UNC Hires AI Teaching Coach to Clarify Tool Use in Class
University of Northern Colorado is shifting away from AI bans and toward teaching responsible use, appointing Stephanie Ward as an artificial intelligence teaching coach to help students and professors navigate when AI tools like ChatGPT belong in courseworkâand when they cross into academic dishonesty.
Ward recently addressed the issue on the campus podcast Bear in Mind. "Do not turn in any work that AI has written for you. If you're just copying, pasting, or AI is finishing that test for you, that's an issue with academic integrity. You are not the author," Ward said on the podcast.
Ward is a teaching and learning librarian with UNC's Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, which coordinates faculty development on emerging teaching practices. Her role as AI coach reflects UNC's broader effort to guide rather than ban AI in coursework.
UNC Libraries notes that as of August 2024, the university lacks a blanket AI policy. Individual course instructors set AI use guidelines for their classes instead. The guide warns that AI can invent sources. All coursework remains subject to the BEAR Code, UNC's student conduct policy.
Many professors currently include blanket AI prohibitions in their syllabi. But Ward said faculty need to move beyond bans and instead clearly define acceptable AI use in each assignment and discuss it with students.
Ward encouraged students not to fear the technology but to use it thoughtfully. "So be cautious, but don't be scared of it. Play around with it," she said on the podcast. "I read somewhere that it takes about ten hours of playing with a tool to get a pretty good understanding of that tool and what it can do."
"A lot of times students aren't even aware they've crossed a line," Ward said, acknowledging the challenge students face in understanding acceptable use boundaries.
Ward herself uses ChatGPT regularly and turns to tools like Elicit for research support, modeling the thoughtful adoption she encourages.