Dear Colleagues,
We write to equip you with helpful tools, templates, and resources as you finalize your Spring 2024 course syllabus. To assist you in promoting academic integrity and enhancing the student experience, we are pleased to present the Syllabus Language Menu, which provides optional syllabus language on many topics and shares university resources and supports.
In addition to providing this comprehensive resource, we would like to emphasize two critical points. Firstly, our partners in the Office of Student Conduct & Community Standard have added a new example of cheating to the 2023-2024 Duke Community Standard Guide. The guide now notes that cheating includes "using, consulting, and/or maintaining unauthorized shared resources, including, but not limited to, test banks, solutions materials, and/or artificial intelligence (AI)."
Insights from education experts stress the importance of clear communication with students about how AI may or may not be used in your course. The Syllabus Language Menu includes an array of resources to guide you in integrating or explicitly excluding AI from your learning environment.
Secondly, students and faculty have observed variations in interpreting and embodying Duke's commitment to "freedom of expression." Recognizing this diversity, we have curated examples of effective language about open dialogue and free expression in the Syllabus Language Menu. These examples, graciously shared by our colleagues, provide guidelines and guardrails to facilitate challenging, respectful, and productive conversations. We appreciate their generosity in allowing us to use these examples and hope that they are helpful to you.
As always, we thank you for your dedication to fostering a positive, inclusive, and rigorous learning environment at Duke. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions, concerns, or feedback at vpue@duke.edu.
Wishing you the best this spring semester,
Candis Watts Smith
Professor of Political Science
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Mary Pat McMahon
Vice President/Vice Provost of Student Affairs
Yakut Gazi
Professor of the Practice in the Social Science Research Institute
Vice Provost for Learning Innovation and Digital Education
