General Guidelines on Course Outlines
To ensure consistency and compliance with Queen鈥檚 University and Ontario Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security (鈥渢he Ministry鈥) requirements, the following elements are the minimum information to include in all course outlines:
Couse outline Standards and Guidelines
Included in these guidelines are the inclusion of usages statements as it pertains to Gen AI and Agentic AI. The sections below provide additional guidance and suggestions as they pertain to Gen AI and Agentic AI usage statements in course outlines.
The Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning portfolio will continue to monitor the influence of AI on education, providing support and guidance to the institution, academic units, and instructors.
Statements on Agentic AI
Agentic AI tools can act autonomously on behalf of a user: navigating websites, logging into systems, completing multi-step tasks, and making decisions without continuous human direction. Guidance on the use Agentic AI (link) highlights the importance of providing guidance to students, including a syllabus statement as outlined in this section.
Instructors are expected to clarify if and how Agentic AI can be used in their courses, and recommended to discuss their stance with students through in class discussion and a syllabus statement (see exemplars below).
Minimal version
Agentic AI refers to tools that act autonomously on your behalf, including tools that log into systems, navigate platforms, or complete multi-step tasks without your continuous direction.
The use of agentic AI tools to complete or submit academic work on your behalf is not permitted in this course. This restriction applies regardless of any course-specific permissions granted for the use of generative AI. Such use falls within the definitions of unauthorized content generation and contract cheating in the Academic Integrity Procedures. You should not authorize any third-party application or tool to access institutional systems using your Queen鈥檚 credentials.
Expanded version
Agentic AI tools are applications that can act autonomously on a user鈥檚 behalf: completing tasks, accessing systems, and making decisions without continuous human direction. Examples include automated agents that can submit assignments, complete online activities, or interact with course platforms.
The use of agentic AI to complete, submit, or contribute to assessed work is not permitted in this course. This applies regardless of any permissions granted for the use of generative AI tools. When a tool acts on your behalf, the resulting work is not your own; this falls within existing definitions of departures from academic integrity.
You must not authorize any third-party tool or application to access Queen鈥檚 systems, including onQ, using your institutional credentials. Doing so creates risks that extend beyond your own academic standing.
In this course, you will work directly with agentic AI tools as part of the learning activities. Use of these tools is permitted for [specify: designated assignments / all activities / in-class exercises] as described in the course materials. You are expected to document your configuration of the tool, observe and record its behaviour, and submit your own critical analysis of the results. The tool鈥檚 output is not the assessed work; your engagement with it is.
All use of these tools should occur through [specify platform or credentials], not through your personal Queen鈥檚 account or credentials.
Statements on Generative AI
Original Statements can be found on the Office of the Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) website.
Key points include:
- No broad ban on GenAI tools: Queen鈥檚 has not banned generative AI tools.
- Provide students guidance: Instructors should specify the parameters for AI tool use in their courses and advise on terms of use via a syllabus statement.
- Academic integrity: Unauthorized use of generative AI is considered a departure from academic integrity.
- AI-detection tools: These tools should not be used due to privacy and reliability concern.
Due to their widespread presence and the challenges in detecting their use, Generative AI tools are not banned at Queen鈥檚. The university also acknowledges the persuasive arguments regarding the potential benefits these technologies can offer.
Instructors are expected to clarify if and how generative AI can be used in their courses, and it鈥檚 recommended to discuss their stance with students.
Instructors should include clear guidelines or a statement in the syllabus to advise students on the use of generative AI tools. The below statements were developed by the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and shared with permission.
- Permitted with citation
- Students must submit their own work and cite the work that is not theirs. Generative AI writing tools such as ChatGPT are welcome in this class, provided you cite the material that they generate. Any other use constitutes a departure from academic integrity.
- Permitted in specific assignments, with citation
- Students must submit their own work and cite the work that is not theirs. Generative AI writing tools such as ChatGPT are only permissible when explicitly noted in the assignment instructions. In these cases, be sure to cite the material that they generate. Any other use constitutes a departure from academic integrity.
- Not permitted
- Using generative AI writing tools such as ChatGPT in your submitted work is not permitted in this class. This type of use constitutes a departure from academic integrity. Original work, completed wholly by you, is expected to be submitted in this course.
The use of third-party AI-detection tools is strongly discouraged due to their unreliability and the potential breach of student privacy and intellectual property rights.