Page updated May 2026

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is a category of technology that creates new content in response to prompts. GenAI is a rapidly evolving area affecting university education. Artificial intelligence is built into more and more of our existing technology, making it difficult to avoid and practically impossible to ban as a result.

First, become GenAI literate

It is essential that everyone learns the basics about GenAI to be able to use the technology responsibly and ethically. 

  • Educators need to be literate in order to explain what is and is not acceptable use, and to provide good teaching and learning rationale to students. (see: Set clear expectations) 
  • Students need to be able to understand what educators are requiring of them, whether that is to use GenAI in only specific ways, or not at all.

Take time to look through these USask resources:

USask GenAI tools

GenAI is an area experiencing rapid growth and tools customized to perform specialized functions are emerging all the time.

USask evaluates tools against specific criteria and offers information on their use.

GenAI and academic integrity

Academic integrity in the age of GenAI require learners and educators to understand the purpose of the learning and what makes an assessment a true representation of what a student knows or can do. 

Transparency is key to academic integrity.   

Educators need to make expectations clear (see: Set clear expectations) 

Students need to make their use transparent (see: Citing and disclosing) 

Maintaining academic integrity can be challenging in new ways with GenAI because of what GenAI has the ability to do for us now. There is a broad concern that those learning something new (like university students, but not only them) may over-rely on the capabilities of GenAI.

Scenario What you should know
When you need to learn and synthesize new ideas or information. To learn something new, you are going to have to do the reading and thinking, yourself. 
When putting in the effort to learn is the point. To learn is to be challenged and to get feedback on your mistakes.
When very high accuracy is required. Errors in GenAI outputs will seem plausible and are therefore hard to spot unless you are already an expert (like an instructor is).
When GenAI is bad at things and guidance is lacking. Inaccuracies and failures of GenAI are constantly evolving and being discovered in GenAI outputs.
When you do not understand that GenAI is persuasive and not concerned with accuracy. GenAI will try to persuade you that IT is right when IT is wrong.
GenAI will try to persuade you that YOU are right, when YOU are wrong. 

GenAI and academic misconduct

Expectations for acceptable and unacceptable use are to be set out clearly by educators as these expectations serve to define academic misconduct.

Below are two relevant sections of the USask Academic Misconduct Regulations that may apply to academic misconduct involving GenAI use.

Unpermitted Assistance
= a student used a GenAI tool in a way that was not allowed.
  • See p. 6, point g (i)
    “failure to observe any stated rule with regard to the procedures used in an examination, assessment, or an activity undertaken for academic credit where such a failure could result in the student gaining relatively greater credit” 

Missing or inadequate attribution 
= a student included content or ideas originating with or derived from GenAI but did not acknowledge the source 
  • See p.7, point l
    “Adequate attribution is required. What is essential is that another person has no doubt which words or research results are the student’s, and which are drawn from other sources. Full explicit acknowledgment of the source of the material is required.” 
  • See p. 7, point l (ii)
    “The verbatim use of oral or written material without adequate attribution” 

Detection tools: Not approved

Tools to detect text or other outputs produced by GenAI are not reliable. False accusations can be devastating. No detection tool has been approved for use at the University of Saskatchewan. USask continues to monitor and assess detection strategies. Contact gmctl@usask.ca with suggestions or questions.

Research into detection tools has found problems with bias, false positives (accusing especially people writing in additional languages); false negatives (missed cases of GenAI use); and copyright concerns.

Research, development, testing, and implementation of detection tools or detection practices are actively monitored at USask. This includes regular contact with colleagues in the U15 and other higher education institutions in Canada.

Read this September 2025 announcement where UWaterloo explains their decision to discontinue use of AI detection functionality in Turnitin, including their internal testing efforts.

More articles: 

It is a potential copyright violation to put the work of another person into a third-party tool without their permission.

If you, as the educator, do not acquire permission from each student for submitting their work to GenAI or plagiarism detectors, doing so could be a copyright infringement issue and/or a violation of the University’s Use of Materials Protected by Copyright Policy. 

Students are advised to report use of detection tools on their intellectual property to their appropriate Associate Dean.

Set clear expectations

Educators should provide students with clear expectations for GenAI use on assessments. These expectations should appear in the syllabus and/or alongside assessment instructions or requirements. Students should be able to seek clarification from instructors whenever something is unclear.

Sample general statement about GenAI use:  

  • "It is academic misconduct on an assessment if a student uses generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies or tools in ways that are not permitted for that assessment. Refer to detailed instructions for each assessment for expectations.” 

