Agree the ground rules for AI in your course
Settle explicitly what is and is not allowed in your own course, so that expectations are shared before the first assignment rather than argued about after it.
Recommended for: The start of any course with assignments produced outside class
Background for the instructor
Students want to know where they stand. Rules that are never stated are guessed at, and the guesses differ. Discussing them out loud costs one session and prevents the misunderstandings that surface at marking time.
Procedure
- Put the five questions to the group and let them answer before you do.
- May students use AI tools in this course? If so, which, and in what way?
- How should students declare their use of AI?
- What counts as your own work here?
- What counts as fraud or plagiarism?
- When does AI add something to the learning, and when does it take it away?
- Compare their answers with the rules of the programme and of the university, and be explicit where the two differ.
- Write the agreements down in a form students can consult, and refer to them in the assignment brief.
- Revisit them once during the course, when students have had a reason to test them.
Discussion questions
- Which of these rules could you defend to a fellow student, and which only to a teacher?
- What makes a declaration of AI use trustworthy?
- Where in this course would a rule be unenforceable, and does that matter?
Assessment opportunity
The agreements become part of the assignment brief; students declare their use of AI against them when they submit.
Reference
- Didactische tip in voorbereiding: "Hoe begin je het gesprek met je studenten over AI?" (VU Centre for Teaching & Learning, 2026)
Also see
- The transparency statement AI literacy exercises