The most effective approach to AI in teaching starts with curiosity, clarity, and conversation — with yourself, your students, and your colleagues.
The University of Arizona is committed to thoughtful and transparent integration of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning. With AI now embedded in many academic spaces, faculty guidance is essential to fostering responsible, ethical, and honest engagement with these tools.
Designed to support instructors at any stage, this page offers reflection tools, practical resources, and sample language to help clarify how AI fits into teaching, policy decisions, and conversations with students.
Preparing to Teach with AI
This section will help you get started with the foundations of AI in higher education. They can be worked through sequentially or as-needed.
AI In Higher Ed: What It Is, What It Isn’t, And Why It Matters
Explore how generative AI (GenAI) functions in higher education. Examine common misconceptions and informed decision-making around teaching practices, assessment, and academic integrity.
AI Placement Quiz
This quiz provides a structured opportunity to reflect on how AI appears across instructional practice and student use before final decisions are made.
Get Ready to Teach Checklist
A practical starting point for preparing a course with intentional decisions about GenAI.
- Select & Edit Your AI Policy
Review the Instructor AI Policy Guide and determine which policy template fits best for the course. Use the AI Range Placement Quiz to define the appropriate level of AI use. - Communicate With Students
Set explicit expectations by explaining the rationale for AI use or restriction, linking policies to learning outcomes, and clearly outlining acceptable and unacceptable uses. - Assignment Parameters
When AI use is permitted, provide examples of how it can support learning - such as idea generation, coding support, or data analysis - and share citation practices to ensure proper acknowledgment. - Design for Integrity
Consider collaborating with students to co-create expectations for AI tools and establish limitations on their use for course work, including understanding readings, brainstorming, and editing. - Reporting Violations
If AI is not permitted and its use constitutes an academic integrity violation under course policy, become familiar with the Reporting a Violation process (below).
Engage Students in the Process
AI opens new possibilities for how students learn, demonstrate knowledge, and engage with course material — from writing and research to creative and technical work. The strategies below can help you bring students into that conversation intentionally.
One of the most effective ways to introduce AI in your course is to try it alongside your students. Use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Perplexity to explore what these tools can do — for example, have two different AI tools respond to a course reading, then ask students to compare, evaluate, and revise the outputs.
Prompts for Students — a digital handout to support in-class exploration
Integrating AI into Assignments to Support Student Learning — examples and approaches
Students come to your course with widely varying AI experience, and expectations differ across courses and disciplines. Being explicit about your policies — and the reasoning behind them — helps students engage responsibly.
- Connect your AI guidelines to course learning goals
- Specify expectations at both the course and assignment level
- Consider developing guidelines collaboratively with students
- Discuss academic integrity and why it matters in an AI context
- Ask students about their own AI experiences and ideas for ethical use
- Revisit the conversation throughout the semester — not just at the start
Examples of Student Activities for Building Ethical AI Literacy — group and individual activities from Course Hero educators
AI can also support content development, idea generation, and feedback on your end. A few important guidelines: treat prompts as public, do not share student work or intellectual property without permission, and model transparent acknowledgment when AI tools are used, for example, noting in your syllabus when ChatGPT was used to align course descriptions, outlines, and assignments.
AI Syllabus and Curricular Development Prompts for Instructors to help with creating the syllabus and course.
Guidelines for Teaching with AI at U of A
GenAI is rapidly influencing how teaching, learning and academic work are designed and supported at the University of Arizona, bringing new instructional opportunities as well as important considerations related to academic integrity, citation and acknowledgment practices, and faculty responsibilities.
Research consistently shows that most students violate academic integrity rules when they don't understand expectations, feel overwhelmed, or perceive an assessment as unfair. With that in mind, suspected AI policy violations are best approached as learning opportunities first. If you suspect inappropriate AI use, start with a direct conversation with the student.
When a formal response is needed, any violations must be addressed through the reporting process outlined in the Dean of Students Faculty Academic Integrity Resources. If you need guidance before moving forward, the Dean of Students Office can help with the next steps and documentation.
Citation and acknowledgment practices for generative AI are evolving along with the tools. If you want students to cite/acknowledge the use of AI, give instructions for how to do this in the syllabus and/or assignment(s).
The libraries offer workshops, citation and acknowledgement style guides, and information literacy tutorials for instructors and students. Visit UA Libraries AI Literacy in the Age of ChatGPT.
Customized Consultations
Contact us for assistance with integrating AI into your teaching.
Adele Leon
Senior Instructional Designer
adele@arizona.edu