Teaching & Learning
- Bentley does not set a single university-wide rule for student AI use in coursework
- Separately, the IT acceptable use policy prohibits use of AI-generated content without prior approval as an example of an academic integrity violation
- Instead, AI use in class work is at instructor discretion and should be stated in the syllabus and at the assignment level; instructors may prohibit, limit, allow with disclosure, encourage, or require AI
Policy about AI usage in your class. If you need some ideas to get started, here are some sample syllabus statements on the Bentley Artificial Intelligence Sharepoint Site.
Name the level of AI use: Is AI prohibited, limited, allowed with disclosure, encouraged, or required?
Make it assignment-specific: A course-wide policy helps, but students need clear guidance for each major task.
Violations of academic integrity and/or the rights of the university or any person. This includes, but is not limited to selling papers, unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, use of Artificial Intelligence/Large Language Model generated content without prior approval, and installation or distribution of pirated and/or software products that are not properly licensed for use by the user and/or Bentley University;
- Bentley does not define a distinct university-wide AI rule specifically for exams or quizzes in the provided sources
- Guidance instead says instructors should set assignment-specific expectations for AI use, including whether AI is prohibited, limited, allowed with disclosure, encouraged, or required
Name the level of AI use: Is AI prohibited, limited, allowed with disclosure, encouraged, or required?
Make it assignment-specific: A course-wide policy helps, but students need clear guidance for each major task.
- Bentley permits AI to be used as a learning support when an instructor chooses that model for a course or task
- The pedagogy guidance describes AI as a learning partner or scaffold for practice, feedback, questioning, and revision, while keeping students responsible for generating and evaluating ideas
AI as a learning partner or scaffold: AI supports practice, feedback, questioning, or revision, while students remain responsible for generating and evaluating ideas.
- Bentley provides approved AI tools that can assist with coding, but does not publish a uniform student policy for programming assignments in the provided sources
- Course-level guidance says instructors should specify whether AI is prohibited, limited, allowed with disclosure, encouraged, or required, and disclosure prompts may ask students whether they used AI for coding
Microsoft Copilot | Text generating, code debugging, summarizing articles | Accessed through Bentley Microsoft Office account; ensure logged into Bentley account to enable data protection | Data level 3 and above while Commercial Data Protection enabled, CDP icon appears in upper right hand corner when enabled
Name the level of AI use: Is AI prohibited, limited, allowed with disclosure, encouraged, or required?
Ask what they used AI for. Brainstorming, outlining, feedback, coding, editing, summarizing, generating examples, etc.
Research
- Bentley states that AI can be beneficial for research and writing, but users must use it responsibly
- The university requires human review of AI-generated output for accuracy and harmful or sensitive content before sharing or using it in work
ChatGPT and other forms of AI can be incredibly beneficial for research, writing and other academic tasks, but they also come with potential risks.
Always review the content generated by AI models for accuracy and for any sensitive or potentially harmful content before sharing or using them in your work. You have responsibility for the information that you disseminate.
- Bentley allows AI-related research use only within its data protection rules and approved tools
- Users must not enter level 2 or more sensitive confidential information into public generative AI tools, sensitive research data is specifically included in that restriction, and Bentley lists limited-availability Azure Open AI for academic research at data level 3 and above
Refrain from using ChatGPT or other similar generative AI models to generate or process any sensitive or confidential information of level 2 and above as defined by the University’s Data Classification Policy. This includes personal identification details, passwords, financial data, or sensitive research data.
Microsoft Azure Open AI | Cloud based service that enables Bentley to apply language models such as GPT-4,Codex and DALL-E to large volumes of specified data including Bentley dataCodex and DALL-E | Limited availability for academic research. | Data level 3 and above
- Bentley does not define a specific policy in the provided sources for AI use in grant proposals, IRB applications, or formal research ethics declarations
- Its general AI guidance emphasizes responsible use and assigns users responsibility for reviewing AI-generated content before using it in research-related work
As you embark on the adoption of AI in your instructional and/or research activities including AI testing, proof of concepts, and similar endeavors, it is important that members of our community are well-informed about the best practices to ensure the secure and responsible use of these powerful tools.
