Generative Artificial Intelligence

Generative AI is transforming how we teach, learn, and assess. The resources in this section support Fleming faculty as they explore ways to ethically and creatively integrate AI into their practice, especially when designing assessments and supporting student learning. 

On this page you’ll find information on: 

 

What is Generative AI? 

Generative Artificial Intelligence (generative AI) creates new content based on what it has learned from existing content. The process of learning from existing content is called “training” and results in the creation of a statistical model. When given a prompt, generative AI uses this statistical model to predict what an expected response might be and provides new content.

For a 20-minute overview of generative artificial intelligence, you can watch this video from Google:

Concerns with Generative AI

Privacy

Privacy is the responsibility of everyone at Fleming. Generative AI tools are not search engines and “take” what you give them: 

  • Anything submitted to generative AI tools and becomes the property of that tool, which can lead to privacy and intellectual property issues. Faculty and staff must consider college policies for privacy and intellectual property by not submitting others’ information to any generative AI tool. 
  • ChatGPT will take credit for works submitted as if it generated it itself. It does this by remembering everything that was submitted, and it is employed to evolve the AI model used for future results. ChatGPT may also falsely take credit for content it learns. 

Ethical Considerations

  • Generative AI tools may reproduce or amplify harmful biases present in the data they were trained on, which can influence the accuracy and fairness of outputs. 
  • Relying too heavily on AI can limit opportunities for students to develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity skills that are central to their learning.

 AI Guidance at Fleming 

Faculty should provide examples and direction for students on appropriate use allowed in their course(s). The course outline is the best way to make clear your course expectations.  Where explicit adoption is not made clear, the assumption will be that use of generative AI is not permitted in the course. There are three examples of course outline statements that faculty can adopt to help provide clarity to students around generative AI tool use in their classes. 

Course Outline Statements 

  • NO USE: Use of generative AI tools (like ChatGPT) are not permitted in this course. 
  • NO ASSESSMENTS: Generative AI tools (like ChatGPT) may only be used to assist exploratory learning and cannot directly contribute to any assessment as part of this course. 
  • SOME USE: Generative AI tools (like ChatGPT) can only be used where directed in this course. 

Further, to help faculty address questionable assessment submissions, it is also recommended students document their drafting process. This requirement can be communicated in the course outline as follows:

DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENT: It is the responsibility of students to maintain a history of records and support documentation to demonstrate their efforts in all academic submissions, even if submission of these is not part of the final academic deliverable. 

Students with accommodations registered with Accessible Education Services might have some permitted use, even if faculty decide to disallow generative AI tools within their courses. The Letter of Accommodation for students would address this. Faculty should discuss how best to use generative AI tools with the accommodated student and their counsellor, if needed. 

The existing Fleming College Academic Integrity Policy 2-201A is to be used where a student submits work that is not their own original work. 

AI detection tools claiming to detect generative AI content may lead to “false-positive” detection, where the tool flags content as AI-generated when the student authored it themselves. These detection tools are currently not reliable and as such are not to be used to evaluate student work  

Some Best Practices for Teaching with Generative AI 

  • Faculty can connect with industry partners and professionals to learn how or if artificial intelligence is/will be used in their day-to-day work and activities. Consider the appropriateness of introducing artificial intelligence as a learning strategy if it is leveraged in the industries and professions students are studying toward so that we are preparing graduates for the careers they plan on pursuing. 
  • Class discussions can help students understand why AI tools are or are not allowed in classes. Here are some ways to go about this: 
    • Explain how generative AI connects to the learning outcomes of the course and why certain assessments require students’ independent thinking and skill development. 
    • Explore with students where AI might be a useful aid (for brainstorming, drafting, or practice) versus where its use could interfere with authentic demonstration of learning. 
    • Encourage students to share their perspectives and experiences with AI tools, which can lead to a more transparent and collaborative understanding of when use is acceptable. 
    • Reinforce professional and ethical expectations, linking AI use in class to real-world standards in the students’ chosen fields. 
    • Create shared class agreements about AI use so students feel included in shaping how technology is integrated into their learning. 

Resources and Recommended Readings 

LDS Team

Fleming Library

Other

  • This Twitter thread from Andrew Piper of McGill University, offers some practical considerations for how to address the use of AI in your courses, including the “AI Disclosure” wording he uses with his students. 
  • The Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) outlines principles and strategies for designing assessments that respond to and incorporate generative AI in this briefing paper: Assessment and GenAI 
  • The Power of AI and Future of Education is Now: How Teachers and the Taught Can Create the Teaching: A few tips on how post-secondary educators and adult learners can create teaching together, and how AI can empower both.  
  • AI can do your homework. Now what?: A VOX video news article. In this video, students and teachers talk about how they’re thinking through the problem of LLMs, and review research in the science of learning to understand how the “fluency” of a chatbot experience could disrupt the learning process that we go to school for. 
  • A Collection of AI-related links: A collection of AI-related links curated and organized into categories by Fleming faculty member Andrew Bohart. 
  • One Useful Thing: A blog by Professor Ethan Mollick. Trying to understand the implications of AI for work, education, and life. 
  • A Practical ChatGPT Toolkit for Teachers: The toolkit serves as an empowering guide where the teacher becomes the expert, and the AI tool is the assistant. Teachers will learn to instruct and program ChatGPT with words to make it perform a specific task adapted to their specific context. 
  • AI for Educators is a resource designed for educators by educators to support the productive and responsible use of generative AI in teaching and learning.