy approval processes.

3. Individual faculty level: Require faculty to explicitly communicate their expectations for AI use at the course and assignment level

Once the institution has a vision statement and a clear academic policy, now instructors have what they need to set course- and assignment-level expectations around AI use. To emphasize the importance of these expectations, Metropolitan State University of Denver requires every instructor to explicitly address their expectations for AI use in their syllabus and updated the Canvas LMS so that faculty must select one of three editable AI statements in their LMS to set up their course page. This way, faculty AI policies must be in place (even if it’s “no AI allowed”) and clearly communicated to students.

Ready to take the next step?

Download our Construction Kit for Faculty AI Resources for tools you can use today to develop AI statements, guidelines, and expectations. EAB’s toolkit includes a checklist to help you create your own faculty AI policies as well as a guide to help you respond to faculty questions about AI.