Welcome! This page is designed to provide you with a variety of sample statements to enhance your course syllabus. These optional statements cover a range of topics to help ensure clarity and improve the overall learning experience for your students. As educational practices and technologies evolve, we aim to continuously update this resource with relevant and useful content. Feel free to customize these statements to best fit the needs of your courses.
[Optional, but the language should not be changed if included.]
This course uses instructor-initiated drops for students who exceed the absence and/or missed assignment limit. Therefore, up to the last day for students to withdraw from an individual course, [date], you will be dropped for exceeding [insert number of absences/assignments etc.]. Students will receive at least one courtesy warning when approaching the absence/missed assignment limit. Notification will be sent using ASAP to the student’s email address. A subsequent absence or missed assignment will result in being dropped from the course. Notification of being dropped will also be sent through ASAP to the student’s email address. This drop does not affect enrollment in other courses. Please consult the Dropping Courses webpage for further details on the process and appeals.
[Optional, but the language should not be changed if included.]
As the instructor of this course, I may record meetings and lessons. You are expected to follow appropriate University policies and maintain the security of passwords used to access recorded lectures. Recordings may not be published, reproduced, or shared with those not in the class. If the instructor or a UTSA office plans any other uses for the recordings, consent of the students identifiable in the recordings is required before such use unless an exception is allowed by law. For more information on your privacy and class recordings, review Student Privacy (FERPA) in Virtual Classrooms and Other Educational Recordings and the Guide to Secure Video Conferencing Tools.
[Optional, but the language should not be changed if included.]
Academic freedom1 is a cornerstone of the University. Academic freedom in its teaching aspect is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of the student to freedom in learning.2 Each faculty member is entitled to full freedom in the classroom discussing the subject that the faculty member teaches.3 The University of Texas at San Antonio will not penalize or discipline members of the faculty because of their exercise of academic freedom.
Along with this freedom comes responsibility. It is the responsibility of faculty members to ensure that topics taught are related to the classroom subject. Students should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion, but they are responsible for learning the content of any course of study for which they are enrolled.4 It is not the proper role of the university or any outside agency to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.5 Engaging with new ideas and perspectives helps students grow intellectually and is beneficial to the educational process.
[Optional, use if your course includes the benefit of Supplemental Instruction. Feel free to edit this statement to fit your needs.]
In this course you have access to Supplemental Instruction (SI), weekly study sessions for students enrolled in core and gateway courses at UTSA. In these sessions, guided by trained students who have successfully completed the coursework, students work together to improve learning strategies by reviewing course material and preparing for tests. Students who attend SI sessions regularly tend to average one-half to one full letter grade higher than their classmates who do not attend SI. [Faculty: Insert your own instructions here.] For more information, visit the UTSA Supplemental Instruction site.
[Optional, but the language may not be changed or altered if included.]
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
[Optional, but the language should not be changed if included.]
The syllabus is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion. Any changes/corrections to the course materials, assignment dates, or other updates will be communicated to the students ahead of time. You are responsible for checking Canvas for corrections or updates to the syllabus.
As the rapid advancement of generative AI tools continues to reshape the educational landscape, it is crucial for faculty to carefully consider how these technologies can be integrated into their courses in a meaningful and responsible way. Crafting a clear and comprehensive generative AI statement for your syllabus provides an opportunity to establish expectations with students regarding the appropriate use of these tools and foster a learning environment that promotes academic integrity, critical thinking, and ethical engagement with AI. Below are some examples to consider when creating a generative AI statement for your course. Feel free to copy, paste, and edit to meet the needs of your course.
I encourage students to explore the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT, for all assignments and assessments. Any such use must be appropriately acknowledged and cited, following the guidelines established by the APA Style Guide, including the specific version of the tool used. Submitted work should include the exact prompt used to generate the content as well as the AI’s full response in an Appendix. Because AI generated content is not necessarily accurate or appropriate, it is each student’s responsibility to assess the validity and applicability of any generative AI output that is submitted. You may not earn full credit if inaccurate, invalid, or inappropriate information is found in your work. Deviations from these guidelines will be considered violations of CMU’s academic integrity policy. Note that expectations for “plagiarism, cheating, and acceptable assistance” on student work may vary across your courses and instructors. Please email me if you have questions regarding what is permissible and not for a particular course or assignment.
Adapted from Harvard University
You are welcome to use generative AI programs (ChatGPT, DALL-E, etc.) in this course. These programs can be powerful tools for learning and other productive pursuits, including completing some assignments in less time, helping you generate new ideas, or serving as a personalized learning tool.
However, your ethical responsibilities as a student remain the same. You must follow CMU’s academic integrity policy. Note that this policy applies to all uncited or improperly cited use of content, whether that work is created by human beings alone or in collaboration with a generative AI. If you use a generative AI tool to develop content for an assignment, you are required to cite the tool’s contribution to your work. In practice, cutting and pasting content from any source without citation is plagiarism. Likewise, paraphrasing content from a generative AI without citation is plagiarism. Similarly, using any generative AI tool without appropriate acknowledgment will be treated as plagiarism.
Here are some specific expectations for your use of AI generation tools in this course:
Finally, it is important that you recognize that generative AI tools frequently provide users with incorrect information, create professional-looking citations that are not real, generate contradictory statements, incorporate copyrighted material without appropriate attribution, and sometimes integrate biased or offensive concepts. Code generation models may produce inaccurate outputs. Image generation models may create misleading or offensive content.
While you may use these tools in the work you create for this class, it is important to note that you understand you are ultimately responsible for the content that you submit. Work that is inaccurate, biased, unethical, offensive, plagiarized, or incorrect will be treated as such during the evaluation of your work.
