Artificial Intelligence at USW: Guidance for Assessment

Student Briefing: Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Assessment

Introduction

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, including Large Language Models (LLMs), can be capable of automatically generating multi-modal content (e.g. text, coding, music, images) using minimal prompts. The most widely publicised current example of this is OpenAI’s system ‘ChatGPT’, however many more exist such as Bing Chat, DALL.E and Google Bard. New products are appearing online on a regular basis and are becoming more common and embedded into some of our everyday activities (for example tools like Grammarly or Google Translate could be considered as early examples of Artificial Intelligence tools).  

The rapid development of AI tools, such as ChatGPT, present valuable opportunities for students in developing skills, e.g. problem-solving, creativity, and communication skills, and can enrich and personalise student learning experiences. However, they also present substantial challenges in terms of assessment and maintaining academic integrity, hence if they are used as part of your development, these must be used wisely.

This document therefore sets out the University of South Wales (USW) position on AI and provides you, as a student of USW, with an understanding of what you should know about generative AI tools,  how you might understand the appropriate use of AI, and provides you with information on complying with university expectations of academic integrity.

The University of South Wales’ Position

The University of South Wales (USW) is committed to leveraging generative AI for the benefit of both students and staff and promotes the fair, ethical, professional, and responsible use of generative AI tools. The University is committed to preparing our students for an increasingly AI-enabled future and acknowledges digital fluency as a key USW graduate attribute.

Staff at USW are exploring the implications of generative AI; both in terms of the benefits and challenges they might present in educational settings. Some apps or software can be used in ways that legitimately help students, however, AI can easily be misused (either intentionally or unintentionally) and can lead to academic misconduct and plagiarism, particularly by automatically generating seemingly original content with minimal prompting.

USW has established a working group to explore these apps and the educational benefits and limitations they may provide. Many students have contributed to the discussion about the use of these tools, and these discussions are helping to inform the University’s position on the use of these tools in terms of policy and practice.

What should I know about generative AI tools?

There are some things you should be wary of regarding generative AI tools such as ChatGPT:

• If you use such a tool to generate an assignment for you, you may not understand the assignment you hand in. This could lead to an academic integrity investigation and have implications for your studies. It may also mean you are not developing the knowledge or skills you need for your subject, making future assessments more difficult.
• Content created by generative AI may be incorrect. Generative AI does not have ‘human intelligence’, rather it works more like automated, predictive text. Tools, like ChatGPT, mimic patterns and styles from existing examples to generate new content. They do not fact-check themselves and there is no guarantee that the information produced is accurate.
• Generative AI tools may reference material incorrectly. Whilst a tool such as ChatGPT will produce a list of references for you, those references may be fabricated. In some cases, a reference may be made to a text or source that does actually exist, but may not be linked to the content generated. Markers are likely to be able to spot such errors.
• When using some tools, the data you input into them becomes public, therefore you are effectively sharing your own work, your intellectual property, directly onto the internet. Due to privacy and security concerns, the University would not recommend putting personal data into AI systems.

However, there are some positive uses of generative AI for learning that you may find beneficial:

• Generative AI can be used to help you understand more about a person, topic, concept, or idea. You could potentially ask the tool to provide you with an overview of the thing/s you now need to know more about, using the parameters you give it (in so many words, in bullet points, in a numbered list, etc.) and it will do so.
• Generative AI can be used to summarise longer texts or provide content in alternative formats, using tools such as Blackboard Ally.
• Generative AI can be used to check your understanding of concepts or theories if you are unsure whether you grasp the main points. By asking the generator to summarise a concept you can check your own learning progress.
  • Remember the point about accuracy of information, however. Contextualise what the tool gives you with another source.
• Technologies such as ChatGPT could be used in a similar way to other technologies, for example asking ChatGPT to change the style of references, similar to programs like EndNote.

 

Understanding the appropriate use of AI:

Using AI tools to help with such things as idea generation or your planning may be an appropriate use, though the requirements of the assessment must be considered. Where the use of generative AI tools is permitted within an assessment, you may be asked to explicitly share and reflect on the prompts you have used within a generative AI tool, the resulting outputs, and any modifications you have made before final submission.

Whilst AI can benefit you in planning and structuring work, it is not acceptable to use these tools to write your entire essay or any other assessment from start to finish. You should also be aware that generative AI tools do not fact check the information generated, therefore you cannot rely on the accuracy of such tools. If you use generative AI in any part of your assessed work, it is your responsibility to check all outputs generated by the AI to make sure that the information produced is current and correct and you acknowledge its source appropriately.

To make sure your work complies with the standards expected by the university, you may find it helpful to use the table provided below, and the guidance on complying with University policy following this table:

Question	Logical Route
1. Did you create the submitted content yourself?	If Yes: Go to Question 2. If No: Go to Question 6.
2. Did you use technology to check spelling/grammar?	If Yes: Go to Question 3. If No: Acceptable practice.
3. Did you do anything else?	If Yes: Go to Question 4. If No: Acceptable practice.
4. Did you ask someone/use technology to proofread your work?	If Yes: Go to Question 5. If No: Acceptable practice.
5. Other than correcting spelling/grammar errors, did someone else/the technology you used edit your work?   For example: inserted references to sources that you have not checked for accuracy, relevance, and validity; made significant changes to the structure and content of your work without your input, and which you have not critically evaluated; experimented with different writing styles or debugged code.	If Yes: Might constitute academic misconduct. If No: Acceptable practice.
6. Did a piece of technology write, or provide guidance on writing, aspects of your assignment?	If Yes: Go to Question 7. If No: Go to Question 8.
7. Have you cited any content generated by technology within your assignment appropriately?	If Yes: Acceptable practice. If No: Might constitute academic misconduct.
8. Did a person/essay writing service contribute to or complete your assignment for you?	If Yes: Might constitute Academic misconduct. If No: Acceptable practice.

Complying with University expectations of academic integrity

USW has strict guidelines on student conduct and academic integrity. These stress that students must be the authors of their own work.

Acknowledgement of AI use in your summative work:

Work produced for summative assessment that has used, or contains content from, generative AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, without citation or declaration and/or prior academic approval, does not represent the student’s own original work so could be considered a form of academic misconduct to be dealt with under the University's Academic Misconduct procedures.

The University’s Academic Misconduct Regulations and Procedure 2023/2024 available here in  English and Welsh states:

4.1 Plagiarism may be written or non-written and be considered as plagiarism when students use someone else’s work, ideas or intellectual property, including the use of Generative AI platforms such as chat GPT, without proper acknowledgment by use of correct referencing conventions, or approved method of declaration.

Therefore, if you submit content generated by generative AI tools as your own work, without citation, you might be in breach of the academic integrity policy. You should therefore ensure if you have used content or ideas from generative AI in any form, that your work appropriately uses the referencing format used within your programme of study (e.g. Harvard, APA, Vancouver). If appropriately acknowledged and referenced, this would not, in itself, constitute a breach of academic integrity. Guidance on citing and referencing AI tools can be found here.

Further Information/Contact

Further guidance, and some “do’s and ‘don’ts” for using AI and referencing ChatGPT and other generative AI tools is available as part of this Artificial Intelligence (AI) library guide. 

For further information or advice, please contact your course team or the library in the first instance. These will have the most relevant, useful and up-to-date information for you.

 

© 2023 by the University of South Wales. Adapted from the University of Liverpool, Centre for Innovation in Education. Student Briefing: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Content Generation Technology in Summative Assessments by Ceri Coulby, Dr Sam Saunders & Bryony Parsons is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License