Creating an AI Course Policy Workshop Kit

This workshop kit will help your audience write a clear and comprehensive AI course policy statement for their students that can then be used within the course syllabus.

Workshop goal and objectives

This workshop can help participants think about if and how students might be allowed to use generative AI tools in their course and how to communicate that policy through the syllabus. The workshop provides example course policies, important pedagogic considerations, and sample language to help participants generate a draft AI course policy statement. 

After completing this workshop, participants should be able to:

• Reflect on the purpose(s) of syllabi and course policies.
• Compare different AI policy syllabus statements.
• Determine an appropriate policy for their course.
• Begin drafting an AI policy statement for their syllabus.

Audience

This workshop is intended for instructors and staff writing an AI course policy statement for their syllabi.

Time

This workshop is approximately 60 minutes in length.

Key strategies

This workshop leverages active learning strategies and is focused on the practical task of writing a course policy statement. The workshop uses a worksheet activity to structure the task of writing a draft policy statement.

Consider the following strategies and perspectives when developing this workshop.

• Acknowledge that every course is different and that instructors have the authority and responsibility to decide their course policies.
• Encourage participants to align their policy to the needs of their students, whether that prohibits, supports, or limits AI use.
• Provide a variety of example syllabi statements and language for participants to consider.

Reading list

Consider these resources as you prepare to lead this workshop.

Artificial Intelligence Teaching Guide: Web-based resources from the Stanford Teaching Commons

• Creating your course policy on AI

Relevant Stanford campus policies

• Generative AI Policy Guidance, Stanford Office of Community Standards
• Guidance on the Standard Sanction, Stanford Office of Community Standards

General resources about syllabi

• CTL Syllabus Template, Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning
• Should You Add an AI Policy to Your Syllabus?, Chronicle of Higher Education

Example AI course policy statements

• Classroom Policies for AI Generative Tools, created by Lance Eaton

Slide presentation with speaker notes

Here you can find slide presentations for this workshop in different formats. The PDF version of the slides is useful for skimming and previewing the workshop. View the slide notes for additional context and sample scripts. We then recommend downloading the full PowerPoint presentation to adapt and customize. The full PowerPoint presentation includes speaker notes, sample scripts, and additional optional slides from other AI workshop kits.

Workshop agenda

This suggested agenda proposes a workshop that balances content presentations with learning activities. This agenda is a starting point as you adapt it to fit your audience.

• Introduction (10 minutes)
  • Lecture and slide presentation
  • Slides 1 to 6
• Warm-up activity (5 minutes)
  • A small group discussion on what is currently included within our syllabi.
  • Slide 7
• Analyzing example AI policy statements (10 minutes)
  • Lecture and slide presentation
  • Slides 8 to 13
• Considerations for deciding your policy (15 minutes)
  • Lecture and slide presentation
  • Slides 14 to 21
• Worksheet activity (15 minutes)
  • An activity where participants generate a draft of their policy statement using a worksheet
  • Slides 22 to 23
  • Worksheet for creating your AI course policy (84.6 KB)
• Wrap-up (5 minutes)
  • Participants complete a short summative assessment and evaluation survey.
  • Slides 24 to 25

Promotional resources

You can use the following sample language to promote your workshop. This language was created with assistance from ChatGPT. Consider using AI tools yourself to generate other promotional material, such as promotional images, to get more practice using generative AI tools.

Assessment and evaluation survey

This survey serves multiple functions. It gathers demographic information about the workshop participants, evaluates the workshop's effectiveness, prompts metacognitive reflection, and gathers feedback on improving the workshop. The survey was created in Google Forms. Make a copy of the survey to adapt and keep in your Google Drive.

Preview the example survey as a responder.

Create a copy of the example survey (Stanford only). Log in to your Stanford Google account, then use the link to make a copy in your Google Drive to edit and distribute.

Feedback on this workshop kit

Please respond to the poll below to share your feedback on this workshop kit. Your feedback will help us improve this workshop kit and develop resources that support your teaching. Your anonymous responses will be seen only by the Teaching Commons team. Please respond to the prompt, "What feedback do you have for the creators of the Creating an AI Course Policy Workshop Kit?"

Author and attribution

Kenji Ikemoto, Associate Director for Academic Technology at the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning, created this workshop kit in June 2024.  

This workshop kit is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 (attribution, non-commercial, share-alike). You may adapt, remix, or enhance these modules for non-commercial use. Please attribute it to the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning. We ask that you also share your work under the same licensing terms. 

Contact

If you have questions about this workshop kit contact us at TeachingCommons@stanford.edu. 

Stanford community members are invited to request a consultation with experts at the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL).