Skip to Main Content

Online Study Skills Hub: Using AI in assessment

Competencies essential for academic and professional success

Using AI in Assessment

It is important to be aware of the limitations of AI and make sure that it does not compromise the academic integrity of your work. The University's guidelines lay out three kinds of rule-sets, for the use of AI, that your programme might apply to any given assessment. You should check which AI rule-set applies to the assessment that you're working on. Refresh your understanding of this by reading the University guidance, here. 

Always check your assessment criteria, attend your assessment brief or ask for advice. If you are allowed to use AI for your assessment, consider the following questions before doing so:

  • What is the aim of the assignment? Is it about communicating my own original thinking, and if so could the use of AI compromise the authenticity of my work?
  • What is my own position/idea/argument? Identify and write this down first.  Ensure that you are using AI to support rather than replace your own thinking.
  • Have I fact checked everything? AI will sometimes produce factually inaccurate information such as fabricated sources. You will always need to follow up on suggestions made by AI using traditional search methods, correct referencing techniques and always check the accuracy of everything AI provides.
  • Does this represent my own work? You can use AI to enhance your learning and skills, but not replace them. You should not copy and paste from an AI tool. Instead consider how and why its outputs might help you form your own writing.

Using AI for Writing

AI an be helpful when writing. It can quickly give you a basic structure and suggest some ideas, but it usually creates very simple and general results that don't show deep thinking or creativity, which is required at University.

You could use AI to help you:

  • Plan the overall structure of your work.
  • Express your ideas more clearly by acting as a "critical friend" that gives feedback on your thoughts.
  • Improve your writing by suggesting ways to link your sentences and giving tips on grammar.

Remember, only use AI if your assessment type allows it, or requires it. You must reference any use of AI. Read the University's guidelines, here, and check with your lecturers if you are not sure what is allowed for your current assessment. 

Using AI for Creating Images

AI has advanced a lot in creating images from text descriptions. It's used in real-world areas like medical imaging, advertising, gaming, and movies.

However, like AI text, there are some issues with AI-generated images. The quality may not always be perfect, and there are also ethical concerns about fairness and bias in the images it creates, based on the data the AI was trained on.

Remember, only use AI if your assessment type allows it, or requires it. You must reference any use of AI. Read the University's guidelines, here, and check with your lecturers if you are not sure what is allowed for your current assessment.

Using AI for Coding and Maths

AI can be especially useful when writing computer code, but there are important questions you need to ask when using it:

  • What does the code actually do?
  • Does it give you the result you want?
  • Does it create any mistakes or problems?
  • Is the code efficient?
  • Does it match the level you’re learning at?
  • Can you explain how it works?

AI can also help with data analysis, but be very careful, especially in research. You should turn off the tool’s ability to learn on your data, this means your information is not used to train AI. You should also use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to secure your accounts. To safeguard your information, avoid sharing any personal or confidential data with AI systems. Always anonymise datasets, and limit access to only trusted platforms. Read through the privacy policy to understand how your data is being used.

Again, remember to only use AI if your assessment type allows it, or requires it. You must reference any use of AI. Read the University's guidelines, here, and check with your lecturers if you are not sure what is allowed for your current assessment.