Always review the content generated by AI models for accuracy and for any sensitive or potentially harmful content before sharing or using them in your work. You have responsibility for the information that you disseminate.
Academic Integrity
- Instructors are advised to ask students to explain how they used AI, what they accepted, changed, or rejected, and what remained their own
- Bentley does not impose a single university-wide student disclosure rule in the provided public sources, but its pedagogy guidance recommends transparency when AI is allowed
Ask for transparency: When AI use is allowed, ask students to briefly explain how they used it and what choices remained on their own.
AI disclosure should not feel like a confession; it should function as a learning record.
Ask what they used AI for. Brainstorming, outlining, feedback, coding, editing, summarizing, generating examples, etc.
Ask what they accepted, changed, or rejected. This reveals judgment, not just tool use.
Ask what remained their own. What decisions, interpretations, evidence, or reasoning did they produce?
- Bentley's pedagogy guidance discourages relying on surveillance or AI detectors alone, noting they can be unreliable and may misclassify writing
- Enforcement-related language in the IT acceptable use policy treats use of AI-generated content without prior approval as an example of an academic integrity violation
Academic integrity is strongest when it is treated as a learning culture, not only a misconduct system. Bretag and Mahmud (2016) emphasize access, responsibility, detail, and support as core parts of exemplary academic integrity policy. In AI-era assessment, detection alone is not enough, especially because AI detectors can be unreliable and may misclassify some student writing, including non-native English writing (Liang et al., 2023). Instead, build integrity into the assignment design.
Violations of academic integrity and/or the rights of the university or any person. This includes, but is not limited to selling papers, unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, use of Artificial Intelligence/Large Language Model generated content without prior approval, and installation or distribution of pirated and/or software products that are not properly licensed for use by the user and/or Bentley University;
Institutional & Administrative
- Bentley provides faculty and staff with AI guidance and resources for teaching, learning, and research, and supports responsible experimentation with generative AI
- Faculty are encouraged to set clear AI policies in their classes, while staff and faculty using AI must follow secure and responsible use practices, including review of outputs and consultation before purchasing tools
At Bentley, we are dedicated to leading educational innovation. This section guides our faculty through the exciting world of AI in academia, offering use cases, tools, and platforms to get started. Additionally, it provides guidelines and resources to ensure ethical and secure AI usage, including maintaining academic integrity.
At Bentley, we're committed to staying at the forefront of educational innovation. This dedicated section is designed to guide our faculty through the exciting world of GenAI in academia. Here, you'll discover Bentley supported tools to help you get started with using AI. Additionally, you will find guidelines to help you navigate through the ethical and secure ways to use AI including resources around Academic Integrity.
Policy about AI usage in your class. If you need some ideas to get started, here are some sample syllabus statements on the Bentley Artificial Intelligence Sharepoint Site.
Always review the content generated by AI models for accuracy and for any sensitive or potentially harmful content before sharing or using them in your work. You have responsibility for the information that you disseminate.
If you have a use case or need for using an AI tool, please reach out to us so that we can assist with a security and privacy review (ATC: atc@bentley.edu or the helpdesk: helpdesk@bentley.edu).
- Bentley restricts what data may be entered into AI tools and directs users toward Bentley-authorized platforms
- Users should avoid confidential, personal, or institutional information in public AI tools, must refrain from using generative AI with level 2 and above sensitive or confidential data, and are told to use reputable, secure, Bentley-authorized platforms such as Microsoft Copilot Chat; approved tools are mapped to allowable data classification levels
Avoid entering confidential, personal, or institutional information into AI tools, as many of the publicly available tools could potentially lack privacy safeguards and may expose such data to unauthorized parties.
