Guidelines for Using GenAI tools in Teaching, Learning and

Assessment

January 2024

Team for Dealing with Applications of Emerging Technologies at SQU

Introduction:

In response to the shift of integrating emerging technologies in higher education, SQU formed a
team to investigate ways of dealing and utilizing applications of Emerging Technologies at the
university (Qarar no. 2135/2023). The team specifically focused on Generative Artificial
Intelligence (GenAI) writing tools in teaching, research, community service, administrative and
operational areas.

The team was given the task of Proposing Guidelines for utilizing applications and tools
of emerging technologies (GenAI writing tools) to support higher education, research,
community service, operational aspects, and institutional development. To propose these
guidelines, the team synthesized the literature on GenAI writing tools and collected data using
environmental scanning, focus groups, and pilot surveys of different stakeholders. Hence, the
team proposes the following framework of the Guidelines for using GenAI tools in teaching,
learning, assessments and research.

The Framework of the Guidelines:

Based on our analysis of the results we got from Focus groups, the preliminary analysis of the
pilot survey, and the literature review we propose a flexible approach for a framework of the
guidelines. This approach allows the departmental boards to decide on what is best for them
based on the learning outcomes of their programs and the level of courses in them. Similar
approaches are adopted by elite universities around the World such as Cornell University
(Generative Artificial Intelligence for Education and Pedagogy Report, 2023). This approach
consists of three options: prohibiting, permitting with proper acknowledgment, and
promoting the use of these tools in the teaching, assessment and research. We will discuss in
detail each one of these options in terms of academic integrity, accessibility, and privacy
concerns in the areas of teaching, assessment and research. We will refer to this framework of
the guidelines with these three options by PPP.

For the areas of teaching, assessment and research, our main concern is the learning
process. It should be protected and not jeopardized by the usage of GenAI writing tools.
Therefore, our approach is to encourage instructors to use these tools as their teaching
assistance. For students they could use them as private tutors while maintaining the
academic integrity standards. The role of instructors is to educate students about the
responsible use of these tools. The dialogue between instructors and students about academic
integrity and responsible use of these tools should be sustainable in all the three options in this
approach. The PPP options could be implemented generally in a course or in individual teaching
or assessment components.

The PPP options are:

A. Prohibiting the usage of the GenAI writing tools whenever this is preventing and
jeopardizing the process of learning for the students. Prohibiting is important during the
 phase of developing foundational understanding, knowledge and skills needed for future
courses. This phase usually takes place in foundation and introductory courses of the
program.

B. Permitting the use with proper acknowledgment whenever GenAI writing tools are
considered to be useful resources. Therefore, students are allowed to use them, but they
must learn to take responsibility and be accountable for accuracy and correct attribution
of these tools generated content. Equally, instructors should be aware of the extent of the
students' usage and how they used these tools. This is usually encouraged in intermediate
level courses.

C. Promoting the usage of GenAI writing tools to enhance the learning process for the
students. Instructors can integrate these tools in the teaching and assessments activities of
the course. While using these tools, students could develop higher order thinking skills
which help them to achieve the learning outcomes of the course. Further, students could
explore creative and innovative ideas. This is usually recommended in the higher-level
courses or postgraduate courses.

