Highlights and Key Points

Welcome

At North Island Col­lege (NIC), tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments are con­tin­u­al­ly shap­ing teach­ing and learn­ing, from cal­cu­la­tors and com­put­ers to the inter­net, mobile phones, and now Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (AI). When used eth­i­cal­ly and thought­ful­ly, AI presents oppor­tu­ni­ties to enhance edu­ca­tion while also pos­ing risks that must be addressed. As AI becomes increas­ing­ly inte­grat­ed into edu­ca­tion­al and pro­fes­sion­al spaces, the NIC com­mu­ni­ty is encour­aged to engage with these tools respon­si­bly and with aware­ness of their broad­er impli­ca­tions.

Gen­er­a­tive AI (GenAI) is a type of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence that cre­ates new content—such as text, images, music, and videos—by iden­ti­fy­ing pat­terns in exist­ing data. Unlike tra­di­tion­al AI, which pri­mar­i­ly ana­lyzes infor­ma­tion to make pre­dic­tions, GenAI gen­er­ates orig­i­nal out­puts based on learned rela­tion­ships. How­ev­er, AI is just one sub­set of AI, so these guide­lines will refer to AI more broad­ly to encom­pass its wider appli­ca­tions.

Please review the high­lights and key points below for a sum­ma­ry of NIC’s Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence Guide­lines for Teach­ing and Learn­ing.

Highlights and Key Points

Clarifying AI Use in
Student Learning

 AI is a part of the learn­ing expe­ri­ence for stu­dents. Be clear on what stu­dents can and can­not use AI for demon­strat­ing their learn­ing.

NIC’s Six-Lane AI
Assessment Scale

NIC has a six-lane AI Assess­ment Scale which instruc­tors are encour­aged to use in their course out­lines to be clear on the type of use of AI that is per­mit­ted.

No Reliable AI
Detection Tools Exist

There are no AI detec­tors, tools or plat­forms that can sig­nal when a stu­dent has used AI in their work.

AT this time, Copilot is the Only
NIC Approved AI Tool

Microsoft Copi­lot with Enter­prise Data Pro­tec­tion (not Microsoft 365 Copi­lot) is avail­able to all fac­ul­ty, staff, and stu­dents under NIC’s M365 license and has under­gone a Pri­va­cy Impact Assess­ment at UBC.

Use AI Assessment Scale with
Course Outline Chart to
Clarify Assignments

To pro­vide clar­i­ty and align­ment of grad­ed course work (eval­u­a­tion items) for all stu­dents, a chart like this could be added to your course out­lines. The chart helps tie togeth­er learn­ing out­comes to eval­u­a­tion to use of AI. In addi­tion, the NIC Stu­dent AI Dis­clo­sure Form can be attached to assign­ment sub­mis­sions [Word] [PDF].

Protect confidential data and STUDENT privacy when using ai

Avoid enter­ing con­fi­den­tial NIC data, stu­dent work or per­son­al infor­ma­tion into unap­proved AI tools, as this may expose sen­si­tive con­tent to unau­tho­rized par­ties.

Copyright and Content Ownership Considerations
for AI Use

AI tools have dif­fer­ent own­er­ship poli­cies, so review terms of use and obtain licens­es if need­ed. To avoid copy­right or pla­gia­rism risks, ver­i­fy orig­i­nal­i­ty, cite sources, and fol­low NIC Library’s AI cita­tion guide­lines.

social & Environmental impact

AI out­puts can reflect bias­es, pro­duce errors, and con­sume sig­nif­i­cant ener­gy; users should crit­i­cal­ly review results and adopt sus­tain­able prac­tices to min­i­mize impact.

approval & consent

AI is shap­ing indus­try expec­ta­tions, and prepar­ing stu­dents to use it eth­i­cal­ly aligns with NIC’s com­mit­ment to real learn­ing for real change. Instruc­tors should ensure AI use sup­ports course out­comes, offers mean­ing­ful learn­ing expe­ri­ences, pro­vides equi­table alter­na­tives, and adheres to NIC poli­cies.

These guide­lines were inspired by the work of the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia and Van­cou­ver Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, along with the input and direc­tion of the NIC AI Teach­ing and Learn­ing Work­ing Group. Giv­en the ongo­ing updates and changes in AI, these guide­lines will be updat­ed accord­ing­ly.

Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence
Guid­ance and Prin­ci­ples