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| When I began teaching at Denison in the fall of 2024, I designed an AI-policy that drew on my nine years as a faculty member in a university writing center. I told my students that they could use LLMs to do things they would feel comfortable asking a Writing Center consultant to do. What I found was that students had trouble limiting themselves to the parameters I’d set. Also, the more I read, the more convinced I became that the use of LLMs was incompatible with my classes’ learning objectives and my values as an educator.
I now dedicate the second day of class to explaining this “conversion” to my students and outlining my reasons for my complete ban on LLM use. Following one of my classes this semester, two students approached me and thanked me. “So many of our professors have the same AI policy as you do,” they said, “but no one has really taken the time to explain why.” Our students are hungry for conversations that can help them develop informed opinions about AI, and I encourage you to make time for these conversations in your classes. I use this slideshow to illustrate the reasons behind my policy (the notes section includes my script). Feel free to use or adapt these materials for your own classes. |