AI Guidance for Your Academic Work
UON takes an acknowledgment-based approach to use of AI and commits to support staff and students to build their critical AI literacy.
Many staff and students will benefit in the use of AI tools, and you can find further information on permitted uses and how to acknowledge use of AI in the Guidance on Assessments section below. However, when using AI you should also be aware of the risks, including:
- Accuracy and reliability: AI can produce information that appears factual, convincing and intelligent, but is inaccurate and unreliable. This includes the creation of fake references and hallucinations.
- Bias and constraint: AI outputs are derived from the data used to train the AI tool. This means AI tends to output standard answers that replicate the biases and values in the training data. This can constrain originality and plurality of views, and lead to the further exclusion of marginalised groups.
- Privacy, data protection and copyright: When you use a AI tool, the information and data you submit could be used to train the AI. The following should not be submitted to an AI tool: confidential data; data belonging to other people or organisations, i.e. the intellectual property of other people or third-party copyrighted material, unless permission has been granted or is licensed; your own personal data, unless you are prepared for it to surface in AI output.
- Environmental: Like many human activities, our use of AI has an environmental impact. UON advises its university community to use AI tools purposefully and only when they add value to your learning or work. We advise the use of ethically responsible and transparent platforms and we advise our university community to reflect on their digital habits in line with UON values and our broader sustainability and social impact goals.
You should always critically evaluate AI outputs, verifying them against reliable information sources. The official University statement is shown at the bottom of this page.
Guidance on AI in Assessments
Before using any AI to support an assessment, you should always check and follow your assessment brief and your tutor’s guidance on use of AI. [Staff – for more detailed guidance and support please see the LTE web page.]
Any use of AI tools in academic work must be undertaken in a manner which is ethical and transparent. That means that if you have used AI to support a piece of assessed work at UON, in many instances you will need to acknowledge where and how you have used AI. Not doing so can be seen as academic misconduct. In particular, you should not pass off content produced by AI as your own work. You are advised to complete the University of Northampton Plagiarism Avoidance Course, usually known as UNPAC to learn more about academic integrity.
If you have or are thinking about using AI as part of an assessed piece of work at UON you will need to consider carefully what is allowed and how you can acknowledge this ethically in your work.
There are three key steps you will need to take:
Different assessments will have different rules regarding the use of AI in your work. You should always check and follow your tutor’s guidance on use of AI within your work. Most assessments in UON will fall into one of the three following categories:
Category 1: No AI allowed
You are unable to use AI for the final output of the assessment due to the assessment design. For example, a closed book exam where you are required to demonstrate within controlled conditions that you have core knowledge or a skill in a particular area. As it is not possible to use AI within this type of assessment, you do not need to acknowledge use of AI.
Category 2: AI can be used in an assistive role
You may make use of AI in your assessment in an assistive role, but you must acknowledge this appropriately. Steps 2 and 3 outline the different types of AI use, what you need to acknowledge and how you should do this.
Category 3: AI is an integral part of assessment
Using AI is part of the assessment and will be expected. You must still acknowledge where and how you have used AI. Your assessment brief should outline how your tutor wants you to do this.
If you have used AI in a piece of assessed work at UON, you must make it clear where and how you have used AI output, not doing so can be seen as Academic Misconduct.
If you tutor has provided an assessment brief with instructions of how you should reference AI, you should follow those instructions.
If you have not received specific instructions from your tutor, we recommend that you acknowledge use of AI using the following guidance:
Permitted uses
Some uses of AI are seen as ‘permitted use’ and do not normally require an acknowledgement in your work. These include:
- Checking spelling, punctuation and grammar
- Researching or finding sources
- Audio-transcription
Uses where you will need to provide an acknowledgment
The following uses of AI require an acknowledgement in your assessment (see Step 3). Extra care should be taken with ‘Higher-risk’ uses where AI-generated content is added directly to your work.
Lower-risk uses
- Getting ideas for structuring or planning your assessment
- Getting feedback or recommendations on your writing style or tone
- Summarising text, notes or data.
Higher-risk uses
- Analysing content or data in your assessment
- Generating ideas, concepts or arguments to include in an assessment
- Generating text, images or any other content to add to your assessment.
If your use of AI is not listed above, you should check first with your tutor to see if your use of AI is allowed in your assessment.
For each instance where you have used AI in your assessment, you should include an acknowledgement. This should include the name of the AI software that you used and a clear description of where and how the output was used in your work. If you have used AI in multiple ways in a single assessment, for example by creating an essay plan and summarising text, you should include acknowledgements for each of these.
Acknowledgements should be included as appendices in your assessment.
LLS have developed a recommended tool for writing AI acknowledgements that can be found below.
GenAI Acknowledgement Generator
The GenAI Acknowledgement Generator is a tool designed to help you write an acknowledgement when you have used GenAI in a piece of assessment work. You should complete each question by including relevant information or including N/A. You can either click on the radio buttons (small circles) on the left of the tool or use the chevrons (<>) at the bottom right to navigate through the sections.
When you have completed each section, you can generate and download your acknowledgement. You should then include any of these acknowledgements as an appendix in your work.
