Introducing Deakin GEM: building your genAI skills
From Week 1, all students have access to Deakin GEM, Deakin’s generative AI (genAI) tool.
AI is becoming part of the professional landscape across many industries. Deakin GEM gives you the opportunity to develop these skills in a responsible and supported way, while continuing to develop your academic skills and meet Deakin’s academic integrity expectations.
What is Deakin GEM?
Deakin GEM is the University’s secure generative genAI platform, hosted within Deakin’s managed cloud environment on Amazon Web Services in Australia.
Deakin GEM gives you structured access to a large language model (LLM) in a university-supported environment, so you can explore how these tools work and develop confidence using them responsibly.
It provides access to a general-purpose language model. This means Deakin GEM hasn’t been trained on Deakin learning content, administrative information, or processes or procedures. The tool will generate responses based on language patterns.
You can use Deakin GEM to:
- Clarify complex concepts
- Generate revision questions
- Organise your thinking before drafting
- Reflect on your understanding
- Get feedback on clarity and structure
It’s designed to support your learning process and not replace it. Deakin GEM does not replace curiosity, critical thinking, research, or the development of knowledge and skills.
Using genAI responsibly
GenAI can be a helpful study tool, but it doesn’t replace your own analysis, reading or judgment.
When using Deakin GEM:
- Check your unit’s genAI guidelines before using it for assessment tasks
- Review and verify responses for accuracy
- Ensure your submitted work reflects your own understanding
- Do not include confidential or sensitive information
If you cannot clearly explain a sentence or idea in your own words, it should not appear in your submission.
Why use Deakin GEM?
Many students already use public genAI tools. Deakin GEM provides a university-supported environment where:
- Your individual conversations are not visible to other students or staff
- Prompts and outputs are not used to train public genAI models
- Access is consistent across the University
It gives you a space to build genAI literacy within an academic framework.
Getting started
You can access Deakin GEM through the Deakin GEM website using your usual Single Sign-On credentials.
If you’re new to genAI, start small:
- Ask it to explain a concept from your readings
- Generate practice questions for revision
- Request feedback on clarity in a paragraph you’ve written
- Experiment, review critically and refine your prompts as you go.
We’ve developed some tools to help you get started using Deakin GEM. Visit the Deakin GEM webpage for more details about the tool, Deakin GEM FAQs, and a library of prompts to help you to start practising.
What’s next?
This is an early version of Deakin GEM. The current release focuses on secure, text-based interactions. Over time, additional features may be introduced to further support learning.
Updates will be shared as new capabilities are released.
More information
- For resources and tips on using genAI, visit the Deakin AI Hub
- For technical support with Deakin GEM, contact Deakin IT HELP.
- For general support or information at Deakin, contact Student Central, or call 13 DEAKIN