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Generative Artificial Intelligence Guide for Faculty

Academic Integrity and GAI

Harrisburg University expects honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility in all aspects of work. Upholding the principles of academic integrity ensures respect for the academic reputation of the University, its students, faculty and staff, and the degrees it confers. The University expects that students will conduct themselves in an honest and ethical manner and respect the intellectual work of others.

With regard to GAI, University policy means that students should only use artificial intelligence in a manner that is consistent with course requirements and which does not misrepresent machine generated work as their own. Even when students are permitted to use GAI at any stage of a research project, their work must be completed honestly using principles of Academic Integrity.

Even pre-GAI, it was often difficult to detect whether students cheated or plagiarized. GAI is making that determination even more tricky. Bodnick noted that "while GPT-4 might sometimes copy someone else’s ideas in a way that might make a professor suspicious of plagiarism, more often it generates the type of fairly unoriginal synthesis writing that’s rewarded in non-advanced university classes" (2023). While plagiarism checker tools can be useful identifying problematic writing, they have trouble keeping up with GAI, and no such tool is ever totally reliable, either with identifying actual plagiarism or with clearing instances of work that may appear to be plagiarism but in fact are not. OpenAI's own attempt at plagiarism detection failed. Therefore, if you suspect that a work has been plagiarized or is otherwise the product of cheating, you should use a variety of strategies to examine the work

There are often clues in student writing that may help you detect Academic Integrity violations. While these signs might raise suspicions, they are not proof of unauthorized GAI usage or other violations. Engaging in a conversation with the student and exploring their work with them is an important step in addressing any concerns. 

  • Change in Quality or Tone: Noticeable, significant change in writing quality or sophistication compared to the student's previous work. Usage of technical terms or concepts outside the student's usual level.
  • Inconsistent Writing Style: Shifts in language style, flow, tone, or vocabulary within the paper. Sections may appear disjointed or lack smooth integration. 
  • Lack of Personal Voice: Absence of the student's unique writing style or voice.
  • Lack of Depth in Discussions: Superficial discussions that lack critical analysis or meaningful insights; "listicle" style used.
  • Inability to Explain: The student struggles to explain or elaborate on specific concepts or arguments presented in the paper.
  • Lack of Source Analysis: Heavy reliance on numerous sources without substantial original analysis or interpretation.
  • Incorrect Citing Practice: Incorrectly formatted or missing citations.
  • Sources Cannot Be Located: GAI-output may generate fake citations that you will be unable to locate in Library databases or Google Scholar. Additional clues associated with use of sources include:
    • Selected sources are not commonly associated with the course content or the student's academic level.
    • Phrases in titles are repeated across multiple citations.
    • Content does not align with an academic timeline (e.g. a theory shows up in citations before it was posited or before it could reasonably make it to publication in a scholarly journal).