AI Use Policy
Overall Course AI Status: 🟢 Green with limits. This course is about learning to use generative AI effectively and responsibly, so AI use will eventually be required for some course work. However, the appropriate role of AI changes throughout the semester. In early programming work, you will write and understand code yourself before increasingly using AI to generate, modify, and analyze code. Individual assignments will clearly indicate what kinds of AI use are permitted or required. Alternative assignments that avoid AI are not available when AI use is an explicit learning objective.
AI is a tool for expanding what you can do. It is not a replacement for the thinking that matters: framing the problem, deciding what counts as good, interpreting evidence, making the decision, and saying what you actually mean.
Labs, AI in My Field, and the final project — Green when indicated (permitted or required, with disclosure) 🟢
When an assignment is designated Green, you may or must use AI as directed. Every individual Green submission includes a short AI-use note: what you asked the tool to do, what you accepted or rejected, and what you checked and how. You are responsible for every result you submit and should be able to explain any part of it without the tool.
For the final project, the group’s deliverable includes one AI-use note covering the whole project, and each member also keeps an individual contribution and AI-use log, submitted with the deliverable. Every member is responsible for everything the group submits, including work another member did with AI, and should be able to explain any part of it in the Q&A.
Preparing for discussions — 🟡 Yellow
You may use AI to help you understand a reading, look up an unfamiliar term, or generate questions for discussion. You may not use it to produce the writing you do in class, and you should come to discussion having actually read, watched, or listened to the assigned material.
Individual in-class assessments and the final presentation — Red (AI not allowed) 🔴
Some in-class activities are designed to assess your own understanding and reasoning and must be completed without AI. The final presentation and individual Q&A are also completed without AI. Using AI on a red-light component is academic dishonesty. You may use AI to prepare for the presentation—for example, to practice explanations, anticipate questions, or help draft slides—but any such use must be disclosed.
Think before you paste
Before you share anything with an AI tool, ask five questions. Is this mine to share? (Your own words and work, usually yes; someone else’s work, grades, health, or finances, no.) Does it say something about me I would not want kept: my health, my money, passwords or ID numbers, where I live, private messages? Could it identify or embarrass a real person, including me? Would I be comfortable if it were kept and read later? Which account am I using, and what does it promise about what happens to what I paste? Your own information counts as much as anyone else’s. We will practice this in week 1 and return to it when you design workflows and propose your project. In addition:
- Do not upload or share concept-check or check-in questions with AI tools.
- Do not use AI to evade policies (e.g., “rewrite this so it passes a detector”).
- Do not treat AI as automatically correct; check it against evidence and your own understanding.
- Do not represent AI-generated work as entirely your own when it is not.
Transparency: how I use AI as instructor
I use AI tools extensively in developing this course: drafting and refining course documents and policies, organizing the course site, drafting and testing activities and question banks, preparing slides, and generating audio for narrated material. I always review and edit AI-generated content before it reaches you. I may experiment with AI assistance in giving feedback, but I am responsible for the results, and any personal data is handled in accordance with Hope College’s data policies. If you are ever unsure whether a particular use of AI is appropriate, please ask.