Guidance on Gen AI 

Preamble 

Over the fall 2023 semester the Generative Artificial Intelligence Taskforce (GAIT) was created and tasked with reviewing these guidelines as well as the exploration of challenges, risks and opportunities associated with Gen AI in teaching and learning at UPEI. These guidelines will continue to be updated as UPEI explores additional topics and as technology rapidly changes. 

Members of the Generative Artificial Intelligence Taskforce (GAIT) invite feedback and suggestions on these guidelines through this form. Feedback collected this semester on experiences, questions and concerns about using generative AI in teaching and learning will inform further updates as developments surrounding generative AI are dynamic.

Potential policy changes implied by these guidelines will be addressed by the relevant governance bodies. Institutional policies take precedence over these recommendations. 

UPEI acknowledges the costs of generative AI arising from significant ethical issues related to academic integrity, labour, intellectual and artistic property rights in the data sets, and the environmental impacts of training large AI models (Lawton, 2023; Li, et al., 2023; Trust, n.d.). One goal of the Generative AI Task Force (GAIT) is to educate users regarding these costs and explore ways of mitigating their impact. 

What is Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)? 

Generative artificial intelligence uses models that learn the patterns and structure of their input training data and then generate new outputs (text, images, or other media) that have similar characteristics. 

Risks of GenAI

Members of the UPEI community should be mindful that GenAI technologies pose risks, even when not used with harmful intent, potentially leading to misinformation or other negative outcomes. Such risks include the generation of misleading content (e.g., fabricating research findings, producing inaccurate summaries, or creating fictitious citations), violations of personal privacy (e.g., uploading student data with names or other identifiers), biased decision-making (e.g., perpetuating biases built into the generative AI tools), among other unintended consequences and impacts of using these tools.

Provisional Principles 

These overarching provisional principles have guided the development of these recommendations and will continue to be updated through conversations with our campus community. 

• Students want to learn, and instructors want to support their learning. 

• Participatory learning – learning which happens in relationships and community – continues to be a valuable and vital way for students to learn. 

• Assessments that require students to document the process of learning continue to be meaningful for student learning. 

• Generative AI poses risks, as well as opportunities. Individuals will have different reactions and different expectations for the technology. 

• Disciplinary differences and departmental cultures will vary around the use of generative AI.  

 Provisional Guidelines    

1. UPEI’s existing academic integrity regulations apply when using generative AI. Read Regulation 20 from the Undergraduate Academic Regulations on the UPEI website. For Graduate students it is Regulation 6 from the Graduate Academic Regulations.  

2. Instructors have the freedom to choose whether or not to use generative AI tools in designing course materials, activities, or assessments. If an instructor chooses to use generative AI, the decision should be based on course learning outcomes, the interests of the individual instructor, and conventions and expectations of the discipline.  

As with any pedagogical tool or approach, instructors should weigh the benefits of incorporating generative AI into their courses against any risks inherent to the tool or approach. Instructors should also take into account the rapidly evolving nature of generative AI technology and reassess the opportunities and risks of any tool or approach on a regular basis.    

3. Instructors with courses that incorporate generative AI should: 

• Build their own AI literacy. 

• Ensure the incorporation of generative AI will support core learning outcomes and offer meaningful learning. 

• Describe or discuss with students the strengths, limitations, and ethical considerations of the technology, including factual inaccuracies and gaps, societal biases present in the training data, and the rationale for using generative AI in the course. 

• Be aware of (and regularly review) the terms and conditions of Generative AI tools they use in their courses, including age restrictions that may preclude some students from accessing the tool(s). Alternatives for tools that require users to be 18+ should be provided for students who are under 18. 

4. If instructors use generative AI in their course and teaching materials (including for student assessment), they should describe in the course outline and/or materials the extent to which generative AI has or will be used. Instructors are responsible for the quality, ethics, and relevance of all of their course and teaching materials, including those produced by generative AI tools. Instructors using generative AI should take reasonable efforts (e.g., updating associated digital literacies) to mitigate potential adverse impacts to instruction and assessment. 

5. Instructors should clearly communicate to students if and to what extent use of generative AI is acceptable in the assessments and learning activities in their course(s) - as well as how it should be acknowledged or cited. It's recommended that instructors be very clear about their expectations regarding generative AI, and explicit when providing assignment instructions. To help reduce confusion, these expectations should be communicated in various ways, such as including them in course syllabi, on Moodle, in instruction guidelines, or when assignments are discussed in class. Explain how different instructors can have different expectations for AI tools, and if use is permitted by one instructor, this does not mean AI tools will be permitted by others (see Appendix A for example syllabi statements).

