Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning

Current Syllabus Guidance

Dear Colleagues:

Welcome back! The Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning continues to collaborate with units across campus to support you in whatever modality your teaching occurs in Fall 2025. We hope the information below helps you provide the most complete, most supportive information possible to students, and enables you to find resources to build and support your courses for this semester and beyond.

As a reminder, since Fall 2024, all instructional faculty are required to follow GMU’s guidance for minimum requirements for all syllabi, including a standard Common Policy Addendum.   

NEW THIS YEAR, the university requires all faculty to have a stated policy on student use of Artificial Intelligence Tools for each course. There is no standard required language, but Stearns Center does have some recommendations and advice.

Information on this page includes

  • Syllabus Requirements for Fall 2025
  • More about AI Policies
  • Reminder about Academic Standards Policies
  • Additional Stearns Center Course Planning Resources
  • Resources to Teach Inclusively and Support Student Needs

Syllabus Requirements for Fall 2025

In Fall 2023, Faculty Senate updated the GMU Catalog Policy AP.2.5 with two requirements. All syllabi need to include some basic structural elements, and all syllabi need to include the Required Policy Addendum. Most faculty will find that you are already meeting these basic guidelines, and will have few adjustments to make. In Spring 2025, the Faculty Senate added a further requirement that all syllabi need to state a policy about student use of Artificial Intelligence Tools (AI Policy).

More about AI Policies

Catalog policy AP.2.5 requires faculty to provide all students with “A statement about allowable and prohibited uses of AI tools, with as much specificity as possible.” 

The GMU AI Task Force in Spring 2025 helped develop several policy pages that should serve as initial guides, which we encourage you to review. Stearns Center is also offering a live Q&A session about AI Policies, Tuesday 8/19, 10-11am; see our Events page or click here to register.

Stearns Center recommends that you specify: 

  • Your basic principles: Will you allow no use, some use, open use, or required use of AI tools? 
  • What (kinds of) tools you include in your policy: Your policy may include text-focused chatbots like ChatGPT, Copilot, or Claude; it may include image- or video-generation tools like Runway or Midjourney; it may include tools like Grammarly or other editors; it may include basic text-prediction or text-completion tools.
    • Please note that many common applications, including Grammarly and some apps in the Microsoft suite, may have an AI tool turned on by default; if you are prohibiting or limiting student use, you should talk with students about turning off or avoiding these ubiquitous offerings. 
  • When and how AI tools may be used, and which ones, if you are choosing to allow them: You might limit usage to particular assignments, to parts of assignments (an outline vs. a full presentation), or to types of work (composing vs. editing).
    • If you are requiring students to use an AI tool, be sure to comply with general GMU AI Guidelines, especially those designed to protect students’ privacy and ensure accessibility. 
    • NEW for Fall 2025: Please see the GMU AI Toolkit for updated information about approved, accessible, and recommended AI tools at Mason
  • How you plan to track AI usage, if that is relevant: If you plan to use some kind of tool to help detect AI usage, you should explain what you will use (and how you will compensate for possible false reports); note that Canvas at GMU does not have an AI-Detection tool available. If you expect students to acknowledge or cite their AI use, you should explain how to do this. 

Stearns Center strongly recommends that you use your syllabus to indicate why you have selected this policy: what are the benefits to student learning generally, and/or the expectations of the field or profession, that are served by students following your policy?  

If possible, we also encourage you to talk with your students about your AI Policy: most students nationwide continue to report that (a) they are anxious about AI course policies, and (b) their instructors have not discussed this complex, paradigm-shifting issue with them.  

Once you have a policy stated, violations of that policy will be covered by the Academic Standards Policy of your course and at GMU. 

For additional suggestions, optional language, and resources, please see the Stearns Center’s AI Resources.

Reminder: Academic Standards Policies

Since Fall 2024, George Mason University has replaced all language about Academic Integrity and the Honor Code with updated language and policies about Academic Standards. Please familiarize yourself with the GMU Catalog Policy about Academic Standards, and check the new and ongoing resources from the Academic Standards Office. 

Additional Stearns Center Course Planning Resources

We are working on a Website Redesign this year to make our resources more accessible to you — we hope that our home page in particular provides a more direct guide to information that can assist you. You may need to update some of your bookmarks. We appreciate your patience as we complete this important project. 

You can see our Classroom Guide pages for photographs and list of resources and technologies for any of your on-campus classroom(s). 

For resources for building your course in Canvas, you can consult the Canvas Migration Resource Site or the Teaching Online resources from Stearns Center and Mason Online. 

As you’re finishing your syllabi, we hope you will review our updated page with resources for designing your syllabus that highlight critical components for your syllabus and provide links to relevant resources. You might want to use information here to help you  

  • Inform students about any technological requirements they may need in order to access portions of your course Canvas, to use streaming applications such as Zoom, or to complete an exam via Honorlock 
  • Adapt your syllabus schedule to specific holidays  
  • Describe your commitment to, and course design elements that support, a welcoming and inclusive learning environment  

Teach Inclusively and Support Student Needs

At Mason we remain committed to providing a safe learning, living, and working environment that embraces our diversity and is free from discrimination. We provide resources for faculty, students, and campus offices as they implement policies and provide learning opportunities that include all students at the university.

You may find the following resources helpful:

  • The Student Support and Advocacy Center (SSAC) can assist you in helping Mason students seek support services and explore healthy lifestyle choices. They offer educational programming, one-on-one consultations, and resources in the areas of interpersonal violence, personal wellness, and alcohol and drug use; they also assist students encountering barriers to personal success. If you are concerned about a student, please review the SSAC’s guide for faculty and consider making a referral (form available from their website).
  • The Stearns Center’s advice for faculty on “Creating Inclusive Classrooms” at Mason can assist you in creating a vibrant and dynamic learning community for your students.
  • The calendar of religious holidays and observations can help you anticipate and minimize difficulties for students of different faiths. (It is the student’s responsibility to speak to the instructor in advance should their religious observances affect their participation in class activities and assignments — but we encourage all faculty to be proactive in limiting conflicts and reaching out to students to let them know how best to succeed in your course.)
  • You should be aware of how to report incidents of sexual misconduct to the University Title IX Coordinator. Mason is committed to creating a campus that is free of sexual misconduct and incidents of interpersonal violence in order to promote community well-being and student success. As a faculty member, you are required to report any such incidents you become aware of on campus. When you do so, you will be made aware of the range of options and resources available to you and your students.