As a Faculty Librarian and professor at Georgian College, Jen Booth stands at the intersection of academic integrity, digital literacy, and student success. With a career that included roles such as library supervisor, emerging technologies librarian and communications professor and a deep-rooted passion for open educational resources (OER) and instructional design, Jen brings both a tech-savvy and student-centered lens to the evolving challenges and opportunities presented by generative AI (GenAI). 

At Georgian College, our students frequently turn to the Library and Learning Services teams as their first stop when tackling assignments, and navigating GenAI is no different. Jen has observed that students are often unsure of how (or if) they can use AI tools and feels it is very important to not only help them locate credible sources—but to engage them in critical conversations about authorship, ethics, and digital literacy. In her own COMM1016 classes, Jen helps students understand not just what to write, but how to write in their own voice, even in an AI-enhanced world.

Innovating Literacy: GenAI as a New Frontier

For Jen, GenAI literacy is an extension of the library’s core mission: supporting all forms of student literacy. “The Library LOVES all the literacies,” she jokes—but it’s no joke that AI literacy has rapidly become an essential skill for academic and professional success.

Jen sees a wide range of student comfort levels with GenAI—from overconfidence and a feeling that the AI tool will always produce superior writing to their own, to confusion and fear of doing the wrong thing —and observes a recurring theme: students are often unclear on the rules.  “Professors have different expectations, depending on the subject matter, professional requirements, course learning outcomes or simply the learning process” she explains, “and students struggle to discern the rules between courses”.

This ambiguity can lead to breaches of academic integrity —not out of ill intent, but due to fear and lack of clarity. Jen (and the whole team in Library and Learning Services) redirects students back to assignment instructions, their syllabus and their individual professors, while also seizing the opportunity to guide them through the ethical, critical, and effective use of GenAI. 

Beyond ChatGPT: Expanding the Student Toolkit

While ChatGPT may be one of the most prevalent and recognizable GenAI tools, Jen is committed to helping students explore a broader landscape of GenAI applications—and to be able to evaluate them critically. She wants learners to ask: What data am I giving this tool? What datasets does this tool draw from? Can I trust this output? How might using this tool impact my academic or professional reputation?  Is there a better tool that I can use?

Much like the early days of Wikipedia and Google, when students leaned heavily (and often inaccurately) on a single source, today's GenAI use calls for the same critical lens.  “Whenever I pose a question in class and I get “crickets” I remind students they have a phone/device in front of them and can start there. Get searching! Even 10 years ago, this wasn’t as prevalent as it is today.  Google and Wikipedia have evolved, along with our student’s ability to access and use them on the spot. GenAI will too—but our teaching and learning practice needs to evolve with it.”

Redesigning Student Support: From Curiosity to Competency

Although Jen doesn’t personally use GenAI in her own writing—“I love to write and don’t want or need to offload that,” she shares—she remains deeply curious about the technology’s strengths and limitations. “I try to make GenAI screw up,” she says. “That’s how we learn what needs fixing and how to guide students to make better choices.”

She’s turning that curiosity into action, helping students recognize when GenAI undermines their authentic voice. When reviewing student work, she might read a sentence aloud and politely ask, “Did you write this yourself?” That moment often opens the door to a larger conversation about originality, ownership, and what it means to write with integrity. Students are often underconfident in their writing skills, and don’t recognize that they have their own unique and interesting voice, even in academic assignments. They often express that GenAI just writes much better than they feel they can do themselves. 

Ethical and Transparent AI Use: The Role of Faculty and the Library

Jen also encourages faculty to rethink how they communicate GenAI expectations. Blanket statements like “AI use is not allowed” can overlook the fact that some students may require AI tools as part of an academic accommodation or be comfortable using AI enabled tools embedded within standard software (think: Microsoft Word’s suggestions, Grammarly). Some students may already be using GenAI in a responsible and ethical way – such as using the Library’s Page1+ Research Overview tool to parse scholarly literature as they work through a research assignment. AI tools are so pervasive and, so instead of blanket policies, she advocates for clear, nuanced guidance that accounts for accessibility, equity, and evolving workplace norms.  

Jen’s philosophy around teaching GenAI literacy is grounded in meeting students where they are—not where we think they should be. She understands that students bring a wide range of experiences, confidence levels, and misconceptions to their use of GenAI. Some may overestimate (or underestimate) their own skills, while others are hesitant or unsure how to ask for help. Rather than imposing one-size-fits-all expectations, Jen takes a supportive approach—guiding students toward ethical, informed, and thoughtful use of AI tools. For her, it’s about fostering learning, curiosity and growth, and improving student AI literacy during the process.  

Lessons Learned and Future Directions

Jen Booth’s approach offers a powerful reminder that GenAI literacy is not just a tech skill—it’s a human one. It requires dialogue, reflection, and critical thinking. Students will continue to use AI. Employers will ask our graduates to use AI. The question is: Will we equip them to use it well? 

Resources and Links

• Getting Started - Library & Academic Success - Library and Learning Services at Georgian College
• Academic Regulations 2025-26 - Georgian College
• AI Ethical Guidelines | EDUCAUSE
• Georgian's Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Georgian College CTL
• Generative AI for Students - Generative AI Literacy - Library and Learning Services at Georgian College
• ChatGPT & Artificial Intelligence - Academic Integrity for Georgian Students - Library and Learning Services at Georgian College 

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📧 Contact us at ctl@georgiancollege.ca to get started.
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