Adapted from CMU colleagues in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including ChatGPT, is permitted in this course for students who wish to use them. To adhere to our scholarly values, students must cite any AI-generated material that informed their work (this includes in-text citations and/or use of quotations, and in your reference list). Using an AI tool to generate content without proper attribution qualifies as academic dishonesty and violates Texas A&M-San Antonio’s standards of academic integrity.
Example from Texas A&M-San Antonio’s Generative AI Policy Options
Certain assignments in this course will permit or even encourage the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT. When AI use is permissible, it will be clearly stated in the assignment prompt posted in Canvas. Otherwise, the default is that use of generative AI is disallowed. In assignments where generative AI tools are allowed, their use must be appropriately acknowledged and cited. For instance, if you generated the whole document through ChatGPT and edited it for accuracy, your submitted work would need to include a note such as “I generated this work through Chat GPT and edited the content for accuracy.” Paraphrasing or quoting smaller samples of AI generated content must be appropriately acknowledged and cited, following the guidelines established by the APA Style Guide. It is each student’s responsibility to assess the validity and applicability of any AI output that is submitted. You may not earn full credit if inaccurate on invalid information is found in your work. Deviations from the guidelines above will be considered violations of CMU’s academic integrity policy. Note that expectations for “plagiarism, cheating, and acceptable assistance” on student work may vary across your courses and instructors. Please email me if you have questions regarding what is permissible and not for a particular course or assignment.
Adapted from CMU colleagues in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
During some class sessions, we may leverage generative AI tools to support your learning, provide you with an opportunity to explore how they can be used, and/or better understand their benefits and limitations. Learning how to use AI is an emerging skill, and we will work through the implications of these evolving systems together, during class sessions. However, use of generative AI will be limited to exercises during class sessions. I will always indicate when and where use of AI tools during class sessions is appropriate (and not). Examples of use during ungraded classroom exercises might include:
In contrast, you may not use AI tools to generate work for an assignment to be submitted for a grade, as this cannot be considered a substitute for developing the fundamental skills and expertise represented by the learning objectives of this course. Please note that generative AI tools rely on predictive models to generate content that may appear correct, but has been shown to sometimes be incomplete, inaccurate, taken without attribution from other sources, and/or biased. Consequently, an AI tool should not be considered a substitute for traditional approaches to research and you should complete all graded assignments without any assistance from AI tolls. You are ultimately responsible for the content of the information you submit and may not attempt to pass off any work generated by an AI program as your own.
Adapted from Harvard University
There are situations and contexts within this course where you may be asked to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to explore how they can be used. Outside of those circumstances, you should not use AI tools to generate content (text, video, audio, images) that will end up in any student work (assignments, activities, discussion responses, etc.) that is part of your evaluation in this course. Any student work submitted using AI tools should clearly indicate with attribution what work is the student’s work and what part is generated by the AI. In such cases, no more than 25% of the student work should be generated by AI. If any part of this is confusing or uncertain, students should reach out to their instructor for clarification before submitting work for grading. Use of AI-generated content without the instructor’s permission and/or proper attribution in this course qualifies as academic dishonesty and violates Texas A&M-San Antonio’s standards of academic integrity.
Example from Texas A&M-San Antonio’s Gen AI Policy Options
To best support your own learning, you should complete all graded assignments in this course yourself, without any use of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Please refrain from using AI tools to generate any content (text, video, audio, images, code, etc.) for an assignment or classroom exercise. Passing off any AI-generated content as your own (e.g., cutting and pasting content into written assignments, or paraphrasing AI content) constitutes a violation of CMU’s academic integrity policy. If you have any questions about using generative AI in this course please email or talk to me.
Adapted from CMU colleagues in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy
I expect that all work students submit for this course will be their own. I have carefully designed all assignments and class activities to support your learning. Doing your own work, without human or artificial intelligence assistance, is best for your achievement of the learning objectives in this course. In instances when collaborative work is assigned, I expect for the submitted work to list all team members who participated. I specifically forbid the use of ChatGPT or any other generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools at all stages of the work process, including brainstorming. Deviations from these guidelines will be considered violations of CMU’s academic integrity policy. Note that expectations for “plagiarism, cheating, and acceptable assistance” on student work may vary across your courses and instructors. Please ask me if you have questions regarding what is permissible and not for a particular course or assignment.
Adapted from Harvard University
In our Class, we assume that all work submitted by students will be generated by the students themselves, working individually or in groups. Students should not have another person/entity do the writing of any portion of an assignment for them, which includes hiring a person or a company to write assignments and/or using artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT. Use of any AI-generated content in this course qualifies as academic dishonesty and violates Texas A&M-San Antonio’s standards of academic integrity.
Example from Texas A&M-San Antonio’s Gen AI Policy Options
[Optional, use if you will use the Turnitin tool in your course. Feel free to edit this statement to fit your needs.]
Students at UTSA are responsible for ensuring their work is consistent with UTSA’s standards for academic integrity. Students should review Section 203 of the UTSA Student Code of Conduct for appropriate standards of academic integrity. In addition, UTSA has made Turnitin, a learning tool and plagiarism prevention system, available to instructors. For this class, you will submit your assignments to Turnitin through Canvas. When grading your work, I will interpret the Turnitin originality report following Section 203 of the UTSA Student Code of Conduct as appropriate. For more information about Turnitin, review the student resources provided by Turnitin. Note that submitted papers become part of the UTSA database.
[Optional, include this type of language if you expect students to use the Honorlock proctoring service. Feel free to edit this statement to fit your needs.]
In this course, you will use the Honorlock live proctoring service to take your quizzes and exams. [Faculty: Insert your own instructions here. See Honorlock’s suggested syllabus verbiage to customize your statement.]. To learn more about using Honorlock and for student instructions, visit the UTSA Honorlock site.