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Introduction

QUT and generative AI

At university, your work needs to be approached with honesty and integrity. This means giving credit when it's due and acknowledging contributions, including if and how generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used in your assignments. 

Not all units allow the use of generative AI, if you are unsure always check with your unit coordinator, lecturer or tutor for more information. 

QUT has a policy regarding Academic Integrity (Manual of Policies and Procedures (MOPP) at MOPP C/5.3 Academic Integrity). 

It is vital that you avoid:

  • representing another person's ideas or work as your own
  • resubmitting your own work for another assignment
  • misrepresenting data in an assignment
  • colluding with others, then submitting the assignment as individual work
  • using artificial intelligence tools in assessment unless instructed to do so
  • using or promoting illegal contract cheating services.

Academic integrity and plagiarism - Student - QUT Portal


Looking for information about using generative AI in research and teaching? Check out the Generative AI in Research and Teaching guide. 

About this guide

Technology plays a massive part in being a student and researcher. It connects many aspects of being an active learner and explorer of knowledge. Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that uses machine learning systems to generate text, images, code and other types of content, usually in response to a prompt that has been entered.

Generative (AI) tools can be used in many ways in your study or research - to summarise, create, refine, test, inspire or revise.  

This guide provides information about using generative AI tools in an ethical, creative and evaluative way. The main areas covered are: 

 

                              

Types of generative AI                                 Ethical and evaluative use                          How to use 

 

Images created using Canva text to image. Prompts used: 
A cute white and white robot looking at a pile of technology objects on the ground including a laptop, ipad, phone, computer keyboard.
A cute small white robot sitting on a pile of philosophy books.
A small cute white robot using a computer at a bank of computers, pink.

What you need to know about generative AI tools

Generative AI tools are evolving incredibly quickly and their impact on education and research is significant and ongoing. It has the potential to support any area of study, from creative arts to law or business development. 

There are many different types of generative AI that can create music, art, video, text, code, equations or even a blend of these. The flexibility of these tools provides new ways to create content, explore ideas or synthesise information.  

There are important ethical factors to consider when using generative AI. We explore some of these in this guide.    

Being able to responsibly and ethically use generative AI is dependent on your critical evaluation skills, much like when you evaluate the results from a Google search or academic database. It can be difficult to distinguish from content created by a human and what have been generated by the model. This means critical thinking skills are essential to evaluate the authenticity and accuracy of what has been generated. One way to do this is the CRAAP test. More information on the CRAAP test and how to use it can be found here

QUT's Study Smart course also has a module 'Evaluate' which may be useful in evaluating and analysing information from a ChatGPT or other generative AI models. 

Key Considerations 

Generative AI is a rapidly evolving technology that impacts the way we create content and solve problems. When you are using these tools, it is important to think critically and evaluate the reliability, accuracy and context of the content generated.  

Bookmark this guide to ensure academic integrity in your use of these tools.

Attribution and acknowledgement

Crediting creators and attributing content is a core part of both academic integrity and of being a digital citizen more broadly. This guide was created by QUT Library based on and using parts of Using generative AI by Deakin University 2023 and licensed under CC BY NC 4.0.

Feedback and Comments

If you have any feedback or comments about the guide, or something you think should be added, let us know! We'd love to hear from you. 

Please email us and we will respond when able. 

Tags: AI, artificial intelligence, Generative AI