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The UTS College approach to Generative AI: a guide for parents

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The UTS College approach to Generative AI: a guide for parents

The UTS College approach to GenerativeAI

A guide for parents. 

New generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools and functionality are being developed faster than we can keep up with. Its impact is far reaching in education, and on how your school and university aged children are using or misusing GenAI for their studies, assignments and exams.

The research

UTS College surveyed 466 students on their use of GenAI and found:

  • More than 50 per cent of students regularly used GenAI for checking ideas, getting vocabulary, and editing written work.  
  • A smaller number of students also reported using GenAI to translate their written work, generate code, generate images and generate whole or partial texts for assessment submission. 

UTS College responded to these findings by developing and clearly communicating a new approach to appropriate GenAI use for students. 

Key points

The research and outcomes are designed to:

  • Help our students build practical skills for study success
  • Guide responsible and effective use of tools like GenAI
  • Develop confidence and independence for informed learning decisions

Generative AI (GenAI) is a form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that has been ‘fed’ large databases of information and trained to find patterns in that information to recreate human-like text, speech, images, music, code and more. It does this by predicting ‘what comes next’ using patterns, context, and the prompts that we give it. Compared to other AI, GenAI can be said to be ‘creative’ because it produces novel output, whereas traditional AI only identifies patterns.

UTS College works with students to show how GenAI can support their learning and when it might be less helpful. This approach focuses on guidance rather than punishment:

  • educates your child to think critically about GenAI.
  • models where and how it can be applied.
  • informs about where its application is detrimental to learning and skills development.

Students are taught that effective GenAI use can build knowledge and enhance retention (as a study aid). Effective GenAI use may include:

  • exploring more about topics being studied
  • simplifying complex concepts
  • generating and checking ideas
  • conducting research*
  • creating quizzes to check knowledge
  • unpacking assignment questions and briefs
  • creating study and revision plans
  • creating word lists and mind maps to assist memory
  • organising study notes
  • recommending essay structure.

*Students are informed that GenAI may not be a credible research source.

Guidance on ineffective usage is based on this premise:
Knowing how to do something is not the same as being able to do it.

Students are shown the link between types of GenAI use, and the specific skills each type of use prevents them from developing. This is outlined in the following table that is communicated to UTS College students:

The skills you miss out on developing when you  use GenAI to produce work:

If you You will not develop the skills of
Generate text Academic writing, English language and critical thinking
Generate images Software design, design thinking,  evaluative thinking
Generate code Coding software, active coding,  problem solving
Summarise text Advanced reading, synthesising texts, analytical thinking
Translate text Academic writing, English language, evaluative thinking

Students can therefore be taught two valuable, interrelated lessons:

  1. Ineffective GenAI use is any use that inhibits them from developing target skills.
  2. By using GenAI to produce work for them, students won’t develop those skills for themselves.

We know students can and will use GenAI (UTS College provides MS CoPilot), and we know that GenAI can be used in ways that may not help students learn what we want them to learn. Therefore, it is the educators’ responsibility to communicate, model and monitor appropriate and effective GenAI use.

Responsible use includes:

  • ensuring your child understands ineffective use and avoids academic misconduct
  • ensuring your child knows what the ethical issues of GenAI use are (e.g. copyright, privacy, bias, equity, unreliability). Our approach makes it clear what GenAI-related academic misconduct is and helps students build awareness of ethical issues in GenAI use by applying the following framework considerations to all assessment tasks.

Using the following framework, UTS College teachers can make it clear to students:

  • when and how GenAI could or should not be used for a task.
  • when its use constitutes academic misconduct.
  • how to acknowledge its use when used in an approved way.
  • the educational (skills development) reasons for why it should not be used for a particular task.
  • its limitations and how it impacts learning.
What Clear expectations Transparency Educational reason 1 Educational reason 2
How
  • Define GenAI -  related Academic misconduct.
  • Outline effective usage (knowledge building and retention).
  • Request acknowledgement of any GenAI use in assessments.
  • Provide an easy method for students to do this, e.g via a dedicated section on assignment cover sheets or via a comments box.
  • List the skills students will not develop if they use GenAI to produce the submission for them.
  • Give specific examples of how GenAI performed when asked to produce the task response OR
  • Give general examples of GenAI limitations. 
Why
  • Provides clarity for both students and educators.
  • Helps elevate GenAI to a non-cheating tool. 
  • Helps students plan and reflect on use.
  • Helps students realise why they should not use it for certain tasks and how doing so would impact their learning.
  • Helps model evaluation, test susceptibility of assessment item and highlight its limitations.

The framework caters for discipline (and assessment item) differences while maintaining consistency of approach.

10 key lessons

We apply the following to our students:

  1. Ask students about their current uses and perceptions of GenAI.
  2. Answer our key questions about using  GenAI in education.
  3. Move away from framing GenAI only in terms of academic misconduct.
  4. Consider GenAI as helpful in the learning process and research available GenAI tools.
  5. Develop a framework for communicating effective usage to students.
  6. Provide clear examples of ways students can use GenAI effectively.
  7. Provide clear educational reasons why students should not use GenAI for certain tasks or to produce work.
  8. Reinforce this approach using in-class and self-paced activities. 
  9. Show students how to evaluate what GenAI produces, factoring in ethical considerations.
  10. Give students an opportunity to plan and reflect on how they might use GenAI in assessment-related work.

Helping your child understand the impact of GenAI use

By educating students on how and why GenAI use may either benefit or disadvantage them, your child can begin to make decisions that enhance their learning based on a better understanding of the pros and cons of using GenAI.

To get the most out of GenAI, students can use it as a tool for learning enhancement rather than a substitute for skill development and genuine engagement with their studies.

Outcomes

UTS College has found that by implementing an education approach to GenAI use, it provides:

  • clarity for students early in their learning (during orientation workshops).
  • clarity for teachers and educators.
  • an easier way to identify misconduct if it is occurring.
  • more open discussions about effective GenAI use.
  • more consistency on GenAI use across subjects and assessments.
  • a way to broach the topic that is constructive and positive (not just rules or misconduct).

What’s next?

At UTS College, we’re taking further steps to ensure students get the most out of their learning experience, including research on students’ application of the approach, installing AI tutors to aid learning, and researching GenAI tools for teachers. Stay tuned for more to come on GenAI from UTS College!

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