AI tools can be helpful for research purposes, however, due to the nature of AI and the issues surrounding AI, one should approach using AI ethically and appropriately for college assignments.
Below are some guidelines to help you navigate using AI ethically and appropriately:
- Be familiar with and follow Snow College's Academic Integrity policy
- Read the course Syllabus: The syllabus should outline ways you can and cannot use AI in your course.
- Cite: You should always be transparent in your use of AI for all college assignments. One way you can be transparent is to cite AI in-text and in the Works Cited or Reference section of your assignment. You can find some general guidelines for how to cite AI Tools on these websites:
- Prompts: Using AI effectively includes learning how to correctly assign the AI a task. Your prompts need to be carefully crafted so the AI can provide you with the correct information you need in the right format. There are many internet sites that can help you learn more about effective prompting. This is a very important step to learn when using AI. When, used correctly, prompts will help you avoid using AI in unethical ways. Below are some guidelines and additional websites that can help you learn how to create prompts for academic use:
- Give the AI a role. Example: You are an college freshman conducting research on sleep and college students . . . .
- Be specific in what you want the AI to do for you. Example: you need to create 5 different Boolean search statements that can be used in an academic library database, such as ProQuest Central, to find scholarly, peer-reviewed articles related to the topic of sleep and college students. The search statements should include multiple synonyms related to the topic and should use only the following Boolean Operators: OR, AND and NOT
- Describe the output you desire. Example: provide the Boolean search statements in a downloadable word document
- Use do and don't. Example: Include only Boolean search statements. Do not include titles of articles. Do not include suggested articles on the topic. Provide only Boolean search statements.
- Provide examples. Example: Here is an example of a basic search statement: college students AND lack of sleep
- Evaluate: AI tools are programmed to provide you with an answer, even if that answer is false, misleading or incorrect. ALWAYS evaluate the information provided to you in the AI response. If anything doesn't look right in the answer, such as the Boolean operators are missing, there are characters in the answer that you didn't ask for, the math is incorrect, the AI doesn't provide you with sources where the information came from if required for the prompt, verify the information with your professor, a librarian or someone you trust. You might find that the AI your using isn't a good fit for academic assistance. ALWAYS question the answers that AI provides. Remember AI is not human and can only provide answers based on patterns - not emotion or reason.
- Ask. If the AI is not helpful for what you need, you can always ask for help from a librarian or your professor.
