Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini are available to all Kent State students at no cost. Use them for research synthesis, writing drafts, brainstorming, and summarizing readings. NotebookLM is especially useful, upload your notes and course materials, then ask it questions directly.

• View approved tools
• Get started at training.kent.edu

Whether AI is permitted in a course and how is determined by your instructor. Look for AI use guidance in your syllabus. When you use AI in your work, attribute it: Kent State follows emerging academic citation standards for AI-generated content.

• How to cite AI in your work
• Kent State academic integrity policy

AI fluency is increasingly listed in job postings across every sector. Kent State offers self-paced modules and workshops to help you develop practical, demonstrable skills, not just familiarity. The Career Exploratory Center also has guidance on using AI responsibly in applications and interviews.

• Student AI learning resources
• Career Exploratory Center AI guidance

The Center for Teaching and Learning has developed model syllabus language for three approaches: AI prohibited, AI permitted with disclosure, and AI integrated as a course tool. These are starting points, course-level policy is your call.

• CTL AI syllabus templates
• How to disclose AI use

Kent State faculty across colleges are using AI for case study generation, rubric drafting, feedback acceleration, and structured student reflection on AI outputs. CTL maintains a growing library of real examples, contributed with faculty permission.

• Browse teaching examples
• Register for a CTL workshop

Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini/NotebookLM, and Adobe Firefly are sanctioned for university use. NotebookLM is particularly strong for teaching, create a shared notebook from course readings for students to interact with. Do not process FERPA-protected student data through any AI tool without IT guidance.

• View approved tools
• AI and FERPA, what faculty need to know

AI use in research contexts, for data analysis, literature review, or grant writing, carries additional considerations around attribution, reproducibility, and publisher and funder policy. Kent State Libraries and the Office of Research can help you navigate these.

• AI in research guidance
• Kent State Libraries research services

Not every task is a good AI candidate. The matrix separates tasks that are tedious for people and fast for machines, your best starting points, from tasks where AI adds overhead without saving time. Run this with your team before committing to anything.

• Open the interactive task matrix

Many AI uses are self-service, your department decides and owns them. Others benefit from IT guidance, and some (anything involving FERPA, HIPAA, or mission-critical decisions) require IT as a co-owner. When in doubt, contact IT first. It is easier to start right than fix it later.

• See the IT involvement tiers
• Contact Information Security

The most common failure mode is an AI workflow tied to one person's account that breaks silently when they leave. Every AI-enabled process needs a process map, a system message on file, and at least two people who can maintain it.

• Documentation checklist (Playbook Section 7)
• Request an IT documentation walkthrough

Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and NotebookLM are sanctioned for university data. NotebookLM is especially useful for synthesizing large document sets, upload papers, reports or transcripts and interrogate them directly. Do not input HIPAA-protected, IRB-restricted or unpublished proprietary data without first consulting IT and your IRB coordinator.

• View approved tools
• Research data and AI. What's safe?

Major journals, funding agencies, and professional associations are actively updating their AI use policies, and they vary considerably. As a rule: disclose AI use in your methods or acknowledgments, do not list AI as a co-author, and retain documentation of AI-assisted steps for reproducibility. Kent State libraries can help you navigate specific publisher requirements.

• Kent State Libraries AI guidance
• How to document AI use in research

AI tools can accelerate literature review synthesis, help structure specific aims, and improve clarity in lay summaries. NIH, NSF, and other major funders have issued guidance on AI use in applications, review these before submitting. Kent State's Office of Research has template language for common disclosure scenarios.

• Office of Research AI guidance
• Funder AI policy summary

Using AI to analyze data involving human subjects, including interview transcripts, survey responses, or behavioral data, may have IRB implications depending on how and where the data is processed. Consult your IRB coordinator before routing sensitive research data through any AI platform.

• IRB office contact and guidance