Sample assessment-specific statements (adapt to purpose) 

About unacceptable use: 
  • It is academic misconduct on this assessment if student work in whole or in part is generated by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technology or tools.  
  • It is academic misconduct on this assessment if student work is altered in the following ways [be specific, refer to examples below by GenAI technology or tools.  
About acceptable use: 
  • Students may use GenAI technology or tools to edit content, including making changes that improve the clarity of writing and change wording or structure. 
  • Students may use GenAI technology or tools to advise on approach, including suggesting processes, offering solutions or identifying best practice. 
  • Students may use GenAI technology or tools to format, including generating a template or structure that match specifications 
  • Students may use GenAI technology or tools to get ideas, including suggesting topics, options, and ways of doing things. 
  • Students may use GenAI technology or tools to plan, including sequencing actions or steps or content with respect to certain criteria. 
  • Students may use GenAI technology or tools to summarize, including identifying key points in a condensed form. 

Where disclosure of GenAI use is required, provide guidance or a template to students. 

Where citation of GenAI content is required, provide a citation protocol. Share the University Library guide: Citing your use of GenAI 

Helping students to see why a restriction or a use supports their learning is an essential academic integrity strategy.

Sample syllabus statements

Sample supporting rationale

[When use of GenAI is required as part of a learning outcome]

Use of GenAI is required for this course/assessment and will not constitute academic misconduct.

As your instructor, I want to assess your ability to use GenAI according to specific criteria.

[When GenAI use is acceptable with acknowledgement]

Use of GenAI is acceptable for this course/assessment and will not constitute academic misconduct when appropriately acknowledged.

As your instructor, I want to assess what you can do including when you have access to and use GenAI. 

[When only specific GenAI use is acceptable]

Some limited and specific use(s) of GenAI is acceptable in this assessment.  Any unacceptable use(s) will constitute academic misconduct.  See the following list of acceptable and unacceptable use [insert your specific examples]” 

As your instructor, I want to assess what you can do only with specific use of GenAI and other similar forms assistance.  I have permitted some uses and restricted other uses to support your learning. If you use GenAI beyond the acceptable uses: 

  • you will not get the practice you need;  
  • the feedback you get will not be meaningful;  
  • your grade will not reflect what you can do within the expectations; and  
  • it will not be fair. 
Sample uses with supporting rationale
  • Generate ideas
 For the purposes of planning content multiple resources exist. You may use web searches, course materials, library resources, instructors, qualified peers and GenAI to support your process.
  • Identify relevant information to further research
  • Improve format of what student has produced
 For the purposes of finalizing content multiple resources exist. You may use software, library resources, instructors, qualified peers, and GenAI to support your writing process.
  • Support final edits

Students presenting work as though it is their own when it is not, is considered academic misconduct in most (if not all) situations. However, there are ways to use GenAI that could be acceptable (or acceptable to an extent) for an assessment and therefore consistent with academic integrity.    

It helps to think about what makes an assessment aligned to your learning outcomes and to think about the kinds of assistance that you would permit or even encourage and whether these are similar to some uses of GenAI. See examples uses of GenAI (this page).

The following table compares GenAI use to familiar forms of help and when these could be academic misconduct. 

Improvement to student work  GenAI could be prompted to:  How similar is this to help from the instructor and/or:  This could be academic misconduct for an assessment if: 
Edit Make changes that improve the clarity of writing by proofreading and changing wording or structure Working with a peer reviewer, TA, a friend with experience, a library service Capacity for unassisted, independent writing essential
Advise Suggest processes, offer solutions, identify best practices Reading a book, article, website; viewing a you tube video; asking a classmate, TA, a friend with experience  Relying only on instructions provided in-class is essential 
Format  Structure something according to specifications  Referring to an example or template that follows the same criteria Capacity for unassisted, independent formating or structuring is essential
Ideas Suggest topics, options, or ways of doing things as in brainstorming Searching for examples, discussing with classmates or people working in the field Generating ideas free of influence is essential
Plan Sequence actions or steps or content with respect to certain criteria Searching for models, samples, outlines that align to the criteria Articulating a correct or viable plan unassisted, independently, based only on course materials is essential 
Summarize  Identify key points in a condensed form and preserve meaning of an input or resource Reading a review, abstract, on-line summary; listening to a podcast; watching a video created by humans    Comprehension without referring to summaries is essential

 

Refer to Artificial Intelligence Tools: Submitting Content (KB article) for advice about security and privacy of AI tools and how the content submitted to AI tools may be used to train those tools.   

