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Co-authored by Ann Wilson, Dimity Wehr, Rosalie Goldsmith and Rhiannon Hall.

It feels like a fulltime job, trying to stay up to date with GenAI: a glance at any tech news site will probably show updates and editorial pieces focused on GenAI every week. It’s no surprise then, that the widespread availability of both GenAI tools and information can be overwhelming.

As we head into Spring session, here are four of the important things to know about GenAI.

1. Talk to your students about GenAI use in your subject and course

At the beginning of session, it’s vital to initiate a conversation with your students explaining your expectations around GenAI usage in the subject.  

GenAI usage can differ between subjects, so treat each subject individually. Subject coordinators should ensure that they have set out the rules of engagement with AI for their subject – whether GenAI can be used at all, how it should be used, and how students should acknowledge their GenAI use. It’s also important to check with the other subject coordinators teaching sequential subjects in the degree program or course, to see how they are talking about and using GenAI in their subjects. Students often report widely varying approaches to the use of GenAI in their subjects within the one course, making it difficult to remember what is and isn’t allowed. 

GenAI usage can also vary between assessments within a subject. In this blog post series, we explored the traffic light system where students can either use GenAI (green light) use GenAI in a particular and limited way (orange light) or not use GenAI at all (red light). You can help your students by being clear about which type of assessment they are doing, and therefore what assistance they can get from GenAI.

Remember that students are also new to GenAI and are still learning about how it can best be applied in different situations. Your advice will help them make decisions as they progress through the subject.

2. Using GenAI does not always equal cheating

From enhancing accessibility to just getting a firmer understanding of core concepts, many students are already using GenAI to assist in their studies. This usage, whether in the course of completing an assessment or just for usual study, does not automatically constitute cheating or violation of academic integrity. For example, a conversation with a chatbot can help students to process complex ideas, plan their study schedule or build a better understanding of specific tasks. 

There may be aspects of your subject where students might benefit from talking it over with an AI – so consider familiarising yourself and your students with tools. This gives you an opportunity to emphasise appropriate usage of AI and level the playing field. Some students will have a better working knowledge of GenAI than others – don’t assume all your students are at the same level.

The best platform available for UTS students is Microsoft Bing AI:

  • Bing AI is the only protected UTS-approved chatbot. This means it’s the only chatbot that you can require your students to use in order to complete their work, and the only platform you should use for processing UTS documents.
  • Bing uses ChatGPT-4 and DALLE, not the free (and much weaker) ChatGPT-3.5.
  • The platform is grounded in search, so responses generally come with sources that the student can verify.

3. Managing policy breaches involving GenAI

If you suspect a student has handed in work that is not their own, you should begin a conversation with them about this. Did they understand the instructions that they could or could not use GenAI? Did they understand what was expected of them? Have you looked at the Turnitin report, are there inadequate references or citations? Note that Turnitin cannot detect AI usage.

Many UTS staff have started to integrate GenAI into their own work. It’s important to remember that data integrity remains crucial when using any AI platform. Take care not to upload work that is not created by yourself to any AI platforms, e.g. do not upload student work to any AI platform to check for cheating, or as part of a marking process. This is a breach of UTS Privacy Policy.

4. Help is available

If you have questions about using GenAI for learning and teaching, start by checking out some of our self-help resources and guides.

And if you’re not sure where to go next with GenAI, log a ticket via ServiceConnect with the LX Lab.

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