Statement on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Language Models

George Fox University is committed to Christian faith integration and powerful learning outcomes for students—thinking, writing, learning, and communicating. We believe education is conducive to our flourishing as beings created in the image of God. At some points, artificial intelligence tools (AI) should play a role in this learning journey; at other points, they should not. Wisdom and discernment about the words and content we create remain important individually and in the community.

Students are encouraged to experiment and use AI tools in the same way that they might responsibly use the internet generally or other types of software. If an instructor explicitly states—in their syllabus, or as written instructions to the class on an assignment or exam—that the use of AI is allowed or encouraged for a particular element of a course, then that instructor’s directions are a student’s authoritative guide.

Lacking this instructor's encouragement or permission, however, or with no other guidance, for assignments, exams, essays, or any other graded or ungraded work, the use of AI tools to achieve learning outcomes in a course is not permitted at George Fox University. If for whatever reason a student does use AI tools to generate responses, phrases, outlines, text, images, or any other content, the student must still disclose that fact and cite the AI program they use; failure to do so is plagiarism and will be treated formally as academic dishonesty, according to the Academic Handbook. In general, the unauthorized use of generative AI shall be treated analogously to forbidden assistance from another person or disallowed resource, digital or otherwise (and thus would be forbidden under the same circumstances as any other form of academic dishonesty).

Similarly, the George Fox University expectation for students applying for admission to any university degree or non-degree program, activity, scholarship, or any other formal university-related programming is that all written work is a student's own—i.e., not the product of an AI language tool. If or when students do persist in using AI language tools to compose such materials, again, they must formally acknowledge that use. Students who use AI language tools instead of their own voice, ideas, and writing for application to university programs or scholarships (regardless of whether or not they disclose such use) may be rejected based on that AI use according to this policy.

The types of materials that would fall under the category of "AI," "AI language tools" or "AI language models" for this purpose include but are not limited to, websites like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and many more, as well as the text-generative aspects of popular tools such as (but again, not limited to) Grammarly, i.e., GrammarlyGO. In other cases, programs such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs may use spelling and grammar suggestions, and for this purpose, we are not considering that use to be "generative AI" or an "AI language tool" that might be forbidden under this policy. Students should acknowledge the use of generative AI and default to disclosing such assistance when in doubt.

General guidelines for students:

• Exercise responsibility for the content you create and stay engaged in the process (with or without AI).
• Check for instructor permission about AI use (related to learning outcomes of class activities/assignments).
• Where permission exists, make sure to disclose any use of AI for class activities or assignments (by formal citation, less formal attribution, and/or a framing statement as appropriate).

For a video review of the University-approved citation practice for students concerning AI tools, see here (on YouTube).

Some language here is adopted from Stanford University's Office of Community Standards.

AI Guidelines for George Fox Faculty

In a spirit of discipleship and mentoring students in their discernment while using generative AI, the following guidelines provide some pedagogically-based practices for instructors at George Fox University.

Disclose When and How You Are Using AI

What is appropriate in your field, and what conventions need to be used and/or adapted? For example, this could be a syllabus statement at the beginning of the semester or formal citation on individual documents or activities you generate for class.

Model the Process You Want Students to Use in Their Own Work

How are you creating a culture of disclosure regarding AI? Be transparent about what you are doing and be clear about your expectations for students. Resources exist to help (e.g., here, and here).

Critically Engage Output, Process and Source Databases

Where does the output/content come from? How does it get generated? How good, fair, representative, inclusive, and/or accurate is it? Evaluate the source(s) as you would any other referenced material. Contextualize and adapt both input (prompts) and output (content) to respond to these answers.

Protect Any Sensitive Student Information

How does an AI system or AI detection platform store input (including potentially student work)? Are students aware that you are sharing their intellectual property with a third-party AI tool? Do not enter student work into any platforms that do not comply with FERPA regulations. Do not give students’ intellectual property to a platform that may use it for training purposes.

Align AI Use (And Encouragement Of Students’ Use) With Learning Outcomes

How can instructors integrate AI usage into the curriculum in a way that aligns with course goals and learning outcomes while also being cognizant of the ways that AI continues to change the current context within their disciplines? There is often a reciprocal relationship where learning tasks drive acceptable use of technology but technology also transforms the tasks themselves (the Redefinition level of the SAMR model).

Encourage Students to Use AI

How can students use AI in a way that reduces cognitive atrophy and enhances student learning? For example, students might use a vetted AI tool to develop conceptual understanding of a topic by asking clarifying questions and critical thinking questions. They might use an AI tool as a reciprocal teaching tool, where a chatbot asks the students clarifying questions as they get closer to understanding a theory. Students might use AI tools for feedback on their work or trends in what to study. The chatbots can then function as a quizmaster to improve retention of course content through a recall and rehearsal process.