UCO adjusts to the age of artificial intelligence with new policy

Trinity Kohnen

Contributing Writer

Last fall, the Artificial Intelligence Committee launched an AI policy to guide educators through this new tool and outline appropriate practices for students. As UCO is one of the few universities to publish an AI policy, this action allows students and faculty to use the tool fittingly with higher education.

The policy defines ChatGPT, AI’s limitations, academic integrity and much more. Connected to the policy is a list of AI websites for anyone to explore and resources provided to answer any more questions/encourage individual research on the topic. 

Dr. Laura Dumin, the head of the AI Committee, AI coordinator and the director of the technical writing B.A. program, created the committee and policy to benefit students and keep UCO in line with the future.

“It was based on the idea that we needed to have something in place to help with academic misconduct issues but we also wanted to give professors the freedom to do what made the most sense for them in their classrooms,” Dumin said.

In her classroom, Dumin explores the tool with her students and monitors how students are using it to create a policy that reflects UCO student’s needs and concerns. She said many students are diving head first into the use of AI, while there are others who are unamused by the new technology.

Dumin said that as long as her students are transparent with her on how it was used, she sees no issue and it can eliminate pressure to cheat.

In terms of the future of the policy and the committee itself, constant research will be done to stay up to date with the progression of this new technology. Members of the committee will be exploring how they work and what makes sense for students.

When asked how and if policy will be altered in the future, Dumin replied, “Not yet. I think so much of what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to be forward thinking. We’re trying to make a policy that is wide enough to encompass change.”