Unauthorised or undisclosed use of technology (including genAI)

Elliott is using content generated by AI software in their assignment submission without appropriately acknowledging or citing their use of the tool.

The increasing availability of generative artificial intelligence tools has opened new possibilities for academic misconduct.  Alongside traditional sources for plagiarism and for contract cheating, students now might also access material generated by AI tools.

From the University’s advice for students regarding Turnitin and AI writing detection:

"The acceptable use of AI will vary across disciplines, subjects, and assessment tasks... ...If an assessment task does permit the use of AI tools and technologies in the preparation of the submission, this usage must be appropriately acknowledged and cited."

And from the University's academic integrity guidance:

"Using artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT or QuillBot to generate material for assessment and representing this as your own ideas, research or analysis is not submitting your own work. Knowingly submitting work for assessment that has been produced by a third party, including artificial intelligence technologies, is deliberate cheating and is academic misconduct.Any use of artificial intelligence technologies to generate material used to prepare for assessment submission must be appropriately acknowledged in accordance with the Assessments and Results Policy (MPF1326)."

Teaching and Learning Innovation have published guidance for subject coordinators on clarifying the level and type of allowable student use (if any) of generative AI in assessment tasks.

How can I detect unauthorised or undisclosed use of technology?

Staff may suspected unacknowledged use of AI tools in assignments that:

  • Significantly exceed the standard of work previously submitted
  • Significantly exceed staff expectations of the cohort’s skill and experience
  • Couldn’t reasonably be completed within the time-frame
  • Are submitted quickly after an extension is requested and/or granted
  • Include references to projects and/or literature that, on closer inspection, doesn't exist

NB: For use once students have submitted work, an AI Writing Detection Tool has been integrated into Turnitin, and is being further refined through its use at the University.  Learning Environments has produced comprehensive information on the reliability of the tool, its functionality, and what to do if the tool returns a high percentage of text flagged as likely to have been AI-written. "As with the Turnitin similarity report, a high percentage of text flagged as likely to have been AI-written is not proof that academic misconduct has taken place but may be a sign that further investigation is warranted."

NB: In assignments where the use of AI tools is allowed--but where citation is required--students can unintentionally plagiarise through over-reliance on the ‘copy and paste’ function, combined with poor record keeping about what content was sourced from where.

Guidance for ABP subject coordinators on investigating and reporting academic misconduct can be found on the ABP Academic Integrity Sharepoint site.

For further information--including information on how you might consider AI in your assessment design--please see BEL+T's guidance on generative AI.