To set clear expectations about teaching materials, educators can:

  • Explain what the purpose is of the materials you have provided (slides, etc.) 
  • Identify that Microsoft's Copilot in protected mode, is a tool that has built-in protections which keep a computer's IP address and any copyright information from being shared outside of the University.
  • Explain how posting or using materials at third party sites compromises the IP and copyright, and how placing other people’s work on public forums for use by these third parties, compromises copyright and intellectual property.
  • Explain that students also have an IP and should opt to use tools that protect their knowledge and creativity from unknown or uncertain uses, making Copilot a good tool to use.

Example uses of GenAI

The uses of GenAI are changing and expanding rapidly. Consider these (overlapping) categories of use.

  • Answer iterative questions about a topic, like a tutor might, or like could be available by asking questions in class or attending office hours.
  • Generate examples of something that was explained in class.
  • Create practice questions based on course materials.
  • Identify errors in student work and provide corrective feedback.
  • Outline steps to solve certain kinds of problems.
  • Recommend approaches for conducting research. 
  • Identify strategies that could work for an example problem or context.
  • Create a glossary of terms for learning materials.
  • Simulate an interview with a specific person, character or persona.
  • Reformat class notes as a podcast where people are discussing ideas from class.
  • Reformat class notes as an instructional video.

  • Proofread a draft for certain kinds of errors or issues.
  • Rewrite a student paragraph in a different tone.
  • Find ways to restate or vary word choice.
  • Rewrite a student draft for improved grammar, verb tense.
  • Assemble drafted content into a more cohesive whole.
  • Improve a thesis statement or research question.
  • Rewrite a draft to change word count.
  • Correct and improve code, graphic representations, audio, video, slides according to student inputted criteria.

  • Classify or summarize content. 
  • Transform large data set. 
  • Generate a case study, piece of art, concept map, thematic representation, figure 
  • Design an experiment or process. 
  • Curate content to represent a theme or an argument. 
  • Produce an analysis of data for patterns, properties, interactions. 
  • Generate code for a standard or novel problem. 
  • Change a text-based story into a visual, or vice versa. 
  • Redesign something to new specs. 
  • Translate from one language into another.

Citing and disclosing use

As GenAI use becomes more and more common, standardized formats for citation and acknowledgement are becoming available for textual and non-textual outputs. 

Educators may ask students to attest to their non-use of GenAI, or to describe their use of in sufficient detail. Standard templates or formats for acknowledging GenAI use, or non-use, may be used. These should be consistent with and specific to the assessment in question.

As GenAI use becomes more and more common, standardized formats for citation and acknowledgement are becoming available for textual and non-textual outputs. 

  • Student name, assessment title, date of submission, relevant course details.
  • Signature line or equivalent where a student formally verifies their agreement with the statement.
  • Example standard statement: “I understand that as I student, I am responsible to become knowledgeable about academic integrity practices expected of me in my courses and this includes and is not limited to following expectations for GenAI use outlined by my instructor in this course”  

Purpose: To have a student formally confirm that they have not used GenAI in the ways the instructor has said are not permitted on an assessment.

Since GenAI is built into many everyday software, apps and tools now, the language of a “total ban” is not recommended. Instead name specific use restrictions. Example statements are: 
  • "I confirm that I have not used any GenAI tools or technologies to generate the content of this assignment." 
  • "I confirm that I have not used any GenAI tools or technologies to produce or edit the [text/image/code/video/visuals] included in this assignment."

Purpose: To have a student (1) describe their permitted use in a way the instructor finds sufficient, and,  (2) formally confirm that they have not used GenAI in the ways an instructor has said are not permitted on an assessment. 

Example statements are listed below and may begin with a stem such as this: “I acknowledge specific uses of GenAI to produce this assessment and… "


Example statement format  Example of additional process description  
To create an outline: 
…I acknowledge the use of [tool(s)] to generate an outline for an assignment as permitted by the instructor. 		 I entered the following prompt(s) [insert] and limited my use of the output to assist me to plan my assignment.  The ideas and text used are cited appropriately where they are not uniquely my own.   
To start a research process: 
…I acknowledge the use of [tool(s)] to brainstorm topics for an assessment as permitted by the instructor. 		 I entered the following prompt(s) [insert] and used the output as a starting point for topic ideas/research directions. 
To edit: 
…I acknowledge the use of [tool(s)] to edit and format the final product for this assessment as permitted by the instructor.  		 I entered the following draft [insert link to document(s)] and entered the following prompt(s) to produce an improved draft which I then reviewed and made final modifications before submitting.   
To complete a task: 
…I acknowledge the use of [tool(s)] to complete the requirement as assigned by the instructor. 		 I entered the following prompt(s) [insert] and used the output in order to [insert assessment task].

Support

Advice and Guidance

Academic Integrity - Academic Integrity Strategist, Susan Bens  

Teaching with GenAI - Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning