AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas has updated its honor code to focus on the positive following the pandemic and bring flexibility in embracing new technology like artificial intelligence (AI).
UT Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Art Markman said faculty has been working on this for the past year and a half.
The old honor code affirmation was written in 2014 and read: "As a student of The University of Texas at Austin, I shall abide by the core values of the university and uphold academic integrity."
The new honor code affirmation reads:
"I pledge, as a member of The University of Texas at Austin community, to do my work honestly, respectfully and through the intentional pursuit of learning and scholarship.
- I pledge to be honest about what I create and to acknowledge what I use that belongs to others.
- I pledge to value the process of learning in addition to the outcome, while celebrating and learning from mistakes.
- This code encompasses all of the academic and scholarly endeavors of the University community."
Markman said instead of focusing on what not to do, it reminds students to have fun while learning and not being afraid to make mistakes. He said it mainly derived from the difficulties of the pandemic.
"It really was much more of a response to the difficulties that everyone had exiting the acute phase of the pandemic and really kind of reengaging with the learning experience as we've come back together in person and really begun to all work together," Markman said.
He said it also opens students and teachers up to the idea of incorporating new technology like AI.
"That's absolutely a piece of it, is we want we want people to be treating all of these things as tools and to explore, and to learn and to understand what are some of the ways that these tools might be useful," Markman said.
Markman said they are forming committees to work on ways to incorporate AI tools into classes, and the new honor code creates freedom to do that.
"I think by focusing on that ideal, it does create a little bit more of that freedom because you're not spending your time asking, 'Am I doing something that's against the rules of the game?' You're asking, 'How can I enhance my capacities with all the tools that I have available to me?'" Markman said.