Review the pedagogical and technical information below to inform your progress in Week Thirteen. Have questions about what you learned here or ideas for future tips? Join Coffee & Answers (open support Zoom sessions with the Academic Technology Team) or email the Office of Teaching and Learning.
Pedagogical
How can we move from 'policing' AI use to fostering a culture of transparency and trust that clearly defines the boundaries of academic integrity?
GenAI use is already widely present across disciplines, and the rise in AI-related academic integrity cases beginning in 2023 across institutions underscores an urgent need for clear instructor expectations, thoughtful assignment design, and careful guidance (Wang & Wentzell, accepted). Instructors need to attend to students’ needs for clear guidance on making their ideas and writing traceable while teaching them how to use AI responsibly and transparently. Failing to attend to this need will likely lead to erosion in faculty-student trust and faculty-student collaboration in the learning environment.
OTL in the AI classroom syllabi statements recommends adopting AI statements at both the course and assessment levels. At the course-level, instructors should identify the principles that constitute responsible AI use and clear practice examples. Instructors should also discuss with students why the principles matter. For instance, “Responsible AI use in this course includes the dimension of transparency. …For this course, any use of AI must be in alignment with assignment guidelines, and all AI-generated contributions should be properly cited like any other reference material. Prohibited use of AI includes using AI to write entire sentences, paragraphs, or papers to complete class assignments. Violations of this rule will result in disciplinary processes under the SJU Academic Honesty Policy.” Before the submission of assignments, instructors should discuss with students why it is important for them to cultivate a habit of transparency by consistently providing a short Responsible AI Use Statement at the end of any writing assignment describing: (a) If they chose to use/not use AI, and why. (b) Which AI tool(s) were used. (c) How did they verify the AI-generated content for accuracy and context? (d) Include as their appendix the AI-generated content and the revised version with their revisions in red ink.
For No AI assessments, instructors should assess in real-time, in-person work in a controlled environment to “proactively” ensure no AI is used in the assessment. This includes oral presentations in real-time with structured Q&A, in-class writing activities such as one-minute papers, timed essays, or short-answer prompts, and or live clinical exam.
–Aubrey Wang, Ph.D.,
Professor, Educational Leadership
Director, Office of Teaching and Learning
Technical
Are there any AI tools at SJU available to Faculty/Staff?
NotebookLM is an AI-powered research and note-taking tool from Google that helps synthesize information from your own sources. This tool is available to all faculty/staff at SJU and can help create slide decks, infographics, discussion prompts, even podcasts! You can upload documents, PDFs, Google Docs, or links, and the tool will generate summaries, answer questions about the content and create artifacts based only on your materials. NotebookLM has become very popular because it solves the biggest problem with standard AI: hallucinations. Since it only looks at the sources you upload, you can trust that the information isn't being pulled from a random source on the internet.
Below are a few real-world ways faculty and staff are currently using it:
1. The "Audio Overview" as a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Tool
Many faculty are using the "Audio Overview" feature to create 5-8 minute podcast-style summaries of their densest readings.
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The Use Case: An instructor uploads a complex 40-page theoretical paper. NotebookLM generates a conversation between two AI hosts discussing the core arguments.
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The Benefit: This provides a "way in" for students who struggle with dense text or have long commutes, aligning perfectly with UDL principles by providing multiple modes of representation.
2. Streamlining Course Design & Alignment
Learner Experience Designers and faculty use it to ensure their courses actually make sense from start to finish.
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The Use Case: You upload your Course Learning Objectives (CLOs), your weekly module descriptions, and your final project rubrics. You then ask: "Which learning objective is least supported by my current assignments?"
- The Benefit: It acts as a second pair of eyes for Backwards Design, identifying gaps where the content doesn't actually lead to the promised outcomes.
Additional Resources
- Saint Joseph’s University (2026 updated). Consolidated Syllabus Statements.
- University of Sydney's (2025, May updated) consolidated and publicly accessible “Overview of secure Lane 1 assessments.”
- Wang, A. H., & Wentzell, G. (accepted). Reflections: Reimagining learning outcomes through ai-enhanced pedagogy. Journal of Excellence in College Teaching.
Are these tips helpful? Do you have a topic we should include in future weeks? Please let us know by emailing otl@sju.edu!