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AI is increasingly a central aspect of conversations around academic integrity at UNL. The rapid development and improvement of AI tools, along with their integration into almost every technology without clear labeling, make detecting and responding to AI use a massive challenge for instructors. The degree of impact on any specific course depends on the course’s level, assessment types, and topics covered. For example, academic dishonesty through AI may be more likely in an introductory writing course than a graduate-level mathematics course. Even the graduate course likely has some susceptibility to AI, depending on the assessments used and the level of AI understanding that students have.
In this resource, we explain how the UNL code of conduct has been updated to incorporate inappropriate AI usage and discuss what steps instructors should take if they suspect an academic integrity violation.
While the information on this page is important for instructors responding to challenging situations, it is useful to pair this with making efforts to avoid these violations in the first place. See this page for ideas on how to update your assessments and course policies to encourage academic integrity.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Student Code of Conduct
At UNL, instructors are allowed to set their own course policies regarding AI use. Due to the wide variation around campus, it is required that faculty include their AI policy in their syllabus.
To help support instructors in enforcing their AI policies, the Student Code of Conduct has been amended to the following text. Previously, it made reference to using work from “someone else”, but now it says “someone else or an entity.” This is intended to ensure that using artificial intelligence (or any other technology) and claiming the output as one’s own work, is an infringement unless the student is given explicit permission from the instructor to use those technologies.
Cheating
1.b. Using materials or resources during an exam or for an assignment that are not authorized by the instructor.
1.i. Taking all or part of work that someone else or an entity prepared and submitting it as one’s own.
Dishonesty, Falsification, and Fabrication
2.d. Engaging in plagiarism by presenting the words or ideas of another person or entity as one’s own.
What to do if you suspect a conduct violation
Inappropriate use of AI should be treated the same way as any other academic integrity violation. The EVC’s website outlines a three-step process that should be followed for any suspected academic misconduct. That website also includes guidance for how to best implement each of these three steps.
- Talk with the student directly. The goal of the conversation is to understand the student’s perspective and determine whether academic misconduct likely happened.
- If misconduct likely happened, you can impose a sanction. The Academic Integrity Report Form lists potential options for sanctions.
- If the sanction you impose might affect the student’s final grade, you MUST submit a report. This report allows faculty to document important and relevant facts about the alleged academic misconduct, identify steps taken to respond to the misconduct, and recommend an additional response from Student Conduct and Community Standards.
If you have questions about any part of this process or need guidance about a specific situation you are encountering, contact the Student Conduct and Community Standards office at 402-472-2021 or visit studentconduct.unl.edu.
What counts as evidence of AI usage?
When submitting an academic misconduct report, you will want to include any evidence you have. Sometimes, with AI use, this is straightforward – for example, if the student accidentally included the prompt they used or language from the AI tool like “Can I help you with anything else?” at the end. Most of the time though, it is very hard (if not impossible) to fully prove whether or not a student used an AI tool.
It may be tempting in these situations to turn to AI checkers. These are tools that attempt to evaluate written for the probability that it was generated by AI For several reasons, the University of Nebraska currently does not provide access to AI checking software and does not recommend instructors use AI checkers when making academic misconduct evaluations. Early AI checkers were presented as near infallible with supposed failure rates of less than one percent. However, independent research has found that they are significantly less accurate than originally presented, producing both false positives and false negatives at a decently high rate. For more information read The Challenge of AI Checkers written by Senior Instructional Designer Nate Pindell.
Instead, the best evidence often comes from the intuition you have as an instructor. Some things that might indicate inappropriate AI use include:
- Language too advanced or specialized for the nature of the assignment. This might include referencing terminology or theories that are connected to the topic but weren’t covered in the class.
- Using obscure, irrelevant, or non-existent references. Checking for this can be supported by requiring students to include a direct link to all references.
- A writing style that significantly differs from other work submitted in class. Detecting this can be helped by collecting an in-person writing sample early in the semester.
- The student admitting to AI use. In many cases, if you meet with the student and have an attitude of genuine support, the student will admit to inappropriate AI use.
Academic Integrity Assistance
If you have additional questions about the academic misconduct process or how to handle a specific case that you are encountering, please contact the Office of Student Conduct & Community Standards: 402-472-2021 or studentconduct@unl.edu.
If you have any feedback about the content of this page or ideas for additional content to include, please reach out to the page developer Amy Ort (aort@unl.edu).