1. The Prohibiting option:

This option is usually adopted in the phase of developing foundational understanding,
new knowledge or skill needed for future courses. This could be implemented in a certain
task, activity, assessment or in the whole course. Since students may employ GenAI
tools to complete assignments, projects and other forms of assessment, they may
compromise the intended purpose of these tasks, which is the development of
fundamental knowledge and skills which are fundamental for their future learning.
To mitigate the risk of academic integrity violations, faculty may adopt alternative
assessment approaches that are less susceptible to GenAI models. Hence, we recommend
the following:
● Aligning assessments more closely with class content or transitioning
from take-home assignments to in-class evaluations, such as timed oral
and written exams or in-class written essays.
● For students with disabilities you may extend time and provide
distraction-free testing zones to address challenges that may arise from
moving to in-class assessments.
● We strongly advise against the use of automatic detection algorithms for
identifying academic integrity violations through GenAI writing tools.
Unlike traditional plagiarism detection applications, Large Language
Models (i.e. GenAI writing tools) rarely output verbatim copies of existing
content, making statistical identification the primary approach. This
method is prone to both false positives and false negatives, hence, lacking
the ability to conclusively prove academic integrity violations.
Implementing these methods the automatic detection algorithms
prematurely may result in unfair identification of violations, potentially
exhibiting bias against non-native speakers, creating mistrust between
instructors and students, and harming the overall learning environment.
2. The Permitting of use with proper acknowledgment option:
This option is usually encouraged in intermediate level courses whenever GenAI writing
tools are considered to be useful resources. Therefore, students are allowed to use them,
but they must learn to take responsibility and be accountable for accuracy and correct
attribution of these tools generated content. Hence, we recommend the following :
● Instructors should guide and advise students on how to use these tools
appropriately without violating the Academic integrity principles. It is
crucial for students to learn how to attribute, critique and effectively use
these tools appropriately.
● Students should be made accountable for the accuracy of the content
generated by these tools whenever this content is used in the academic or
research settings.
● Instructors should advise students on what type of information not to be
used in GenAI tools to protect their data and to maintain privacy. This will
be a good opportunity for instructors to let students educate themselves
about the Omani Personal Data Protection Law (Royal Decree No. 6 of
2022).
● Instructors should understand the role GenAI tools can play in facilitating
and maintaining more comprehensive modes of access and inclusion for
all students in the classroom, especially the students with disabilities.
● GenAI writing tools are destined to become an integral aspect of the future
professional landscape, necessitating that all students acquire the skills to
proficiently utilize such tools. As a result, educators bear the responsibility
to educate and mentor students in the ethical and constructive application
of these tools, which are expected to become more prevalent in their
careers beyond SQU.
● Instructors should ensure equal access for all students without cost barriers
to these GenAI tools if they are used in the course. Hence, SQU should
provide or negotiate licensing agreements for GenAI writing tool usage,
ensuring they do not restrict the university's educational activities,
academic freedom, respect privacy and intellectual property rights, and
avoid imposing cost barriers or constraints.

3. The Promoting option:

This option is adopted in the higher-level courses or postgraduate courses to enhance the
students' learning process. Instructors can integrate these tools in the assessments and
activities of the course. While using these tools, students could develop higher order
thinking skills which help them to achieve the learning outcomes of the course. Further,
students could explore creative and innovative ideas. We recommend the following:
● Instructors should foster a learning environment for the students facilitating
high-level learning, creativity, and productivity. This includes assigning tasks,
activities and assessments to the students where the output of GenAI tools is
critically analyzed and discussed.
 ● Students are granted the chance to creatively produce the output and present it in
their own way.

Responsibilities of the course instructor:

1. The instructor should state clearly in the course outline or the Moodle page of the course
the guidelines related to GenAI usage by the students and which option is used.
2. Instructors should familiarize their students with these regulations and guidelines in the
beginning and throughout the semester.
3. The instructor should explain clearly the reasons and motives behind these regulations for
their students.
4. The dialogue between instructors and students about academic integrity and responsible
use of these tools should be sustainable throughout the semester. This should raise the
awareness among their students of the responsible use of these tools and academic
integrity. Instructors must educate their students about the pitfalls of current technology
and how to approach GenAI tools critically and to validate GenAI-produced information
rigorously.
5. To maintain the privacy of the students and protect their data any information that
instructors are obliged to keep confidential, such as under the Omani Personal Data
Protection Law (Royal Decree No. 6 of 2022), should not be disclosed to these tools or
uploaded to GenAI third-party vendors.
6. Instructors should preserve the Intellectual property rights, and original research or
content owned by Sultan Qaboos University, students, or employees should not be
uploaded to these tools as it may become part of the GenAI writing tools' training data.
This includes student assignments, data from projects or research groups, personally
identifiable information, proprietary data from research partners, and potentially
copyrighted material.
7. Instructors could use the GenAI tools as teaching assistance to help in creating content,
but they need to adhere to the following:
a. Instructors can explore the potential of GenAI writing tools to generate content,
such as initial drafts for course structures, syllabi, lecture formats, examples,
figures, and diagrams. Additionally, they can create extensive sets of practice
problems or questions, emphasizing the need to verify the accuracy and
appropriateness of these questions before assigning them to students.
b. It is advisable for instructors to adhere to the guidelines when utilizing GenAI
tools for course materials, and to showcase their use of these tools as a model for
students on how to employ these tools with proper acknowledgment. This practice
ensures transparency regarding the use of these tools, preventing any assumptions
by students about educational materials not personally crafted or examined by the
instructor.
c. While GenAI writing tools may prove beneficial in offering feedback for
low-stakes formative assessments, particularly in practice problems, it is
 currently not recommended for use in the summative evaluation of student
work. The evaluation and grading of students remain crucial tasks entrusted to
faculty, and the integrity of this process relies on the primary involvement of the
faculty member. In the future, if specific tools are trained to do the grading task
and proved to be accurate then this recommendation will be reversed.

