Faculty AI Use

Teaching and Learning in an AI-Enabled World

AI invites faculty to think intentionally about what students should learn, how they should demonstrate that learning, and how assignments can reflect authentic intellectual and professional work. UNT Dallas encourages faculty to make clear, course-specific decisions about AI use and to communicate those expectations early and often.

Faculty do not need a single universal rule for every assignment. In many courses, AI may be appropriate for brainstorming, feedback, revision, practice, or professional simulation. In other contexts, AI use may be limited or prohibited because the assignment is designed to assess independent thinking, skill development, or disciplinary methods.

Faculty Quick-Start Checklist

• Decide where AI use is allowed, limited, or not permitted in your course.
• Add a syllabus statement that explains your overall approach to AI use.
• Include assignment-specific AI guidance because expectations may vary by task.
• Explain whether and how students should disclose AI use.
• Design assignments that make learning processes visible when appropriate.
• Plan how you will respond if you have concerns about inappropriate AI use.
• Review privacy and data-security guidance before asking students to use any AI tool.
• Revisit your approach during the semester as tools and student questions evolve.

Syllabus Guidance

A syllabus statement should help students understand your course-level expectations. It should also remind them that assignment-specific instructions may be more detailed or may differ from the general course policy. The most effective statements explain not only what is allowed, but why the expectations support learning. The following can be used to guide your approach:

Examples of syllabus statements by discipline, Note that UNT Dallas does not specifically endorse these statements.

Assignment guidance

Course-level statements are not enough by themselves. Students need assignment-level guidance that explains which AI uses are allowed, which require disclosure, and which are not appropriate for that assignment. The following are sample statements that may guide your approach:

• Allowed: Students may use AI for specified support tasks such as brainstorming questions, revising grammar, generating study prompts, or exploring alternative explanations.
• Restricted: Students may use AI for defined tasks only if they clearly identify what was AI-assisted and explain how they reviewed and revised the output.
• Not permitted: Students may not use AI because the assignment is designed to assess independent performance, foundational skill development, original analysis, or a specific process.

Designing assignments in the age of AI

AI does not eliminate the need for rigorous assignments. It does, however, increase the importance of assignment design. Consider asking students to show process, explain choices, connect work to course materials, apply concepts to local or discipline-specific contexts, reflect on revisions, or present orally on their reasoning.

• Ask students to submit brief process notes or reflection statements.
• Include checkpoints for topic approval, drafts, annotated sources, or peer review.
• Use authentic tasks that require judgment, context, and application.
• Invite students to critique AI output for accuracy, bias, reasoning, and usefulness.
• Design some in-class or low-tech activities when independent skill demonstration is essential.

Assessment and feedback

AI may help faculty generate feedback drafts, identify common patterns in student work, develop rubrics, or create practice materials. Final grading decisions should remain with the instructor. Faculty should carefully review AI-assisted feedback for accuracy, tone, fairness, and alignment with course outcomes.

Responding to suspected inappropriate AI use

Concerns about AI use should be handled carefully and fairly. At this time, faculty should not rely solely on AI detection tools, as these may yield an unacceptable number of false positives or false negatives.

Instead, review the assignment instructions, compare the work to course expectations, examine citations and evidence, and invite the student to explain their process. If concerns remain, follow the appropriate university procedures.

As a reference, here is the UNT Dallas Student Code of Conduct

Teaching Guidelines

Develop AI literacy: Learn the basic features of AI, so you can engage knowledgably with students and other faculty

Design with AI: Utilize AI for development of courses and assignments and other tasks

Teach about AI: Incorporate examples of AI use in your field

Communicate clearly: Advise students of your expectations around when and why they are encouraged to use AI and when and why they may not

Assess carefully: Approach student work assuming they followed your AI guidelines, though be vigilant for inappropriate use

Contact the UNT Dallas Center for Innovation of Teaching & Learning for support in integrating AI into your teaching at CITL@untdallas.edu .

Resources for Teaching

These sites provide specific resources for use in course planning, teaching, and assessment. In some cases you may need to set up an account, though all these resources are free.

Teaching with AI — José Bowen

An extensive compendium of handouts and slides and study guides and resources on teaching with AI.

AI + Education — Lance Eaton

A Substack that addresses many aspects of teaching with AI and contains an array of resources, including a library of AI prompts.

Generative AI Library for Teaching and Learning — Harvard University

A collection of short videos describing a wide range of applications of AI in the classroom.

Free AI Tools for Educators — Teacherserver

An AI tool where you can enter a prompt, such as “generate a case study in _____” or write an email to the class about _____” and it creates a draft document.

Teaching in Higher Ed — Bonni Stachowiak

A collection of print and video resources on AI literacy and the use of AI in teaching, as well as podcasts on AI in education.

AI Prompts for Writing — PapyrusAI

A collection of detailed prompts to assist students with planning, writing, revising, and presenting.

Research Guidelines

• Choose the correct tools: Identify, evaluate, and select appropriate AI technologies, recognizing and mitigating potential biases
• Apply AI effectively: Utilize AI for literature searches, manuscript editing, data analysis, and data visualization
• Use AI responsibly: Apply best practices and properly disclose AI use to collaborators, in manuscripts, and when reviewing peers
• Attend to publishing policies: Understand copyright implications and publisher requirements for AI-influenced content
• Protect your work: Ensure intellectual property rights, data protection, subjects’ privacy, and compliance with licensing

Resources for Research

These sites provide guidance for and examples of the application of AI to research across a broad range of fields. Developers have created discipline-specific AI applications and integrated AI into many legacy applications and research instruments — we encourage you to explore these with others in your field. Most journals have established guidelines for the use of AI, so consult specific journals when considering options for publication.

Effective and Responsible Use of AI in Research — University of Washington

A discussion of the strengths and challenges of using AI for research; guidance on generating ideas, writing, and publishing’ and examples of using Copilot to address questions regarding the use of AI.

Generative AI for Research Guide — University of Michigan

Guidance on the selection of AI tools, a comparison of AI tools and their uses, and guided examples.

Best AI Tools for Academics — Litmaps

A set of criteria for assessing AI tools for different types of research, as well as a comparison of common tools.

AI Tools for Research — Purdue University

A comparison of tools for researching the literature.

CITI Training on AI in Research — CITI

A webinar that reviews the basic s of AI in academic settings, the uses of AI, and issues related to integrity and ethics.

Using AI Tools in Your Research — Wiley & Sons

Generative AI Policy for Journals — Elsevier

AI Publication Policy — Sage

AI Publication Policy — Taylor & Francis

AI Publication Policy — Springer Nature

 

AI Overview, Tools, and Training