I was recently privileged to receive access to a Student's Handbook for Leveraging Technology. The author is Allison Seitchik, a professor at Merrimack College, and it was interesting to read. A critical strength of the work is an abundance of examples and "how-to" advice.
I am astounded at the impact that artificial intelligence has had on higher education. As I speak with educators, they consistently express concerns about how AI will impact them and how they will or can adapt.
Let's pause there for clarity. The impact has been on higher education. That matters. That is not limited or constrained. Too often, that label is broadly applied to academics and academia, but anyone who discounts the importance of students is simply missing the point. You can be a research institution all you want, but higher education is primarily for students and for learning, and they cannot be discounted or forgotten.
Academics are scared of AI and what it may do. They are enticed by it, drawn to it, and yet anxious. Are the instructors, professors, and other academicians really any different from the students in these regards? The students are likewise drawn, curious, intrigued, and frankly terrified. I have seen students informally surveyed, and some still have not experimented with AI due to these fears. I suspect informal instructor queries would yield similar responses.
Professor Seitchik leads with the commitment that there is "importance and benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools." The world of academia is going to have to adapt to this. We can strive to prevent students from using these tools for a time, but the inevitability is that there will be no stuffing this genie back into a lamp.
She then provides clarity on the how. The paper is about 70 pages and provides significant guidance for the student. However, it is likely as useful for the instructor in modeling how to define and enforce guardrails.
She lists activities for which AI is acceptable and for which it is not. This is no different than other guardrails; driving your car on the highway is acceptable. Driving it in my backyard, not so much.
Acceptable use (mostly quoted directly):
- Use it to help you take a topic and develop a research question.
- Narrowing topic or subject matter ideas.
- Find articles for your paper.
- Summarize those articles even through an annotated bibliography.
- Grammar check.
Unacceptable use:
- You can NOT use it to write your final paper.
- Write papers, assignments, discussion posts, presentations, or any other information that you present as your own for any kind of grade.
It is noted, clearly, that presenting work the student did not create is viewed as plagiarism. I have noted the potential for plagiarism complications here before. Plagiarism Now? (February 2025). While a great many lawyers proudly cut and paste their brethren's or sistren's work, that is simply not acceptable in academia.
There is also ample advice offered for "writing your prompts." These include specificity, ambiguity, examples, feedback, engagement, and trying various approaches (trial and error) in seeking advice, brainstorming, or substantive research. There are examples of actual prompts and AI interaction that are illustrative and helpful.
A final piece of advice Dr. Seitchik offers is "document everything you do with AI." This is an imperative for the student to be able to document sources and the path that led to their structure, arguments, and conclusions. In the event the student must defend their work, such documentation would be handy indeed. In the grand scheme of things, this is great advice for anyone using AI for prose.
In the end, this article is an excellent foundation for educators who might wish to issue their own guidance. For the student whose instructor has not provided guidelines, this may be a great starting point for understanding boundaries and getting started either with research itself or conversations with an instructor or advisor.
Seitchik, A. E. (2025, August 25). AI research and writing companion: A student’s handbook for leveraging technology. OER Commons. Retrieved from https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/115610.
