Gen AI at MHC

Generative Artificial Intelligence tools have broad implications across society, including for institutions of higher learning. In response, Medicine Hat College established a generative AI (Gen AI) working group in May 2023 to create an MHC LLM/Gen AI Stance and optional course outline language. The stance and course outline language are supported by the MHC Senior Academic Leadership Team. In March 2024, a working group was once again established to create MHC Gen AI principles to support students, instructors, staff, and administration more fully. The five principles below are based on McGill’s Principles for the use of Generative AI Tools in Teaching and Learning but were modified and elaborated upon to fit MHC strategic and academic plans with the understanding that these principles will need to be revisited and revised based on this emerging technology. The MHC Gen AI principles are to constitute a framework to integrate Gen AI tools into the academic mission of MHC.

FIRST PRINCIPLE: The college community will have opportunities to learn about Gen AI tools, how they work, and the opportunities and challenges they entail.

Institutional leaders will work in consultation and collaboration with instructors and staff to support Gen AI principles and pedagogical training to adequately address Gen AI in the context of teaching and learning, research, administrative use, and institutional data governance. Educational programming will be developed and provided for staff, students, instructors, and administrators with the aim to be able to:

• explain the ethical implications of the use or non-use of such tools.
• identify when the use of Gen AI tools is appropriate and not appropriate.
• identify the biases and normative tendencies inherent in Gen AI tools.
• identify the affordances and constraints offered by generative AI tools.
• respect intellectual property, academic integrity, and privacy considerations, if using the tools.
• appropriately use publicly available Gen AI tools.
• evaluate overall student experience based on Gen AI usage.

SECOND PRINCIPLE: Instructors remain responsible for conducting themselves according to the highest standards of academic integrity in their use of Gen AI tools.

• Instructors maintain responsibility and accountability for materials created for MHC usage.
• Instructors will be supported in their decisions pertaining to Gen AI usage in their teaching.
• Once established under the digital learning strategy, instructors will be responsible to use the MHC Information Technology Services (ITS) approved software.

THIRD PRINCIPLE: As with all learning technologies, instructors have autonomy to decide whether they will use a Gen AI tool in their teaching.

• Instructors have the choice to integrate or not integrate Gen AI tools in their individual courses and/or programs.

FOURTH PRINCIPLE: Staff remain responsible for conducting themselves according to the highest standards of the data management policy in their use of any of the Gen AI tools.

• Staff maintain responsibility and accountability for materials created for MHC using Gen AI tools.
• When applicable, staff have the responsibility to avail themselves of supports to ensure understanding about what Gen AI tools are, how they work, and the opportunities and challenges they entail.
• Once established under the digital learning strategy, staff will be responsible to use the MHC Information Technology Services (ITS) approved software.

FIFTH PRINCIPLE: Students remain responsible for maintaining academic rigour and availing themselves of supports to ensure understanding about Gen AI tools, how they work, and the opportunities and challenges they entail.

• Students must maintain academic integrity as listed in the MHC calendar.
• Students should understand implications and consequences of academic integrity infractions.
• Students are responsible for understanding and complying with instructors’ explicit expectations pertaining to Gen AI usage, respect limits established about the use of Gen AI tools in assessment tasks and follow Gen AI expectations as set out in course outlines.
• Once established under the digital learning strategy, students will be responsible to use the MHC Information Technology Services (ITS) approved software.

Decisions regarding the use of LLM/Gen AI tools in courses will remain with instructors based on the type of course, learning objectives, and assessments. Some instructors may allow or encourage these tools, some may limit their use to certain courses or assessments, and some may ban them.

Be clear about the rules and limits of using LLM/Gen AI tools for your course work. If you allow or encourage the use of LLM/Gen AI tools, think about security issues when creating accounts with personal and/or MHC email accounts.

The following sample statements can help you communicate the rules to your students on your course outlines and/or assignments. These are NOT mandatory to use. You can edit them to fit your courses. In these sample statements, there are references to MHC’s Academic Integrity statement which is located in the MHC Academic Calendar.

Regardless of your stance on this technology, talk to your students about this technology and the course expectations. Give them a choice to opt-out if they have issues with the cost, privacy, security, or other aspects of the technology.

