From Guidance to Practice Starting Small with AI Integration – A Film Studies Case Study

This panel presentation explores what happens when students are given clear guidance on how to use AI instead of being told to avoid it. Drawing on a Winter 2026 online film studies course at George Brown Polytechnic, the session focuses on how students experienced and responded to structured AI use in their learning. The session brings together the faculty member who implemented the approach in an online course environment, a TLX project lead connected to a broader initiative that has recently received Research Ethics Board (REB) approval and builds on this initial pilot implementation, and students reflecting on their learning experiences. Rather than demonstrating the AI guidance itself, the panel centers on how students engaged with structured expectations for AI use, including how these were communicated and interpreted in practice. Panelists will discuss why guidance was needed, how students navigated AI as a supported learning tool, and how this shaped their confidence, critical engagement, and understanding of academic integrity, authorship, and creative processes. Student perspectives will be shared through a combination of live student participation and recorded reflections drawn from the course experience, ensuring that student voice remains central to the session. Through these perspectives, participants will gain insight into how students interpreted AI expectations, made decisions about AI use, and reflected on the relationship between learning, authorship, creativity, and academic integrity in practice. This session builds on a series of recent presentations at major teaching and learning conferences and ongoing cross-institutional conversations on AI in education, extending that work through a focused online course-based experience. Framed within the theme of Resilience in Action: Turning Complexity into Opportunities, this session highlights how starting small and listening to student experience can help educators respond meaningfully to the complexity of AI in postsecondary education. Participants will leave with insights into student perspectives, practical considerations for introducing AI guidance, and lessons learned from an early-stage pilot that will guide the next phase of this work at TLX. *Acknowledgement of AI Use* AI was used solely to generate the Sabina video, as the student was unable to participate in the recording. The reflection comments and the four themes presented are based on authentic student reflection assignments completed as part of the course. No AI was used to generate the reflection content.