Steps you can follow if you suspect a student has used GenAI on an assignment or assessment in violation of your established course policy.
- Document Your Concerns
- Identify specific features of the student’s work that raise concerns about GenAI use. Remember, GenAI detection tools are often inaccurate and can produce false positives.
- Gather supporting evidence such as excerpts from the student’s previous work, screenshots, or original sources.
- Prepare to Meet the Student
- Familiarize yourself with departmental and University procedures for addressing violations of academic integrity standards, including students’ rights to due process through the Office for Community Standards (OCS).
- Review any guidance you provided to your class regarding scholastic dishonesty, such as:
- Syllabus statements on scholastic dishonesty and plagiarism
- Assignment instructions or honor code
- Dates and times of any in-class discussions or instruction on scholastic dishonesty
- Invite the student to meet with you to discuss their work, with the goal of understanding their production process, not to argue for or against a formal charge of academic misconduct.
- Meet with the Student
- Ask the student to explain how they completed the assignment in detail:
- When and where did they work?
- What steps did they follow?
- How were resources selected?
- What was the timeline of their work?
- Listen to the student’s explanation and ask clarifying questions.
- Respectfully share your concerns and evidence, and ask the student to respond.
- Ask about their understanding of your course GenAI use policy, and of the boundaries between the student’s own work and outputs generated by GenAI.
- Explain your next steps or when they can expect a decision on how you will proceed.
- Ask the student to explain how they completed the assignment in detail:
- After the Meeting
- Based on the supporting evidence you gathered and the conversation with the student, determine if it is more likely than not that the student engaged in scholastic dishonesty.
- If yes: Inform the student and submit a scholastic dishonesty report form to the Office for Community Standards. Refer the student to OCS to learn more about the disciplinary process and the Academic Integrity Matters program.
- Note: Instructors may not impose a course or grade penalty due to scholastic dishonesty unless they submit a report of scholastic dishonesty to OCS.
- If no: Reiterate your expectations for using AI in future assignments.
- If yes: Inform the student and submit a scholastic dishonesty report form to the Office for Community Standards. Refer the student to OCS to learn more about the disciplinary process and the Academic Integrity Matters program.
- Continue to discuss your expectations for student use of GenAI with your class throughout the semester.
- Based on the supporting evidence you gathered and the conversation with the student, determine if it is more likely than not that the student engaged in scholastic dishonesty.