Generative Artificial Intelligence

Subject librarians have created an interactive tutorial, AI Essentials, available on Blackboard. This consists of 10 short courses:  

1. What (and where) is Generative AI   
2. AI as a Study Partner, Not a Shortcut   
3. AI, Critical Thinking, and Information Literacy   
4. AI and Referencing   
5. Data, Privacy, and What You Shouldn’t Upload   
6. AI and Accessibility   
7. AI and the Welsh Language in a Multilingual Context  
8. Environmental and Social Impacts of AI   
9. Living With Rapid Change   
10. What If I Don’t Want to Use AI?  

All staff and students are automatically enrolled on this course. We recommend engaging with this course before using Generative AI.  

If you want to build your confidence with using Generative AI, Library Academic and Digital Services have produced a Prompt Library. The aim of this is to provide suggestions on how you might use Generative AI in your context.  

There are many third party Generative AI tools available. As with all third party software, you should ensure that you are using it safely, responsibly, and ethically.  

If you are using third party software, ensure that you are not entering any personal information relating to yourself or others, or content where the copyright is owned by other people or organisations.  

For detailed guidance on safety, see the General Guidance on the safe use of AI. 

If you are concerned that there has been a data breach, please see the guidance from Information Governance on reporting a data breach.  

Your department might have its own local Generative AI guidance which you must follow.  

Before using Generative AI for your studies, we recommend that you take the AI Essentials course available in Blackboard. 

If you have any questions about the acceptable use of Generative AI in your work or assessments, please speak to your lecturer or module co-ordinator.  

The University's Unacceptable Academic Practice regulation states that plagiarism includes submitting AI-generated work as though it were your own.  

If you are unsure whether the use of AI is permitted for a particular assignment or aspect of your studies, you should seek guidance from your academic tutor. 

There are advantages to using Generative AI as an assistive tool for your studies, if it is used ethically and safely. Increasingly, more jobs are expecting graduates to be Generative AI literate. Your lecturer might ask you to use Generative AI as part of a learning or assessment activity.  

There are also benefits to completing tasks and assessments without relying on Generative AI.  

Before using Generative AI, consider what knowledge, skills, or experience you might gain by undertaking the task independently.  

Whether it is finding and summarising material, planning and doing work, or understanding the question, the practice of this is what you are at university to do. If you outsource this to Generative AI, then you are not going to get that experience.  

Your department might ask you to use a Generative AI Tool use statement or tool acknowledgement statement for your assignments. This allows you to reflect on how you have used Generative AI in the construction of your assignment.  

We regularly blog about Generative AI – see our librarian’s blog for recent posts.  

We recognise and support the integration of Generative AI into learning and teaching activities. As with recommendations for students, staff should declare when and how Generative AI has been used.  

We recommend that the following tools are used for learning and teaching activities: 

• Microsoft Copilot 
• Blackboard AI Design Assistant 
• Vevox AI question designer 

The Digital Education Team runs regular training sessions: E-learning Essentials: Using Microsoft Copilot for Learning and Teaching Activities and E-learning Enhanced: Using the Blackboard AI Design Assistant for colleagues. You can book your place and see our other training sessions online. 

Our training sessions foreground Generative AI as an assistive tool in the creation of content. 

To ensure assessment validity, the university’s Unacceptable Academic Practice guidelines have been amended to include presenting work generated by AI as if it were your own as plagiarism. 

A standard content item is included in the Assessment and Feedback area of Blackboard courses which links to Unacceptable Academic Practice and the AI Essentials Course 

Each assessment should include a statement on the acceptable level of Generative AI use. You are welcome to make use of standardised statements which are available in the Blackboard Learning Object Repository. 

If you have any questions about integrating Generative AI into your teaching, you are welcome to contact the Digital Education Team (elearning@aber.ac.uk).

Use of AI in research can have significant ethical implications.  Guidance in this area is still being developed, but there may be local departmental, or discipline-specific guidance available.  Overarching best practice can be found in General Guidance on the safe use of AI.

If your research falls within the scope of the Research Ethics Panel, they may review any use of AI within your research processes, whether that be as part of a preparatory exercise, or as a core feature of the research.  Details relating to the work of the Research Ethics Panel and associated processes can be found at https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/rbi/support-services/ethics/  They will also be able to provide advice prior to the commencement of any research or ethical review.

A useful overview of the factors that need consideration when using AI in Research can be accessed here: https://ukrio.org/ukrio-resources/ai-in-research/

AI can also be used for administrative activities, such as summarising long documents, creating a structure for reports, and reorganising information you have already written. 

The university’s recommended AI tool is Copilot, which is part of our Microsoft Licence. 

See the Using Copilot for productivity at Aberystwyth University guide. 

Remember to avoid uploading personal information (about identifiable individuals) or other confidential information to Copilot.