Get help with acknowledging and using AI responsibly in assessment and study

If you are using generative artificial intelligence (GAI) to support your learning, it's important to acknowledge it in your assessments.

Some tasks will actively encourage its use, while some will be designed to work without GAI. It is not feasible for the University to impose a blanket restriction on the use of GAI, rather we seek to promote the discerning, transparent and ethical use of it. 

Use GAI to support your learning and personal development, not to do your learning for you. Our generative AI code of conduct for students contains more details on appropriate usage, ethical concerns, and limitations of GAI.

GAI and assessment

Academic integrity is central to the University’s core values of valuing people, working together, integrity, making a difference, and excellence. 

The expectation is that the work you submit for your assessments is solely your own work, or in the case of group work, solely the work of your group. This work is a means for you to demonstrate what you have learned.

Using GAI to write the text, code, or generate the designs and artwork for your assessment would not be submitting your own work. 

If your lecturers have made clear in your assessment brief that you may use GAI sources in your work then you must be transparent in acknowledging, describing, and referencing how you have used it. Contact your module leader if you are unsure whether you are permitted to use any AI tools in your submission. 

If you are unsure about evaluating the accuracy of the content that AI has generated: 

• Contact the lecturer (they are subject matter experts) 
• Contact the Academic Librarian Team (they are information evaluation and referencing experts)

Acknowledging the use of GAI in your work

It is important to acknowledge the use of GAI tools in your work and to be clear about how you have used them. You should therefore include a statement of acknowledgement and a description of how you have used GAI and the information generated.

Statement of acknowledgement

Please include the statement that reflects how you have used any GAI tools from one of the following:

• No content generated by AI technologies has been presented as my own work. 
• I acknowledge the use of [AI tool] to generate materials for background research and self-study in the drafting of this assessment. 
• I acknowledge the use of [AI tool] to structure or plan this assessment. 
• I acknowledge the use of [AI tool] to generate materials that were included within my final assessment in modified form. 
• I acknowledge the use of [AI tool] to generate materials that were included in my final assessment in unmodified form. (An example of this would be a quote or image produced by the AI output.)

Description of how information or material was generated

You must describe how the information or material was generated, what the output was and how the output was modified by you using the following format: 

• The following prompts were input into [name of AI tool: {Provide details}] 
• The output obtained was: [paste the full output generated by the AI tool] 
• The output was changed and adapted by me in the following ways: [explain how you adapted the output for use in your work]

Keeping a record of how you have created your work

If staff have concerns that you have used AI to support you creating coursework, in ways that are not permitted, they may invite you to an interview to discuss your work. Part of this may include asking you to explain how the work was created, or about particular decisions you made. 

For all coursework we recommend: 

• Use Word/Powerpoint, saving it in OneDrive as this will ensure that all your versions are retained. (This is also a useful backup in case of your laptop failing) 
• If you use Pages, ensure you save versions on a regular basis. 
• If you’re more of a pen and paper planner, keep the plans you have made. 
• In all cases, remember to keep information about what you’ve excluded, as well as included, so that you can talk about this.

Referencing GAI

Not all referencing styles require you to cite GAI in your work, but most do. If you are unsure which referencing style to use, contact your tutor.  

CiteThemRight – AI guidance

(University login required if off campus)

As content generated by GAI is non-recoverable, it cannot be retrieved or linked to in the way that other resources can. If the recommended style for your subject area has not yet got guidance, we recommend that AI generated content should be cited as a personal communication as an in-text citation.

In-text citation

This is an example using Harvard guidance: When prompted by the author, ChatGPT responded with a ‘definition of academic integrity’ (OpenAI ChatGPT, 2023). A copy of this response is in Appendix 1.

Reference list

OpenAI ChatGPT (2023) ChatGPT response to John Stephens, 2 April. 

If you are not sure about referencing AI generated content, contact the Academic Librarian Team.

The AI assessment scale

The AI assessment scale can be used to support both staff and students in their use of AI within assessment. If you have questions about AI usage in your tasks, it might be helpful to ask your tutor which point on the scale they are using. 

Creative Commons: Perkins, Furze, Roe & MacVaugh (2024) - The AI Assessment Scale