Module 6: Your AI-Use Plan¶
Module 6 of 10
What You Will Be Able to Do¶
- Write a short plan for how you will use artificial intelligence (AI) this term, with a reason for each choice.
- Write an acknowledgment of AI help that a reader could check.
- Check two claims from a chatbot at their sources.
The Core Idea¶
The five modules before this one each leave you with habits. This module turns them into a plan you write down for yourself: which uses of AI help you this term, which you will leave alone, and why. It starts from what already applies to you, the AI Responsible Use Policy and the AI statement in each course's syllabus, and the rest is yours to decide. You can change it whenever it stops fitting.
Writing it down helps for the same reason a study schedule helps: a choice made on a calm day holds up better than one made in the middle of a hard week. A plan also gives you something concrete to talk through with an instructor or an advisor, and when a course asks how you used AI, most of the answer is already written.
The Worksheet¶
The worksheet has six questions, each from an earlier module: what you will always try yourself first, what you will give a tool to work from, what you will check its answers against, how you will say where AI helped, what you will leave out of what you type, and what you will check before you share or act on something AI made. Answer each in a line or two, with your reason beside it. The reason is what lets you tell, in a busy week, whether a shortcut still fits the plan.
My AI-Use Plan
Under each question, write what you will do and why. Change it whenever it stops fitting.
At the top: Term · My courses · I will look at this plan again on
Which work will I always try myself first, and how will AI help after I try?
From Module 4: AI and Your Learning
What will I give it to work from, so its answers fit my courses?
From Module 2: Prompting Fundamentals
What will I check its answers against, and how will I check a reference it gives me?
From Module 1: How AI Works
What does each of my courses expect, and how will I say where AI helped?
From Module 3: The Policy in Practice
What will I leave out of what I type, such as names and case details, and what does the policy's privacy section say about it?
From Module 3: The Policy in Practice
What will I check before I share or act on something AI made, such as an image, a health claim, or a judgment about a person?
From Module 5: AI and Society
Choose a date to look at it again, such as the week after your first exam. If a quiz goes worse than your practice suggested, or you can follow an explanation but cannot give one yourself, change the plan rather than drop it.
A Worked Acknowledgment¶
The policy asks you to acknowledge AI-generated content according to academic standards and your course's guidelines (Responsible Use, section B), and your syllabus or department says where an acknowledgment goes and in what form; if yours does not, ask your instructor. Whatever the form, it earns its place when a reader can tell from it what the tool did and what you did. "AI was used in this assignment" tells them neither.
An acknowledgment a reader could check
I used ChatGPT on October 12, 2026, to quiz me on the renal physiology lecture slides and to suggest an order for the sections of this write-up. I chose the final structure, wrote every sentence myself, and checked each fact against the lecture slides and the assigned textbook. None of the wording is the tool's.
Four parts make it checkable: the tool and when you used it, what it did, what you did, and what you checked and against what. With all four, a reader can see what the tool did and what you did.
What makes an acknowledgment checkable
The tool, and when
which assistant, on which date
What it did
quizzed me, suggested an order
What you did
chose the structure, wrote the text
What you checked
each fact, against the slides and textbook
Try It: Check Two Claims¶
This takes about ten minutes. Ask a chatbot a real question from one of your courses, one you could also answer from your notes. Pick two specific claims from its answer, such as a number, a mechanism, or a named study or guideline. Check each one at its source: your lecture slides or textbook for course content, and the original paper for a study, found by its title in PubMed or the library's search. For each claim, write down what you found: it matched, it differed, or you could not find the source.
A source you cannot find is a finding too. Chatbots write references that look real but do not exist, which is why the policy asks for references to be checked at the original source (Responsible Use, section B). What you find tells you how much checking your kind of question needs, so add it to your plan.
For Faculty: A Course Plan¶
The same questions work for a course. Answered before the term starts, they give your syllabus statement its substance: which skills students must show without a tool, where AI can help them learn, how they should say where it helped, what they should check its output against, which course materials belong to others, and how you will use it yourself.
An AI-Use Plan for My Course
Answer these before the term starts; your syllabus statement can then say what you decided and why.
At the top: Course · Term · I will look at this plan again on
Which skills must students be able to show without a tool, and how will the course check them?
From Module 4: AI and Your Learning
Where can AI help students learn in this course, and how will you show them a good use?
From Module 4: AI and Your Learning
How should students say where AI helped, and in which assignments?
From Module 3: The Policy in Practice
What should students check AI output against in this course?
From Module 1: How AI Works
Which course materials belong to others, such as a licensed textbook or a classmate's draft, and what will you tell students about them?
From Module 5: AI and Society
How will you use AI yourself in this course, and how will you tell students?
From Module 7: Teaching and Assessment
Then turn your answers into the statement students read, with Your Syllabus AI Statement and its templates.
Self-Check¶
Your plan says AI quizzes you but does not draft for you. It is exam week and you are behind. What is the plan for?
For a week like this one. The reason you wrote beside that line, keeping the recall yours so you can do it on the exam, matters most when time is short. Having it quiz you on what you are behind on is still practice at recalling it, which a summary you have not worked through is not. If the plan no longer fits how you study, change it deliberately, with a reason, rather than in the rush of the week.
Your acknowledgment says "AI was used in this assignment." What would make it useful?
Naming the tool and when you used it, what it did, what you did, and what you checked it against. A reader can then judge the work and check it; the one-line version leaves them guessing, which is what acknowledgment is there to prevent. Your syllabus says where it goes and in what form.
You checked two claims from a chatbot's answer. One matched your textbook; the other cites a paper you cannot find. What now?
Treat the second claim as unverified, however good the rest of the answer was: one correct claim says nothing about the next. Search for the paper by its title and authors in PubMed or the library, or ask a librarian, since a citation can be garbled as well as invented. If you still cannot find it, do not rely on it: find a real source for the claim, or leave the claim out.
Going Deeper¶
Color key: GuideLesson
- Your Syllabus AI Statement For faculty, turning a course plan into the statement students read.
- For Students AI for study, stage by stage, including a study schedule built from your own course.
- Courses and Resources Courses from outside the university for when you finish the pathway.
Content last reviewed October 15, 2026. Review dates are maintained as described on the About page.