The Trust Note

A HARVEST KERNEL WORKING SESSION

The Trust Note

Take one class and its next big assignment, and write the message that goes out before it. You say what you believe about your students, what you cannot tell from a file, where AI is welcome and where it stops, what you will ask to see, what happens when you have a question, and how you use AI yourself. You leave holding a finished note you can send today. You do the thinking. Nothing here writes it for you, and nothing you type leaves this page.

Why this exists. In a new Inside Higher Ed and Hanover Research survey, 88 percent of the faculty who answered said AI has hurt their confidence that student work is authentic, and 67 percent said it has hurt trust with students. Yet 53 percent said it has had no effect on their overall relationships. Students cannot read your doubt. They can read what you send next. This is one way to say it on purpose. It is a judgment call, not a tested fix, and it does not tell you who used AI.

SEED

Pick the class, then say one true thing

One class. Its next big assignment. Then one sentence you actually believe about these students. If you cannot write it honestly today, that is useful to know before you send anything.








SPROUT

Say what you cannot tell, and draw the AI line

Say plainly what a finished file no longer shows you. Your students already know. Then draw the line for this one assignment. Name the task, not the tool, because the tools keep changing. Press the button for a starter on the first one, then make it sound like you.






GROW

Say what you will ask for, and what happens next

Pick one thing that shows the thinking: a note on the hardest decision, a saved draft, a two minute conversation. Then say what happens if you have a question about someone’s work. You ask first, and a conversation comes before any conclusion. If your institution has an academic integrity process, name it here, and check this sentence against it.





HARVEST

Say how you use AI, and invite them in

One plain sentence about your own AI use. If you use it to draft feedback or class messages, say so, and say what you still check yourself. Research on AI disclosure finds that telling people costs some trust, and that being exposed by someone else costs more. Then one invitation with a reason inside it. An open door is easy to ignore. A specific request is harder to ignore.







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The Announcement & Email Drafter in the Harvest Kernel Faculty Toolkit writes class messages that sound like you wrote them, and everything in it is grounded in your Course Record: your course, your outcomes, your policies and your voice, planted once and used by every tool. Full access for 14 days, cancel in one click. Write this first note by hand anyway, because this one has to be yours. If you use a tool on the next one, your sentence about AI already covers it.

See the Announcement & Email Drafter