By Matt Minton – With the official launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, students and faculty all across the country are being presented with major questions about how artificial intelligence (AI) should be used in the classroom, what constitutes as “cheating” and what this new technology means for the future of higher education.

Many colleges across the country, including Ithaca College, do not currently have official state-wide policies for the entire school to follow. This leaves faculty members having to make their own decisions about how — and if — students should be allowed to use AI.

According to a survey by Forbes in October 2023, out of 500 current educators across the United States from all school levels, 60% are using AI in the classroom and 55% believe that AI has improved educational outcomes.

Jenna Linskens, director of the Center for Instructional Design and Educational Technology, pulled together open conversations with the campus community, partnering with the Center for Faculty Excellence, starting in January 2023.

“Some of the things that we heard is that faculty really needed some guidance around a syllabus statement,” Linskens said. “We pulled together and curated a list of syllabus statements from colleges all around the world and shared them with faculty so they can put those statements in.”

Linskens said she knows of professors teaching anthropology, biology and screenwriting who ban AI use in the classroom. However, some professors, like Diane Gayeski, professor in the Department of Strategic Communication, are carefully implementing it into their curriculum.

Gayeski said she started requiring AI in the classroom during the Spring 2023 semester with platforms such as Chat GPT and scite.AI. scite.AI is a tool designed to make research easier and more efficient.

“My students are going to be expected to use AI in future jobs,” Gayeski said. “It’s similar to using any other tools like [Google] Spreadsheets or Powerpoint. … It’s also an emerging technology, which is an area I teach. AI is very much on the horizon.”

Sophomore Jaimie-Kae Smith has noticed an uptick in the number of professors outlining AI policies in their syllabus this semester. In Smith’s Power of Injustice class she took during the Fall 2023 semester, she said her professor encouraged students to use AI to compare and contrast their own essays to work that AI put out about the same topic.  Read On: