4.1: Developing AI Policies That Work
- Page ID
- 69822
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An AI policy is, underneath, a teaching tool. When we write AI guidelines, we name the learning we value, map the acceptable tools, and give students some reassurance in a confusing landscape.
Students get wildly inconsistent messages: some instructors say no AI ever, some quietly ignore it, some encourage experimentation with no guidance. An explicit policy clarifies which tools and uses are appropriate, lowers anxiety by making expectations visible, and shows students you understand the bind they are in.
Core Questions Behind Any Policy
- Will you allow any AI use at all? If not, why? If yes, where and how?
- Which specific uses are acceptable: brainstorming, feedback on clarity, grammar help, tutoring-style dialogue, generating counterarguments?
- What should students do with AI output: critique and verify, or accept at face value?
- How will students document or reflect on AI use?
- What commitments will you make about your own AI use?
A Four-Level Scale
Based on work by Perkins, Furze, Roe, and MacVaugh, adapted by writing pedagogy scholar Anna Mills:
Level 1, No AI: students demonstrate core skills without AI. Proctored in-class writing, timed practical exams, hands-on skill assessments.
Level 2, AI Tutoring-Style Assistance: student ideas, student words. Students use AI to help them think or refine wording but question its suggestions and do the actual work. A useful test: would an ethical human tutor help this way?
Level 3, AI Collaboration: students use some AI ideas and words alongside their own. Significant adaptation and human judgment stay essential.
Level 4, Unlimited AI: students supervise AI output for quality and accuracy but may not change it much. Rare in education, more relevant in some professional workflows.
For most CTE contexts, Levels 1 and 2 serve different purposes. Level 1 verifies that students have the essential skills. Level 2 lets AI support learning without replacing it.
Sample Syllabus Language
For tutoring-style use:
In this course, AI is welcome as support for your thinking, like a tutor, study buddy, or spell-checker, not as a ghostwriter. You can use AI to clarify ideas, generate questions, and get feedback, but the ideas and sentences you submit must be actively shaped by you.
For no-AI assignments:
For this assignment, no AI tools are permitted. This is your chance to demonstrate your own thinking and skills without assistance, which is essential for the capabilities this course is designed to build, and that your future work will require.