| name | alterlab-syllabus-ai-policy |
| description | Drafts course-level generative-AI use policies and syllabus statements: assigns each graded task a permitted/restricted/prohibited tier (modeled on Cornell's prohibit/allow-with-attribution/encourage framework), writes the disclosure clause with a verbatim APA (OpenAI, 2023) or MLA Works Cited citation template for ChatGPT, and adds assessment-integrity, accessibility, and equity language bound to the institution's own academic-integrity code. Ships scripts/policy_builder.py to emit a paste-ready statement and scripts/policy_lint.py to flag a vague or self-contradicting draft. Use when the request mentions a syllabus AI policy, a course statement on ChatGPT or generative AI, an academic-integrity clause for AI tools, an AI-disclosure rule, or per-assignment permitted/prohibited AI tiers. For full course/backward design, syllabus, or rubrics use alterlab-teaching-design; for human-subjects AI-tool ethics use alterlab-research-ethics. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite. |
| license | MIT |
| allowed-tools | Read Write Edit Bash(python:*) WebFetch |
| compatibility | No API key or network required — emits institution-parameterized policy text from local templates via `uv run python`; WebFetch is used only to read a linked institutional academic-integrity code when the user supplies its URL |
| metadata | {"skill-author":"AlterLab","version":"1.0.0","last_updated":"2026-06-06","depends_on":"alterlab-teaching-design (owns full syllabus/backward design; this is the focused AI-policy add-on)"} |
Syllabus AI-Use Policy Drafter — Per-Course, Per-Assignment GenAI Statements
The focused add-on that turns "what's my AI policy?" into a concrete, paste-ready
syllabus statement. It does one thing well: given a course and its graded
tasks, it assigns each task an explicit permitted / restricted / prohibited
tier, writes the matching disclosure and attribution clause, and binds the whole
statement to the institution's own academic-integrity code — so the policy is
enforceable, not aspirational. It deliberately does not author the rest of
the syllabus, learning outcomes, or rubrics; that is alterlab-teaching-design.
When to Use This Skill
Use it when the request is about the AI-use rules of a course or assignment:
Draft an AI-use policy for my syllabus.
Write a course statement on ChatGPT / generative AI for students.
I need an academic-integrity clause that covers AI tools.
Give me per-assignment rules: where can students use AI, where not?
How should students disclose and cite AI they used in an essay?
Make my AI policy consistent with our university's integrity code.
→ Gather the course context (level, discipline, the list of graded tasks, the
institution's integrity-code reference), assign each task a tier, then run
scripts/policy_builder.py to emit the statement and scripts/policy_lint.py
to catch contradictions before you hand it back.
Does NOT Trigger
This skill is a narrow add-on. Route adjacent asks to the right sibling:
| The ask is really about… | Route to | Why not here |
|---|
| Designing the whole course / syllabus, learning outcomes, rubrics, lesson plans, backward design | alterlab-teaching-design | Owns full course/backward design; this skill only writes the AI-policy section |
| Ethics of using an AI tool on human-subjects data (IRB, consent, de-identification) | alterlab-research-ethics | Research-ethics / IRB territory, not a teaching policy |
| Whether a student submission was AI-generated; running a detector | alterlab-teaching-design (assessment) | This skill writes policy; it does not adjudicate or detect individual cases |
| Verifying that citations a student or author produced actually exist | alterlab-citation-verifier |