AI is one of the most disruptive technologies in education, so we are providing two recommendations for AI policies that educators can use in their classrooms.

Many students use AI to save time on assignments. To some students, an unclear AI policy is an invitation to push boundaries and offload as much work as possible to AI. To others, seeing peers use AI to produce work in a fraction of the time could convince them to do the same. And many teachers don't have the bandwidth to put together a bulletproof AI policy when they're not even 100% familiar with all of the tools their students are using.

We believe the first step to stop AI from disrupting learning is to set forth an unambiguous AI policy. We have distilled conversations with dozens of teachers and professors into two recommended AI policies. The simplest is a blanket policy that disallows all use of AI to complete assignments. The second is a tier-based policy that allows educators the flexibility of allowing different scopes of AI use for different assignments.

Blanket AI policy

A blanket AI policy is useful to help students understand exactly what is and isn't cheating, without ambiguity. Below is a recommendation for an AI policy that could fit in a class syllabus. This policy disallows all AI use to complete assignments, but allows AI use for exploring and understanding class concepts outside of assignments.

AI is a tool that can provide customized help, but over-reliance on AI leaves students with insufficient practice and incomplete understanding of the course material. The goal of this class is for students to grow and learn, and the best way to do so is for students to do their own work. For this reason, using AI to complete assignments is strictly prohibited.

Students may not:

Use AI as a shortcut to complete assignments faster.
Use AI as an answer key to copy off of.
Use AI to generate any part of a submitted assignment.
Use AI to generate an outline or section headers for a submitted assignment.
Use AI to generate a draft of a submitted assignment.
Use AI to edit, rewrite, or improve an original submission.
Use other generative AI features such as Grammarly "Improve it" or Google Docs "Help me write."

Students may use AI like they would use a fellow student:

Exploring course material in a conversational manner.
Asking for clarification to build a more complete understanding of topics.

Tier system for AI use

This system is intended for educators who want to explore allowing different scopes of AI use for some assignments. The benefit here is to help prepare students for the real world, where they will undoubtedly encounter AI more regularly. Using AI will also help students understand the limitations of AI, counteracting learned helplessness and enabling them to understand where their personal efforts are most valuable.

This system is more complicated, but we have seen firsthand how educators who wish to teach with AI have seen success using it. A tier system like this is the clearest way to delineate AI usage. As an example, an educator may explain that Tier 2 is the default for all assignments, but for a specific project they will allow Tier 4.

It is worth noting that students operating in tiers 0, 1, and 2 will not trigger AI detection, while tiers 3 and 4 may trigger AI detection if the student uses AI heavily.

The following tiers are cumulative. Each tier includes all technologies from previous tiers.

Tier	Description	Examples	Triggers AI Detection
Tier 0: Zero assistance	Work must be entirely original, created without any AI tools. For assessing students' raw ability to think, write, analyze, etc.	• Pen-and-paper work • Homework using only textbook/worksheet • In-class exams	No
Tier 1: Basic tool use	Grammar and spell checking, Google Docs underlining, calculators. No AI models. Helps students improve their own work after demonstrating ability to self-edit.	• Typed take-home essays • Basic Grammarly or Google Docs spell-check	No
Tier 2: AI as a learning tool	AI can be used to engage with learning material but not for producing final work. No AI-generated outlines, revisions, or content in submissions.	• Using Perplexity/Google for research sources • Using ChatGPT to clarify concepts	No
Tier 3: AI as an editing tool	Limited use of AI for rephrasing, brainstorming, outlining. Majority of writing still from student.	• AI assistance with outlines • AI critique of final drafts • Grammarly AI style tools	Yes
Tier 4: AI as a collaborative assistant	AI performs substantial work alongside capable students pursuing ambitious goals. Not for offloading basic learning.	• AI summarizing academic papers • AI writing analysis code • AI research discussions	Yes

Tier 0: Zero Assistance

Work must be entirely original, created without any AI tools. This is for the purpose of assessing students' raw ability to think, write, analyze, etc.

This is best used for traditional "pen-and-paper" assignments:

Homework that doesn't require any material outside of the textbook/work sheet.
In-class exam.

Tier 1: Basic tool use

Grammar and spell checking, Google Docs underlining, calculators. No AI tools like Perplexity or ChatGPT. This is to help students improve their own work for final submission. This should be utilized after students have demonstrated the ability to edit their work on their own

This is a good tier to use for typed take-home essays.

Using Grammarly or Google Docs for spell-check (not generative AI features).
Using a calculator.
Using online citation formatting tools.

Tier 2: AI as a learning tool

Students may use AI to engage with the learning material. Students may not use AI to aid in the production of the final product. Students should not use AI to produce outlines, revise sentences, or produce any material that appears in their final submitted work.

This is a good way to introduce AI into the classroom while being clear that AI is not for producing final outputs.

Using Perplexity or Google to find primary and secondary sources for research.
Using ChatGPT to clarify concepts.
Using an AI assistant to retrieve information in the same way a student would look something up in a textbook.

Tier 3: AI as an editing tool (Triggers AI detection)

Select rephrasing of sentences for clarity, brainstorming, outlining. The majority of the writing is still from the student. The students' work isn't replaced by AI but is supported by it.

This is the first tier that could trigger AI detection software.

Some examples:

Using AI to help rephrase an awkward sentence.
Asking AI to help turn bullet points into an essay outline.
Having AI critique a final written product so the student can take another pass and address critiques.
Using Grammarly AI style changing tools or Google Docs "Help me write."

Tier 4: AI as a collaborative assistant (Triggers AI detection)

AI is doing real work that a student would have otherwise done themselves. This use of AI should not be used to offload work by a developing or struggling student. This is for mature students who want to accomplish an ambitious goal. AI enables students to offload work that they already know how to do and use their time more effectively in pursuit of their goal.

A good example for this tier could be a high school senior doing academic research.

Using AI to summarize academic papers.
Using AI to write code to analyze a dataset.
Using AI to produce tables and figures from existing data.
Using AI to talk through research questions and clarify research direction.

We're always happy to see our work make an impact in the world. Please share widely if you find this useful, and contact us at info@pangram.com if you're interested in learning more about how Pangram can help with academic integrity.

Useful AI policies for educators