AI at Deakin: here’s your guide to using it responsibly in your studies
Whether you currently use them or not, generative artificial intelligence (genAI) tools are fast evolving and becoming increasingly embedded in our everyday lives and studies. These are systems which use machine learning to automatically generate content, such as text in the case of ChatGPT, based on a user prompt.
As an innovative and proactive educator, Deakin welcomes you as a student to develop your awareness, knowledge and skills to use these technologies ethically and responsibly so you can graduate as a digitally fluent citizen and employee. While Deakin teaching remains human-led, we are seeing AI-assisted tools adopted in many professional workplaces and our focus as educators is to enable you to use these technologies confidently and with reasoned judgment in your future work.
Deakin has introduced Deakin GEM, a free genAI tool supported by the University that is available to all students for equitable access. Whether you’re studying on campus or online, you can use Deakin GEM at any time to enhance your learning. The tool is continually improving, and now featuring file upload and access to Deakin information, making it even more valuable for your daily work.
But it is important for you to know how you can use AI in a way that benefits your learning while engaging with it critically and ethically.
Deakin AI guide
To help you with this, we’ve put together, co-designed with Deakin students, the new Deakin guide to using genAI in your studies. This guide provides a handy checklist of tips, potential risks and questions to ask yourself when using Deakin AI for different study tasks.
- Using at Deakin AI
- Understanding the risks and limitations
- Using genAI for study and assessments
- Acknowledging your use
- Getting further support
- Checklist: Am I ready to use genAI?
You may wish to also check the Library guide to using genAI.
Guidelines for use
If you want to explore using AI tools to assist with your assessments or research, you should note the following guidelines.
- Deakin welcomes you to explore using genAI tools in your investigation of your assessment tasks, including Deakin’s AI tool Deakin GEM. Deakin GEM has been designed to provide you equitable access to AI in a controlled environment, enabling you to build AI capability safely, ethically and responsibly, with safeguards aligned to academic integrity and learning expectations. You can’t, however, allow it to replace your own critical thinking and analysis. You must appropriately cite and reference, understand the limitations of genAI tools, and make sure the final product is your own work.
- GenAI should not be used as a primary source of information for assessments. Where you do use genAI, you need to ensure that you appropriately acknowledge your use and clearly indicate how and where in your assessment task you used it.
- Understand the AI tool’s limitations and use it in conjunction with other sources to evaluate the credibility and reliability of the information you present. For supporting evidence for assessments, you will need to consult a range of credible sources, for example, recommended readings from your units, recommended sources in the Deakin Library guides and databases, and peer-reviewed journals.
- Understanding how to use these tools correctly is essential to get the most out of your learning and also to avoid breaching academic integrity, which could impact your course progression.
- Be aware of the University’s student academic integrity policy and ensure that you follow it.
- Make sure that the final product is your own work, and not just copied from an AI generator. You can use the generated text as a prompt for inspiration or guidance, but the final submitted assessment must be your work, creation, and analysis.
Remember to always read assessment instructions carefully and check with your unit chair if it is acceptable to use genAI in your assessment.
By following this guide, you can use genAI as a valuable tool to assist you in your research and writing. Understanding how to use these tools correctly is essential to avoiding breaches that could impact your successful course progression and possibly even your graduation.