Daily News
Update on ethical use of generative AI in teaching and assessment
From: Farukh Anjum
Valid from: Wednesday 8 March 2023 to Wednesday 22 March 2023
As a university community, we encourage the ethical use of generative AI, with appropriate consideration of academic integrity and quality in teaching, learning, and assessment. We encourage staff to support students in using generative AI responsibly in ways that are pedagogically sound and relevant to their discipline or professional field. This includes developing and applying skills in critically evaluating generative AI technologies and their outputs.
Staff will need to set and communicate clear expectations to students regarding generative AI in learning, teaching and assessment. For example, many subjects have already integrated the use of generative AI as a tool that students will use in their future workplaces. In the first half of 2023 there may be assessment tasks or contexts where the use of generative AI would not be appropriate to meet current subject or program learning outcomes, and/or accreditation requirements. In these cases, restrictions on the use of generative AI need to be clearly communicated to students in the Learning Guide, assessment task instructions or in class.
In the second half of 2023 it is expected that those subject and program learning outcomes will be revised to support ethical use of generative AI in learning, teaching and assessment, except where use needs to be limited to meet accreditation requirements. Assessment Committee will establish a process for reviewing any requests to limit the use of generative AI.
Staff resources on using generative AI in teaching, learning, and assessment are available on our generative AI news and resources SharePoint site https://bit.ly/3yfo6gX. Generative AI resources https://bit.ly/423nfxB include suggestions on communicating with students about generative AI https://bit.ly/3YrJVEr.
It is expected that students acknowledge any use of generative AI. A guide to acknowledging content from generative AI tools https://answers.library.westernsydney.edu.au/faq/273171 is available on the Library web page. Students need to be made aware that the output from generative AI can often be detected and that they are risking academic misconduct if they use generative AI without proper acknowledgement.
The Library is committed to supporting students to develop academic skills and academic integrity, including the ethical and responsible use of generative AI tools in learning and research. The Library Study Smart programs support students to build the knowledge and skills to critically evaluate and use information, avoid plagiarism, and cite and reference all information sources appropriately. A range of Library resources, services and academic skills programs are available throughout the academic year for all students. This includes developing the capabilities to use information ethically (including content generated by AI tools like ChatGPT) in their university study and after graduation, in the workplace. Study Smart Librarians at each campus library will be trialing using generative AI as a tool for getting feedback on academic writing tasks. A student guide to using generative AI tools in teaching and research will be available on the Library web page soon.