A. Recommendations for Departmental Boards:

1. Departmental Boards should be explicit in identifying expectations regarding the use
of GenAI tools in each course in their academic programs.
2. They should develop discipline specific procedures to regulate the use of GenAI
writing tools in their programs and courses. (e.g., Safeguarding Assessment Integrity
in the Age of AI, 2023). These procedures should be periodically revised since this
technology is rapidly evolving.
3. They should rethink the program's learning outcomes. We highly recommend that
they incorporate GenAI tools into course learning outcomes to emphasize students’
advanced knowledge, and higher thinking, critical thinking, and problem solving
skills.
4. In a course where the use of GenAI writing tools is anticipated, department boards
should ensure uniform access to the technology, and eliminate any cost-related
barriers that might lead to unequal access. In addition, the departmental boards should
identify these tools and ensure that licensing agreements cover both students and
faculty.

B. Recommendations for SQU Administration:

1. Currently, we advise against utilizing automatic detection algorithms for identifying

academic integrity violations through GenAI writing tools, as they lack reliability and
are currently unable to offer conclusive evidence of such violations.
2. The university should allow responsible access to the most adopted GenAI writing
tools among its community members. SQU should furnish or negotiate licensing
agreements for these tools, ensuring these agreements do not constrain the
university's educational activities and academic freedom, uphold privacy and
intellectual property rights, and avoid imposing any cost-related barriers or
limitations.
3. The university ought to acknowledge the extra responsibility placed on instructors to
adjust to the swiftly evolving impact of GenAI on education and offer supplementary
support to teaching faculty and staff (e.g. hiring more teaching assistance to help in
course redesign). We recommend investing in building human capacity, by training
faculty and technicians and staff on implementing effective GenAI writing tools in
the academic settings.
 4. The university should set a platform for the colleges and Center for Preparatory
Studies to develop discipline specific procedures to regulate the use of GenAI writing
tools in their different academic programs.
5. SQU should revise and update related teaching and learning policies and procedures
in light of the advances in technology e.g. Undergraduate Academic Assessment
Policy, Student Academic Misconduct, Staff Academic Misconduct Policy, etc. To
ensure that quality inclusive education is maintained for all students.
6. SQU should encourage research on AI tools in teaching, assessment and research to
the impact on AI tools on these areas and suggest effective solutions to safeguard the
education process.
7. Initiate awareness programs for students and staff about the potentials and risks
associated with GenAI writing tools. Also, promote the responsible use of these tools
and maintain academic integrity.
8. SQU should establish mechanisms for gathering feedback from students, faculty, and
staff regarding their experiences with GenAI-generated content (e.g. CTS could be
modified to include the use of these tools).
References:
1. Cornell University. (2023). Generative Artificial Intelligence for Education and
Pedagogy.
https://teaching.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/2023-08/Cornell-GenerativeAIForEducatio
n-Report_2.pdf
2. Center for Preparatory. (2023). Safeguarding Assessment Integrity in the Age of AI.
Sultan Qaboos University