Guiding Student AI Usage in Activities
Overview
Generative AI represents a fundamental shift in the academic landscape. Rather than an outright ban, which is often unenforceable, the most effective approach is to guide students in using these tools ethically and intellectually. By doing so, we can uphold academic integrity while teaching the critical inquiry and digital literacy skills essential for their future careers and scholarship. Integrating AI into your pedagogy, rather than simply forbidding it, allows you to shape its use and achieve key learning outcomes. A clear course policy and activity guidelines helps you teach students the appropriate uses in their educational and professional work.
Be clear in your syllabus
Boise State has developed several sample syllabus statements about AI use. Review the sample syllabus statements and determine how you want to address this in your syllabus. Also, check with your college or department to see if they have any guidance or policies.
Be clear in your course activities
AI use varies between instructors and course activities, so consider clear expectations in each activity
Consider if AI is becoming a standard tool in your industry and how students should leverage it effectively and ethically.
Consider which activities could use AI to handle lower-order tasks like summarizing or defining terms. This frees up student time to focus on more critical thinking and complex tasks
Consider which activities are intended to evaluate the student's understanding and skill and explain the reason behind the restrictions for using AI.
Example Activity Guidance
The instructions here are only suggestions. These should be modified for your particular course and activity. The icons are shown in large size on this page, but you can use them inline with text in your Canvas course as demonstrated below.
AI Use is Allowed for this Activity (Following Specific Directions)
It is acceptable to use AI for specific steps in this activity, as stated in the directions below.
If you use generative AI, you must not let this tool replace your thinking and work. In fact, it’s your responsibility to ensure you are fully engaging in learning and submitting authentic work.
If you use AI tools in support of your work in this course, cite any ideas, text, images, or other media generated by the tool.
Some AI Use is Allowed for This Activity (Proceed with Caution)
Please utilize it strategically and cautiously. You may utilize AI to [generate basic ideas for how to start this assignment, summarize information, create an outline, brainstorm, edit style/tone/grammar, improve readability, write a draft, generate images, explain concepts, generate extra practice …]; however, be extremely wary of using AI to [draft an essay, compose a reflection, compile search results, summarize information, look up answers, copy solutions, determine what is and is not true…] These tools frequently produce inaccurate information, including fabricated sources and findings. If you use AI in this way, you must add an additional step of verifying the information, which often takes more time than simply reviewing and assessing the materials yourself.
If you use generative AI, you must not let this tool replace your thinking and work. In fact, it’s your responsibility to ensure you are fully engaging in learning and submitting authentic work.
If you use AI tools in support of your work in this course, cite any ideas, text, images, or other media generated by the tool.
AI Use is Not Allowed for This Activity
While AI can be super helpful in many ways, it's really unreliable for things like summarizing information or finding sources. These tools often make things up, like fake sources or incorrect details, which can really mess with your research. Having AI write all or parts of your paper for you bypasses the goal of the activity: [add goal of the activity]
I am not allowing the use of generative AI on assignments in this course because you must not let this tool replace your thinking and work. In this class, I’m asking you to take responsibility for fully engaging in learning and submitting authentic work.
Downloading and Using these Icons in Canvas
Right-click the icons in this article or download all icons from Canvas
Download the .svg file (this file type works on websites and Canvas, but will not work in Google or Word document. Please use the following files in a Word or Google documents AI Limited.png, AI Not Allowed.png, AI Allowed.png)
Go to your Canvas course and follow the instructions for uploading and using the icons in Canvas.
Uploading and Using Icons in Canvas
Method 1: Upload Icons Using the Rich Content Editor
Best for: When you're already editing content and want to upload and embed an icon immediately.
Access the image tool
Click the Images icon in the Rich Content Editor toolbar
Upload your icon
Select the "Upload Image" tab
Drag and drop your icon file directly into the upload area, OR
Click "Click to browse" to select the file from your computer
Complete the upload
Click "Submit" after selecting your icon file
If you selected "Embed image" in Display Options, the icon will automatically appear in your content
Method 2: Upload Icons to Canvas Files
Best for: Uploading multiple icons at once or organizing files for future use.
Navigate to Files
Click "Files" in the course navigation menu
Upload your icons (choose one method):
Drag and drop: Drag icon files directly from your computer into the Files area
Upload button: Click "Upload" and select files from your computer
Embedding Previously Uploaded Icons
Use this when: Your icons are already stored in Canvas Files and you want to add them to assignments or pages.
Position your cursor where you want the icon to appear in the editor
Access course images
Click the Images icon in the Rich Content Editor toolbar
Select "Course Images" from the dropdown menu
Insert the icon
Click on your desired icon file from the menu
The icon will appear at your cursor location
Canvas Help Guides
How do I upload a file in Files?
How do I upload and embed an image in the Rich Content Editor?
How do I embed images from Canvas into the Rich Content Editor?
General Best Practices for Icons
Placement: Place at the far left position with the text immediately to the right
Size: Do not resize the icons via Canvas Image Options.
Accessibility: The images should be marked as Decorative in files and on the page or assignment that you are using the icon.
Provide resources to teach students how to use AI responsibly
College-level work demands more than basic knowledge. You can teach students sophisticated prompt engineering for nuanced research, how to critically evaluate AI output against scholarly sources, and how to understand the inherent biases of AI models. You can also rely on some of our Boise State resources to teach students.
AI Playbook for Students using our university-built generative AI platform https://boisestate.ai
When permissible, students can engage with a variety of AI models to augment research, communications, problem solving, and more.
It provides practical prompts for adaptation and other means for making the most of their AI interactions.
Ai Literacy and Student Success Course
BroncoLearn has an online course on artificial intelligence (AI) and academic success that can be an assignment in your course to help students explore and learn more about how AI can be used responsibly in their academic work.
Related Information
A Stoplight Model for Guiding Student AI Usage, by Samuel Mormando
Review Boise State sample syllabus statements about AI use.
The AI Pedagogy Project - examples of AI assignments