Your purpose in school is to learn. AI can help you with tasks.
Do not let AI take your purpose.

The central principle

The ideas, analysis, decisions, and conclusions you submit must represent your own intellectual work.

You are not here merely to complete assignments. You are here to develop your ability to think critically, communicate clearly, evaluate evidence, and solve problems independently. Learning requires you to engage with the material, wrestle with ideas, draft and revise your own work, and work through confusion. AI can support that process, but it cannot do the learning for you. I don’t expect perfection. I expect effort, honesty, sound judgment, and growth. I want to see your reasoning and hear your voice.

Collaborative intelligence

I use collaborative intelligence to describe the thoughtful integration of people, teams, and technology. Each contributes different knowledge, skills, and resources to problem-solving, decision-making, and creativity. Collaboration with AI does not transfer responsibility to AI. You remain responsible for how the tool is used and for everything you submit.

Start with the assignment instructions

AI rules may differ across assignments. Some assignments permit AI assistance. Others restrict or prohibit it because the purpose is to assess a particular skill. Instructions for a specific assignment take precedence over this general policy. If you are uncertain whether a use is permitted, ask before using the tool.

Appropriate uses of AI

When an assignment permits AI use, you may use it to:

• explain a difficult concept in another way;
• generate practice questions;
• brainstorm possible topics;
• suggest search terms;
• help organize ideas you have already developed;
• identify unclear passages in a draft you wrote;
• provide feedback on organization or readability;
• identify possible grammar and usage problems; or
• assist with routine formatting and technical tasks.

You must evaluate the output rather than accept it automatically.

Inappropriate uses of AI

Unless I explicitly authorize them, you may not use AI to:

• write an assignment or a substantial part of one for you;
• generate analysis, interpretation, reflection, or conclusions that you submit as your own;
• paraphrase or summarize sources you have not read;
• invent evidence, quotations, citations, data, or research findings;
• complete quizzes, examinations, or other individual assessments;
• fabricate notes, drafts, calculations, research records, or other process work;
• imitate another person’s writing to conceal authorship; or
• bypass the learning objective of an assignment.

The act of editing AI-generated material does not make that material your own intellectual work.

Your responsibilities as a students

1. Prioritize learning over convenience

Use AI to improve your understanding, not to avoid the thinking that the assignment requires. Efficiency is not the same as learning.

2. Preserve your intellectual contribution

Develop the argument, analysis, interpretation, and conclusions yourself. AI may support your process when permitted, but it must not replace your reasoning or voice.

3. Verify every claim

AI systems can produce inaccurate statements, fabricated citations, altered quotations, and unsupported conclusions. Verify factual claims against credible sources appropriate to the subject. Locate and read every source before citing it. You are responsible for everything you submit, including material suggested by an AI system.

4. Use original sources as evidence

AI output is not a substitute for scholarly evidence. If an AI system identifies an article, book, dataset, law, report, or other potentially useful source, locate the original source, evaluate it, and cite it directly. Don’t cite a source you have not examined and verified.

5. Avoid plagiarism and patchwriting

Don’t present another person’s words, ideas, structure, data, or creative work as your own. Changing a few words does not eliminate the need for attribution. Quotations, paraphrases, summaries, and syntheses must follow the citation requirements of the course and discipline.

6. Disclose meaningful AI assistance

When AI use is permitted and materially influences your work, include a brief disclosure that identifies:

• the tool you used;
• how you used it;
• how you evaluated or revised its output; and
• the date or version, when relevant.

For example:

I used ChatGPT to generate possible organizational structures and to identify unclear sentences in an early draft. I developed the argument, verified the claims against the cited sources, and wrote and revised the final submission.

Disclosure does not make a prohibited use acceptable.

7. Cite AI-generated material when required

Disclosure and citation are not the same. A disclosure explains how AI contributed to your work. A citation identifies content from a particular source. If you quote, reproduce, or closely discuss AI-generated material, follow the requirements of the assignment and the applicable style manual. For APA assignments, consult the current APA Style guidance for AI references.

8. Protect private and confidential information

Don’t enter the following into a public AI system:

• personal or identifying information about another person;
• student, participant, patient, employee, or client records;
• confidential university or workplace information;
• unpublished research data;
• assessment questions or answer keys; or
• copyrighted materials you don’t have permission to upload.

Follow all applicable university, research ethics, data-security, and professional requirements.

9. Preserve evidence of your process

Keep relevant prompts, outputs, notes, drafts, calculations, source records, and revision history. You may be asked to explain how you developed your work or to provide evidence of your process.

Before using AI, ask yourself

1. Is this use permitted for the assignment?
2. Am I still doing the intellectual work being assessed?
3. Can I verify the output using credible sources?
4. Would I be comfortable explaining this use to my instructor?
5. Have I disclosed and cited the use when required?
6. Am I protecting private, confidential, and unpublished information?

If the answer to any question is no, stop and ask for guidance.

Dr. Allen’s short rule

• Originally from you
• Your reasoning and intellectual contribution must be your own.
• Use AI only when the assignment permits it.
• Verify every claim and read every source you cite.
• Acknowledge sources and disclose meaningful AI assistance.
• Protect private, confidential, and unpublished information.
• Use AI as a tutor, critic, or copyeditor, not as a hidden author.
• You remain responsible for everything you submit.

Stay in the driver’s seat. Your education is forming your judgment, not merely producing grades. Do not trade that formation for convenience.