Refrain from using ChatGPT or other similar generative AI models to generate or process any sensitive or confidential information of level 2 and above as defined by the University’s Data Classification Policy. This includes personal identification details, passwords, financial data, or sensitive research data.
Only use generative AI models provided by reputable, secure, and Bentley-authorized platforms. Use Microsoft Copilot Chat for interacting with a large language model especially if your documents contain potentially sensitive data.
If you log into Microsoft’s Copilot Chat with your Bentley account credentials, data you enter or extract from the model using either "work" or "web" chat will not be shared with others. Microsoft does not use your data to train their models and stores any data that you share securely in Bentley’s tenant.
Microsoft Copilot | Text generating, code debugging, summarizing articles | Accessed through Bentley Microsoft Office account; ensure logged into Bentley account to enable data protection | Data level 3 and above while Commercial Data Protection enabled, CDP icon appears in upper right hand corner when enabled
Microsoft 365 Copilot | Generative AI tools applied against your data across 365 tools (email, calendar, Teams, Word, Excel, PPT, One Drive, etc), meeting summaries with action items | Pilot in progress. | Data level 3 and above
Microsoft Azure Open AI | Cloud based service that enables Bentley to apply language models such as GPT-4,Codex and DALL-E to large volumes of specified data including Bentley dataCodex and DALL-E | Limited availability for academic research. | Data level 3 and above
Please reach out to Bentley IT (helpdesk@bentley.edu ( helpdesk@bentley.edu)) if you are interested in pursuing departmental or university wide tools or multiple licenses for individual AI tools. The products need to align with Bentley strategic priorities and technical architecture standards and be assessed for compliance to data privacy and information security.
- Bentley has an institution-level AI strategy and governance approach centered on ethical and responsible adoption
- The university created a task force on Artificial Intelligence in Education, Research and Business Operations to understand current use, identify opportunities, gaps, and risks, and make recommendations for responsible and effective AI use aligned with Bentley values and strategic priorities
At Bentley University, our commitment to caring, collaboration, diversity, honesty, impact, learning, and respect is not just fundamental to our community conduct; it also drives our approach to the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this section, you’ll discover the latest information on Bentley’s AI policies, services, procedures, and more.
Today I’m announcing the creation of a task force on Artificial Intelligence in Education, Research and Business Operations, established to understand and strategize around how we use and engage with the topic of artificial intelligence at Bentley. This task force complements our focus on a Culture of Leadership and Innovation, as called for in our strategic plan. It will aim to understand how we are already using AI as well as identify the opportunities, gaps and risks for Bentley.
Based on those findings, the task force will make recommendations for evaluating the responsible and effective use of AI at the university. It is imperative that this task force consider a positive and ethical approach to the use of AI in education and business, in alignment with our Bentley values.
DocuMark: Responsible AI Use for Academic Integrity
Knowing your institution's AI policy is step one. DocuMark helps enforce it fairly by empowering universities to manage AI-generated content, prevent cheating, and support student writing through responsible AI use.
Common Questions About Bentley University's AI Policies
Bentley University has defined AI policies in 12 of 12 categories, with an overall coverage score of 100%.
Bentley does not impose a single university-wide student disclosure rule in the provided public sources, but its pedagogy guidance recommends transparency when AI is allowed. Instructors are advised to ask students to explain how they used AI, what they accepted, changed, or rejected, and what remained their own.
Bentley's pedagogy guidance discourages relying on surveillance or AI detectors alone, noting they can be unreliable and may misclassify writing. Enforcement-related language in the IT acceptable use policy treats use of AI-generated content without prior approval as an example of an academic integrity violation.
Bentley restricts what data may be entered into AI tools and directs users toward Bentley-authorized platforms. Users should avoid confidential, personal, or institutional information in public AI tools, must refrain from using generative AI with level 2 and above sensitive or confidential data, and are told to use reputable, secure, Bentley-authorized platforms such as Microsoft Copilot Chat; approved tools are mapped to allowable data classification levels.