POSSIBLE COURSE OUTLINE LANGUAGE

1. ALLOWING OR ENCOURAGING USAGE OF LLM/GEN AI TOOLS

• Technology can help you understand course materials better. You can use LLM/Gen AI or other technological tools in this course to learn or to complete assignments.
• You must follow the MHC Academic Integrity statement (MHC Academic Calendar). Ask for clarification if you are unsure about the rules.
• Cite any content from LLM/Gen AI tools properly. Use these guidelines for citing LLM/Gen AI material:
  
  • APA: https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt
  • Chicago: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0422.html
  • MLA: https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai/

• You can use LLM/Gen AI tools for these purposes:
• You cannot use LLM/Gen AI tools for these purposes:
• You can only use these LLM/Gen AI tools for this course: (PLACE SPECIFIC NAMES OF TOOLS HERE). No other LLM/Gen AI tools are allowed. Ask the instructor if you have any questions.
• You must cite your use of LLM/Gen AI tools correctly. Unauthorized use of LLM/Gen AI tools may be considered a violation of the MHC Academic Integrity statement (MHC Academic Calendar). Ask for clarification if you are unsure about the rules.
• While there are a variety of LLM/Gen AI tools available to assist writers, these tools are not a replacement for human creativity, originality, and critical thinking. Writing is a skill that you need to practice and improve. LLM/Gen AI tools may be used in limited circumstances and with proper attribution in this course.

3. PROHIBITING USE OF LLM/GEN AI TOOLS

• Do not use LLM/Gen AI tools or apps (such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, DALL-E, etc.) at any point and for any course assignments, evaluations, or assessments in this course. All work must be your own original work and follow the MHC Academic Integrity statement (MHC Academic Calendar). Using unauthorized LLM/Gen AI tools or apps will be considered a violation of the MHC Academic Integrity statement.
• The use of LLM/Gen AI tools (such as ChatGPT) is strictly prohibited in all course assignments, evaluations, and assessments unless the instructor says otherwise.
• Use of LLM/Gen AI tools in this course may be considered a violation of the MHC Academic Integrity statement (MHC Academic Calendar).

BACKGROUND

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) is an emergent technology that shows promising efficiencies in many aspects of daily work but also has significant risks in terms of data privacy, copyright infringement, plagiarism, and academic integrity.

It is a predictive technology that gathers the most likely response to a prompt that it is given. Sometimes the resulting response can be biased or incorrect even though the output may sound confident and logical. Gen AI models may have been trained on copyrighted data resulting in output that may be in violation of copyright laws.

To manage the risks associated with Gen AI technology and tools, and to remain ethical and compliant, Medicine Hat College (MHC) has established the following directives to guide its use while developing a formal Gen AI policy and procedure. These directives support security, privacy, transparency and accountability for the college community. To support instructors and students as they adapt to this new technology, the college has also established two guiding documents: MHC Large Language Model (LLM)/Generative AI Intelligence Stance and Principles on Generative AI at Medicine Hat College.

DEFINITIONS

• Authorized Gen AI: any Gen AI that has been vetted and approved by MHC’s IT department for use. Specific conditions may still apply, such as limitations on data types and usage scenarios.
• Confidential Information: Personal, private, or sensitive information that employees need to access to do their job.
• End User Licensing Agreement: A contract between a software producer and the eventual user of the product, specifying the terms and conditions of use.
• Internal Information: information that is used internally and can be safely circulated between college employees. For example, departmental meeting notes. Unauthorized disclosure or loss of this information may result in inconvenience but is unlikely to cause financial or reputational damage to MHC, or harm to any individuals.
• Personal Information: Any recorded information about an identifiable individual.
• Public Information: information that is publicized or can be freely disclosed without any risk to MHC, and without infringing on any individual’s right to privacy. For example, the Academic Calendar.
• Unauthorized Gen AI: any Gen AI that has not been vetted and approved by MHC’s IT department for compliance with security, privacy, and operational standards.

DIRECTIVES

1. Only public level information may be used with unauthorized Gen AI. These programs retain the information for their own uses, outside the control of MHC. Examples of unauthorized Gen AI are Chat GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and QuillBot.

2. Currently, the only authorized Gen AI that can be used for internal information at MHC is Microsoft Copilot. Users must sign in with an MHC account to remain compliant with privacy legislation and ensure information remains under the control of MHC.

3. Even when using authorized Gen AI, users should not include personal or confidential information.

4. Gen AI use must comply with all provincial and federal laws including information, privacy, and copyright laws.

5. Gen AI use must comply with all applicable MHC policies and procedures.

6. Gen AI use must comply with the Terms of Service and/or End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) of the product.

7. Licenses for Gen AI products must be purchased through ITS, undergo a Privacy Impact Assessment, and comply with Finance policies.

8. Gen AI output should not be used for functions related to external relations or that could result in copyright infringement (i.e., using Gen AI created images on the MHC website).

9. Gen AI output must not be used as evidence or a primary source of data for decision making.

10. Gen AI output should not be assumed to be factual and must be double-checked from a reputable source before being used in factual contexts.