6. As with other course materials, instructors should ensure that all students have a fair and equitable opportunity to gain access to the same set of features for any tools required in the course. Any required subscriptions, including their cost and the time period during which a subscription is required, should be disclosed in the syllabus at the beginning of the course. Age-, geographic-, cost to students, and other restrictions should inform the instructor’s decision to require the tool (or provision of other activities or assessments where applicable). 

7. Instructors should be prepared to address student concerns about required Generative AI use in their courses. With the approval of the course instructor, students may opt out of learning activities or assessments that require the use of Generative AI, if opting out will not compromise the learning objectives of the course. In these cases, students will be required to provide alternative and equivalent evidence of their learning as proposed to, and agreed to by, the course instructor.

8. Instructors who include assessments that incorporate student use of generative AI should:  

• Consider including reflective components that invite students to comment on the use of/experience with Generative AI in the assessment. 

• Explicitly review criteria and/or rubrics in ways that demonstrate how the use of generative AI is being assessed (see Appendix B or the TLC Instructional Resources Hub for examples). 

• Foster a learning environment that promotes academic integrity in all course learning activities. 

9. Both instructors and students are prohibited from inputting anyone else's personal information into a Generative AI tool. This includes other students' or faculty members' personal information such as class lists, students' grades, etc. Instructors should not encourage or instruct students to input their own or others personal information into a Generative AI tool.

UPEI is legally obligated to ensure the safe collection, use and disclosure of personal information. As such all use of personal information must adhere with the UPEI Access to Information and Protection of Personal Information and Privacy Policy. Personal information includes any identifying information such as, name, address, health information, contact details, race, religious or political beliefs, age, gender, educational history (non-exhaustive list) and includes audio recordings and photographs of identifiable individuals. Please watch this video to learn more about personal information.

Instructors incorporating Generative AI tools should thoroughly review the tools’ privacy policies before use and advise students of any privacy implications. Any unauthorized disclosure of personal information will be investigated in accordance with UPEI's privacy complaint process.

10. As per the UPEI Undergraduate Academic Regulations, third-party tools designed to detect AI-generated content can not be used to substantiate allegations of academic dishonesty. Current evidence demonstrates that third-party AI-detection tools do not reliably work to detect content generated by artificial intelligence.

11. If you suspect student work may have violated the academic integrity policy, please review the steps to take and refer to Undergraduate Academic Regulation 20 and Graduate Academic Regulation 6. You may want to use this educator resource on conducting a discovery interview with a student to understand the situation.

12. Exposing a student’s work to any AI tool requires the consent of the student. Otherwise, doing so could be a breach of the student’s privacy and intellectual property rights.

The GAIT intends to continue dialogues with various units and Faculties across campuses, as well as between post-secondary institutions, to refine and expand these guidelines as new information and technology emerges, and as we learn to work with these technologies. One example includes ongoing work to explore privacy impact assessments and security evaluations on recommended generative AI tools. The GAIT recognizes that the Gen AI landscape can change rapidly. These guidelines will be updated accordingly, and changes communicated with the campus community. 

 The Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) will continue to provide training and resources for instructors on how to use generative AI effectively. Instructors can email TLC@upei.ca for support or book an appointment with an Instructional Designer. Here are additional options to learn about Gen AI use in teaching and learning.    

• Find responses to several FAQs around Gen AI the Instructional Resources Hub on the TLC website  

• Refer to resources for faculty to talk with students about generative AI available through the Instructional Resources Hub on the TLC website. 

• See the TLC Newsletters delivered to your email inbox (also archived on the TLC website). 

• Watch Campus Notices or check the Learning Events Calendar on the TLC website for upcoming workshops. 

• Request a 1-1 consultation and connect with members of the TLC team by emailing TLC@upei.ca. 

Revision History 

The original version of these guidelines was developed by the Task Force on Generative AI in Teaching and Learning at McMaster University. The guidelines developed for UPEI were shared with a small group of instructors and administrators in August 2023 to adapt them to the UPEI context. We gratefully acknowledge the feedback these individuals provided. 

The UPEI Generative Artificial Intelligence Task Force (GAIT) was formed in October 2023. As one of its first initiatives, the GAIT reviewed and revised the Provisional Guidelines in December 2023. In November-December 2024, the GAIT reviewed and updated the December 2023 Provisional Guidelines. The December 2024 Provisional Guidelines are the current version.