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Setting the Frame for Addressing GenAI Use in Our Classes

Originally published August 22, 2025

In this moment of rapid technological advancement, GenAI tools have provided instructors and students alike with new opportunities for teaching and learning (Brown, 2025; McMurtrie, 2025; Mollick, 2025; Mollick, 2024; Watson & Eaton, 2023). They also pose challenges when it comes to the ability of these tools to circumvent learning and their unclear impact on critical thinking skills (Warner, 2025; Lang, 2025; Shirky, 2025; O’Connell, 2025). These opportunities and challenges have led to ongoing discussions about what GenAI means for our courses and assessments. How are students using AI tools? Should we no longer assign written work?

Understandably, there are also feelings of distrust and a growing shift towards focusing on detecting GenAI use in student submissions (Mintz, 2025), unintentionally moving academic integrity responsibility away from students and further onto instructors (UCD Teaching & Learning; Eaton, 2023). So how do we shift away from gatekeeping and re-focus on creating pathways that support student learning?

Part of the teaching challenge is that students lack clarity regarding when, how, and why they might use GenAI for a particular assessment. It’s more important than ever to consider making teaching decisions more transparent to students: why are students doing an assessment? How does the assessment connect to their learning? Why should or shouldn’t they use AI tools? Revealing the “backdoor” and demystifying your assessment design intentions and goals can make the process of learning more evident for you and your students.

The following is a starting point of strategies that can be used to better understand how GenAI use can undermine or advance the learning in your course or assessment and how then to establish course policies that inform and communicate expectations with students:

Evaluate your assessments and activities for effectiveness and alignment to learning outcomes.

  • Determine what is the essential knowledge and the related necessary skills or formats required in your assessment design. Do your assessments allow for the accurate evaluation of your learning outcomes or do you need to rethink what you are assessing? For example, does a written assessment accurately reflect or demonstrate the student’s attainment of that learning outcome? Could the learning outcome be achieved through other formats (presentation, diagrams, or multimedia)?

  • Consider how students can best demonstrate their learning process to you through in-class activities, scaffolded assignments or adding opportunities for metacognition (Dyjur, 2025; McMurtrie, 2025).  

  • Incorporate opportunities for “productive failure” (i.e. opportunities to make mistakes and learn) and relationship-building as part of the learning process to support deep learning and student success on the assessments (Kapur, 2025; Felten & Forsyth, 2025). 

Examine assignments for AI vulnerabilities to make informed decisions on GenAI use. Can GenAI easily approximate what a student could do to successfully complete the assessment?

  • Familiarize yourself with the various tools available (e.g. ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini, Google NotebookLM) and how they interact with your assessments.

  • Decide on the appropriate level of GenAI use for your assessments: the AI Assessment Scale, which has five levels spanning from “No AI” to “Full AI” integration, can help you determine where you may or may not allow for AI integration into assessments. See also “What’s my stance on GenAI in this class?” (Forbes & Brandauer, 2025).

  • Develop your approach to mitigate or integrate authorized GenAI use in your assessment.   Check out our mitigation and integration strategies that support your pedagogical goals and decisions on GenAI use.

Communicate early and often. Students don’t always understand the purpose of an assessment and how it connects to their learning and academic integrity. Being in dialogue with our students regarding assessment decisions and course policies can help to create a shared sense of expectations and understanding when it comes to their responsibilities in the course and GenAI use.

  • Regardless of what course and assessment decisions you make, explain the “why” behind your decision-making for each assessment.

  • Consider co-creating course policies with your students to support student buy-in.

  • Ask students where, when and how they see themselves using GenAI in the course to encourage productive conversations about why they should or shouldn’t use the tools in that way. For example, students may want to use GenAI for brainstorming, but ideation without technology intervention may be a key learning outcome in your course.

  • Incorporate GenAI use into existing classroom discussions around academic integrity, library resources, and other course expectations regarding academic standards in your discipline. Check out Laurier’s GenAI Modules developed to teach students about GenAI and its uses in their courses. 
  • Support students in how to build knowledge by explaining why we cite others’ work, not just how. Invite them to explore the ethics of GenAI use and how the lack of or hidden sources are used to create GenAI outputs that don’t promote adequate citational practices.

For examples and ideas on how to incorporate assignments and/or discussions regarding GenAI use, check out our Faculty Spotlights:

Explore more generative AI resources in this Guide and reach out to the TEI Team to talk AI assessment design, limitations, and more! 

 

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