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Generative AI in the classroom

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Daniel Veres

On August 30, Provost David Kotz '86 made the following announcement:

To the Dartmouth community,

As we embrace the energy and excitement of a new academic year, I write to update you about current Dartmouth guidance on the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the classroom.

GenAI includes a range of technologies that produce text, images, video, or other content, given an example or a textual prompt. Well-known tools include chatbots such as ChatGPT and image generators like DALL-E. Faculty, students, and staff across campus (and around the world) are already discovering new opportunities for the use of these increasingly powerful tools in teaching, learning, and research. We know that many of you have questions about their use in the classroom context.

Instructors: please include specific language in your syllabi and course materials indicating the extent to which students are allowed (or encouraged) to use GenAI tools in their coursework. You may find DCAL's teaching guidelines to be helpful; the guidelines are updated as the environment changes and were most recently edited on Aug. 8. DCAL will host two events next week to help faculty make decisions about the use of Generative AI in their classes:

Students: please engage with your instructor if you have any questions about whether and how GenAI tools may be used in your coursework. As with any technology, the misuse of GenAI to cheat or plagiarize violates the Dartmouth Academic Honor Principle, and so violates our standards of conduct.

Many faculty may be interested in learning more about the effective and responsible use of GenAI in the classroom. To that end, I have asked Professor Scott Pauls, director of DCAL, to lead a working group to develop a program to support faculty who want to make innovative use of these tools in their pedagogy, and support them in doing so. The working group will also advise on the curation of informational resources for faculty committed to learning about and using generative AI in their classes.  

We recognize that faculty and students have varying levels of concern and excitement about this new technology, which has the potential to radically change how we think about both learning and teaching. As with many innovations in higher education, we are at the beginning stages of understanding the opportunities and challenges of this resource. Adapting to the tools of GenAI, while holding fast to our core commitment to the highest standards of teaching and learning, will take patience, goodwill, and a willingness to experiment. Dartmouth has always prided itself on being an educational leader, and I look forward to seeing us lead here as well, as we embrace an AI-enabled world.

David Kotz
Provost
Professor of Computer Science