LDDI has developed a FoE Course Starter (template) for Canvas, UBC’s centrally-supported Learning Management System. Part of this template is a Syllabus page which is based on CTLT’s example. As per UBC-V Senate Policy V-130, course instructors are required to provide a course syllabus to their students. In addition to the other mandatory areas, the University strongly recommends including a statement about AI usage, linked to the section on academic integrity. If your course shell does not have a Course Starter, please contact LDDI.
This section features examples of AI syllabus statements and other ethics-focused literacy resources for teaching and learning with generative AI. Bringing the concerns around AI and ethics to the forefront, these resources have been designed in line with UBC’s educative approach to academic integrity.
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UBC Guidance | Examples | Classroom Activities | Tool Activities | Tool Updates | EDID | Student Hub | External Resources
UBC Guidance
Generative AI is a powerful technology that has the potential to transform the way we teach, learn, and work. However, we must carefully consider issues such as data privacy, bias in algorithms, and the potential impact on education. Striking the right balance between AI and human interaction is crucial. UBC encourages experimentation and use within the boundaries of ethical and responsible use.
Principles for Mitigating Risks
The Principles provide direction for the UBC community on using generative AI responsibly for their administrative work. Additional guidelines apply for academic use.
Top Questions
We’ve gathered frequently asked questions from our AI Corner conversations. Discover and explore answers to common queries, and don’t hesitate to ask your own.
Approved Tools for Instructional Use
Explore the tools that have been approved for required use — with caution — within a course at UBC.
Examples
Discover how some Faculty of Education instructors are guiding the AI conversation and crafting assignments to tap the potential of AI tools. If you have an example you would like to share, please send us an email.
“As with many emerging tools and technologies, generative AI technology comes with both potential benefits and real challenges; it has the potential to support and enhance learning, but can also be used to pass work off as your own. Faculty members and their departments are best placed to decide if and how to make use of such tools in their curricula, and / or as tools to support student writing.”
Simon Bates, Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Teaching and Learning pro-tem, March 2023.
AI Syllabus Statement
AI guidelines for the course should be explicitly outlined in the course syllabus, and communicated to the students at the outset of the semester so that they are aware of the parameters within which the AI tools may or may not be used.
ChatGPT Assignment
ChatGPT can be used in the courses to develop critical thinking, research, and revision skills. In particular, it can assist students in gathering multiple viewpoints, organizing information, and writing a comprehensive argument that considers all perspectives.
AI Module in Digital Media Arts Classroom
This particular module is designed to introduce basic concepts of artificial intelligence and its relevance to digital art.
Activities in the Classroom
Are you thinking of discussing the use of AI tools with your students? Are you concerned about the ethics, risks and challenges posed by these tools? We have developed a range of resources to assist you in guiding these important conversations and ensuring that students understand the significance of responsible AI usage.
Co-Constructing AI Guidelines with Students
Students engage in exploring and discussing the capabilities, limitations, and ethical considerations of AI tools, specifically focusing on their use in coursework by examining the course syllabus.
Pen & Bot: Decoding the Power of Writing and AI
This discussion activity is designed to encourage students to think critically about the relationship between writing and thinking. It aims to explore how writing aids in clarifying thoughts, expanding ideas, and the potential role of AI in this process.
Evaluating AI Text
Students are tasked with using an AI tool of their choice to generate a 5-paragraph essay on a topic of their interest. They are then asked to evaluate the output using the provided rubric, assessing the AI text for potential ethical issues and risks.
The Deep Fake Detection Challenge
Based on the MIT Labs “Detect Fakes” experiment, students view transcripts, audio, and videos of speeches by politicians. They try to identify whether the media is fabricated and how confident they are in this judgment. They are then asked to reflect on the experience.
Critical AI Tool Activities
Despite the rapid growth of generative AI landscape, many of the initial ethical concerns, such as bias, trust, privacy, copyright, equity, and transparency continue to persist. This section includes activities designed to explore AI tools through a critical lens.
Explore-Reflect-Extend
Are you planning to use AI tools and wondering how to critically assess and evaluate their output? We have designed a series of hands-on activities that follow a three-step process: Explore-Reflect-Extend, encouraging meaningful, critical and thoughtful exploration.
Explore-Reflect-Extend: Deeper Dive
Curious about how generative AI can be applied in real-world scenarios? Dive into activities that harness its power in creative ways, applying it across diverse contexts while evaluating how effectively the results meet your goals.
AI Knowledge Quest
Boost engagement and deepen your understanding with AI Literacy quizzes on AI ethics, and prompt design.
Tool Updates
AI capabilities are being included in the existing teaching and learning tools. With the guiding question, “What are these new capabilities, and what are the implications for instructors?”, this section features a selection of tools that were reviewed in this context.
Studiosity
Studiosity, an AI-powered academic support tool at UBC, helps students improve study skills, refine writing, and manage assignments through personalized guidance and ethical AI assistance.
Camtasia
Camtasia, a powerful video recording software, has released a new AI-assisted workflow that streamlines video editing, allowing users to easily add captions and effects to their videos.
Padlet
Padlet is being used in the FoE as a communication board for teaching and learning. It now includes AI not only for generating images but an entire padlet based on the prompt.
Canva
Canva, a commonly used presentation and visual design tool, has added AI features that allow an entire presentation to be automatically generated in response to a prompt.
GitMind
GitMind, a collaborative mind mapping software, has recently integrated AI functionality, allowing users to generate mind maps using AI-generated nodes and content.
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization
Despite its challenges and limitations, AI presents an opportunity to support the efforts in designing digital spaces and learning environments that value respect, reciprocity, opportunity, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Explore articles and guides for strategizing the use of AI for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization.
Accessibility & AI Tools
Before implementing AI tools, it is important to think about the accessibility of these tools, as well as how they can be harnessed for improving the accessibility of course materials and activities.
Inclusive Content & AI
This guide explores how instructors can leverage generative AI to design content that fosters diversity and inclusion, and how students with disabilities can use AI to support their learning.
Student Hub
The guidelines for AI tools have been added to the Canvas eLearning Student Help & Resources shell. When allowing students to use Generative AI in your coursework, consider directing them to these resources:
Using Generative AI
This guide addresses the FAQs on AI ethics and responsible use. It covers the risks and limitations, the policy and privacy considerations, and the requirements for referencing and citation.
Microsoft Copilot Tool Guide
Copilot is the only GenAI tool that instructors can require for student use in coursework. This guide highlights Copilot’s different features, access points, and other considerations.
Prompt Engineering
Through instructive examples, this resource provide guidance on how to write and structure prompts to get desired response from AI tools.
ChatGPT Tool Guide
Based on UNESCO’s ChatGPT Quick Start Guide, this resource provides an overview of how ChatGPT works and explains how it can be used in higher education.
Commonly Used AI Tools
Explore a curated list of AI tools for learning, research, presentation, multimedia and more. Please note that these tools are not endorsed or internally supported by UBC.
For additional resources, take a look at CTLT’s Assessment Design in an Era of Generative AI, UBC CIO Generative AI Guidance and UBC Library’s Generative AI and ChatGPT.
External Resources
How is our wider educational community responding to the challenges of AI? What insights are scholarly research providing us regarding the new generative AI tools? What approaches are being considered? This section houses emerging resources and research.
- Towards AI Literacy: 101+ Creative and Critical Practices, Perspectives and Purposes
Towards AI Literacy is an open crowdsourced collection by #creativeHE which presents creative and critical practices, perspective and purposes from educators, researchers and students between September 2023 and January 2024. - AI Pedagogy Project
A set of curated resources created by educators to make informed, intentional decisions about the role of AI in the classroom, the AI Pedagogy Project features two main sections: the AI Guide, which offers an introduction to current AI tools in educational settings with the aim of dispelling common misconceptions, and the Assignments section, an evolving collection of assignments and materials for educators curious about how AI affects their students and syllabi. - Exploring AI Pedagogy: A Community Collection of Teaching Reflections
Exploring AI Pedagogy is a crowdsourced space that facilitates reflective discussions on AI experiments in the classroom with an ethos of open, collaborative inquiry. Here, you can explore the pedagogical experiences shared by community members, including reflections on successes, failures, and results that often present conundrums. - More Useful Things: AI Resources
This site is a collection of resources from Ethan Mollick, an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the book 'Co-Intelligence - Living and Working with AI.' Mollick has been actively exploring and experimenting with how to effectively engage with AI in education. If you are looking for guidance on incorporating AI into classroom preparation, teaching, and student exercises, the Prompt Library is a valuable resource to explore. The site also features Crash Course video series on AI for educators and students designed to provide an introduction to the world of Large Language Models. - TeachAI: AI Guidance for Schools Toolkit
The AI Guidance for Schools Toolkit, licensed under Creative Commons, aims at equipping school leaders and teachers to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into primary and secondary education while understanding and mitigating the potential risks. It articulates Seven Principles of AI in Education for developing effective guidance. - AI & Ethics Presentation by Dr. Torry Trust (March 2024)
These open access slides about AI & Ethics, covering privacy and student data, bias, misinformation, hallucinations, human labor, digital divide, intellectual property rights, and environmental costs of AI, serve as a useful and well rounded resource for discussing the ethical dimensions and societal impacts of artificial intelligence. - A Framework for AI Literacy
This AI literacy framework from Barnard College offers a conceptual foundation for AI education and programming efforts in higher education institutional contexts. - The AI Assessment Scale
Leon Furze's AI Assessment Scale is a tool with five options for whether and how to allow AI use for an assignment in the course. - The Fundamentals of Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI
Developed by the UC San Diego Academic Integrity Office, this GenAI and Academic Integrity Guide covers the fundamentals for navigating Generative AI for instructors and provides guidance on creating AI policy for courses. - Teaching AI Ethics
The Teaching AI Ethics collection by Leon Furze is designed to help educators navigate key areas of ethical concern with their students.
- Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence
An initiative of Elon University‘s Imagining the Digital Future Center, in partnership with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence is designed as an AI How-to manual for college students .
- Sutherland, G. (2025). Understanding GenAI through Indigenous ways of knowing. Teacher Magazine.
In this post, Dr. Gregory Sutherland, lecturer in Indigenous pedagogies and practice at Simon Fraser University highlights how the tenets of Indigenous education can help us to reframe the discourse around GenAI from one of surveillance, academic dishonesty, and appropriation, to one that is about relationships, ethicality, and respect - Burrell, J., & Metcalf, J. (2024). Introduction for the special issue of “Ideologies of AI and the consolidation of power”: Naming power. First Monday, 29(4).
The articles in this special issue employ a constellation of terms to capture dimensions of power, such as censorship, domination, eugenics, racism, and colonialism. In using these terms, they explore how power in the field of artificial intelligence, power held by those in possession of a singular status (i.e., the ‘godfathers’ of the field) steers us away from much broader truth-seeking and richer arguments. - Elrod, A. G. (2024, March 19). The Machine-Translated Web: Signs of a New Educational Reality. EDUCAUSE
With AI models producing counterfeit knowledge and AI translation creating homogenized version of the languages, Elrod calls for the need to maintain educational standards and sustain epistemological foundations upon which education and scholarly discourse rests. - Bali, M. (2024, February 26). Where are the crescents in AI?LSE Higher Education Blog
In this LSE Higher Education blog post, Maha Bali, advocates the need for cultivating critical AI literacy in students, and shares her current teaching practices, ideas and exercises for educators. - Bozkurt, A., Junhong, X., Lambert, S., Pazurek, A., Crompton, H., Koseoglu, S., ... & Romero-Hall, E. (2023). Speculative futures on ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence (AI): A collective reflection from the educational landscape. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 18(1), 53-130.
Through fictional storytelling, the narratives in this paper demonstrate that the integration of AIEd in education is nuanced, complex, and context-dependent. The researchers conclude that the central argument in all debates is the question of what humans will do and what it means to be human if AI can do things that humans have been doing all the time. It is high time to decide how to position the value of human vs. AI-generated content.
- STORM from Stanford University is a free AI research tool trained to minimize hallucinations.
- SMARTIE (Strategic Module Assistant for Rubrics, Tasks and Inclusive Education) is an AI tool designed by University of Calgary professor Soroush Sabbaghen that helps educators design curriculum. Like an intelligent assistant, this web-based application assists educators with designing EDIA-aware course content such as descriptions, reading lists, learning activities, and rubric designs, creating learning environments which are accessible and adaptable for students.
- Assessment Partner, developed at McMaster University - MacPherson Institute, is an open-access generative AI tool that creates customized assessments for educators in post-secondary settings.
- OpenScholar, developed by the Allen Institute for AI and the University of Washington, is an open-source AI research assistant that analyzes over 45 million academic papers to generate citation-backed insights. You can use it without signing in, offering easy access to accurate and reliable scientific information.
- Costello, E., Bozkurt, A., Xiao, J., Farrow, R., Bai, J. Y. H., Nerantzi, C., ... & Asino, T. I. (2024, November). The Manifesto for Teaching and Learning in a time of Generative AI: a critical collective stance to better navigate the future. Open Praxis, 16(4), 487-513.
This manifesto critically examines the unfolding integration of Generative AI (GenAI), chatbots, and algorithms into higher education, using a collective and thoughtful approach to navigate the future of teaching and learning. - Antonio Bowen, J. & Edward Watson, C. (2024, April). Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning. John Hopkins University Press.
How is AI revolutionizing learning and how can educators adapt to the shifting landscape? In this book, José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson present research findings on the changes AI is evoking in educational and workplace settings, offering practical suggestions for utilizing AI in teaching and learning. - Buyserie, B. & Thurston, T.N. (Eds.) (2024). Teaching and generative AI: Pedagogical possibilities and productive tensions. Utah State University.
This ebook presents nuanced discussions of AI technology across disciplines, the chapters collectively acknowledge or explore both possibilities and tensions—including the strengths, limitations, ethical considerations, and disciplinary potential and challenges—of teaching in an AI era. - Heaps, T. (2024). Generative Artificial Intelligence: Practical Uses in Education. Creative Commons Attribution.
This book is a great resource for educators looking to leverage AI in positive, productive ways into their work. This ranges from using AI tools for developing courses and lesson plans, completing administrative tasks, enhancing classroom assignments and activities, to teaching students how to ethically and responsibly engage with AI. - MacDowell, P., Moskalyk, K., Korchinski, K., & Etad. (2023, December). AI-Enhanced Instructional Design. Pressbooks.
Through simple and practical examples of AI applications, this book offers a broad spectrum of instructional activities and specific uses. Across the 18 chapters, the authors emphasize the need to work together to ensure AI's ethical and responsible use in educational settings.
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