MJC has an Academic Freedom & Integrity policy that defines the unauthorized use of AI as plagiarism. In addition, instructors may have policies on how ChatGPT or other AI may or may not be used in classroom assignments. If your instructor doesn't have a written policy or hasn't stated whether AI can be used for assignments, ask them!
The best time to talk with your instructor is before you begin your assignment to avoid needing to start over if generative AI isn't allowed.
Would you like to use ChatGPT to help brainstorm ideas or come up with a topic for your assignment? Are you using it to summarize or explain complex concepts? Or do you plan to use it for writing and editing? Be prepared that your instructor may approve some use cases but not others.
APA Style, MLA Style, and Chicago Style all have guidelines for citing generative AI. Your instructor may also ask for an appendix that includes the prompts that you provided to ChatGPT or the full transcript of your interaction. See Citing Generative AI.
Academic integrity refers to maintaining a standard of honest and ethical behavior in all types of academic work. This includes things like not cheating on exams or turning in a term paper that you didn't write yourself. It also includes plagiarism, or not giving proper credit to the ideas or work of sources that were created by others and not yourself. All students are subject to MJC's Academic Freedom & Integrity Policy (see below).
While certain assignments might allow you to use AI to enhance your creative capabilities, you should not use it to replace your genuine creative thinking, especially in an educational setting. Whenever you incorporate content generated by AI, remember to include proper citations. This way, instructors can easily trace the sources of the AI-generated content and you can avoid plagiarism.
To learn about plagiarism see the research guide below.
This guide is based on "Student Guide to ChatGPT" by University of Arizona Libraries is licensed under CC BY 4.0