- Faculty/module/cohort: Levels 4 – 6 Fashion, Textiles & Footwear – Used across studio modules and all project-based learning
- AI Tool(s) Used: Student-selected AI and digital tools documented throughout the creative process.
- AI mode(s) used: Reflective documentation, text-based recording, critical reflection and process documentation.
What was the challenge?
One of the questions I kept returning to was how we encourage students to be open about their use of AI rather than feeling they need to justify or hide it. As AI becomes part of everyday creative practice, conversations around authorship, originality and academic integrity become more complex. Rather than focusing on whether students had used AI, I wanted to shift the emphasis towards why they chose particular tools, how those tools influenced their thinking, and what they learned through the process. The challenge wasn’t simply documenting AI use, it was encouraging students to become more reflective, transparent and confident in explaining their creative decisions.
What did you do?
I introduced a Digital Tools Logbook for students to complete throughout their projects. Rather than acting as a checklist of AI use, the logbook became a reflective record of students’ creative journeys. Students documented which digital tools they had used, why they chose them, how they influenced their thinking, and how those ideas developed through sketchbooks, studio experimentation and making. The emphasis was on reflection rather than compliance; students weren’t expected to justify every interaction with AI and digital tools. Instead, they were encouraged to think critically about where digital tools genuinely added value, where they were less helpful, and how their own judgement shaped the final outcome. The logbook also became a useful starting point for both group and one-to-one tutorial discussions, helping students articulate their creative process and making conversations around AI more open and constructive.
Multimodal use
Although the logbook itself was text-based, it captured a much wider creative process. Students documented interactions with AI-generated imagery, written prompts, concept research and brainstorming, visual exploration and experimentation, sketchbook development, studio practice and physical making. Reflection became the thread connecting these different modes of working. Rather than treating AI as a separate stage, the logbook helped students recognise how digital and physical processes informed one another throughout a project.
What did this look like in practice?
Students completed the logbook as their projects progressed and developed rather than retrospectively at the end. Entries typically recorded which digital tools had been used, why they had been selected, what students found useful or limiting, and how ideas had changed through experimentation. Those reflections often became valuable prompts during tutorials, shifting discussions away from Did you use AI? towards questions such as Why did you make that decision? What did this tool contribute? and How did your thinking develop? Interestingly, students often became more critical of the technology as they documented their experiences, many students reflected on repetitive outputs, unexpected results or occasions where traditional approaches proved more valuable.
What was the impact?
What surprised me most was how quickly the logbook changed the nature of conversations around AI. Rather than focusing on detection or disclosure, discussions became centred on reflection, creative judgement and decision-making. Students appeared more comfortable talking openly about their use of AI because the emphasis shifted from whether they had used it to how they had used it and what they had learned. The logbook also encouraged students to articulate their own creative process more clearly. As they documented decisions over time, they became better able to explain the relationship between digital exploration, studio practice and final outcomes. Perhaps most importantly, it helped position transparency as a normal part of creative practice rather than something associated with suspicion or misconduct.
Ethical or practical considerations
The logbook was designed to encourage openness rather than surveillance. Students were reassured that the purpose was not to monitor or judge their use of AI, but to support reflection and professional practice. This distinction proved important in creating an environment where students felt comfortable discussing both successful and unsuccessful experiences. The activity also opened some wider conversations around authorship, originality, transparency, bias and responsible use of emerging technologies. Rather than treating these as separate ethical topics, they became embedded within students’ everyday design decisions.
Reflections and Advice
What worked well?
Keeping the logbook simple, made the biggest difference, students were much more willing to engage when it felt like a reflective tool rather than an assessment requirement. I also found that the logbook strengthened tutorial conversations. Students arrived better prepared to discuss their creative decisions because they had already spent time reflecting on the process.
What would I refine?
I would like to develop the logbook further by encouraging students to include more visual evidence alongside their written reflections, such as screenshots, sketches or examples showing how their creative concepts and ideas evolved over time. I’m also interested in exploring how students might use the logbook to reflect on a wider range of digital tools beyond AI, recognising that creative practice increasingly involves multiple technologies working together.
What advice would I give colleagues?
Keep the focus on reflection rather than recording every detail. The value of the logbook comes from encouraging students to think critically about their decisions rather than documenting every interaction with technology. It works best when it becomes part of regular tutorial conversations rather than something completed at the end of a project. Frame it as a tool for professional practice, learning to explain why particular tools were used, and how they influenced creative thinking, is a valuable skill that extends well beyond university.
Any further reflections?
Developing the Digital Tools Logbook has reinforced something I keep coming back to throughout my teaching: transparency and reflection are far more valuable than attempting to separate AI work from human work. Creative practice has always involved a range of influences, tools and processes, AI is simply another part of that landscape. Helping students develop the confidence to explain their decisions, acknowledge their influences and reflect critically on their process feels much more valuable than focusing solely on the technology itself. Ultimately, I hope the logbook encourages students to see AI not as something to declare at the end of a project, but as something to think critically about throughout it.
Quick Start Guide for Colleagues
Estimated time to set up: Low. The logbook can be introduced as part of existing studio tutorials or project documentation.
Digital skill level required: Low.
Common pitfalls to avoid:
- Treating the logbook as a monitoring tool rather than a reflective resource.
- Asking students to record every AI interaction instead of encouraging meaningful reflection.
- Restricting discussion to AI rather than considering the wider creative workflow.
- Leaving reflection until the end of a project instead of encouraging ongoing documentation.
Best suited for:
Studio practice, project-based learning, creative research, professional practice modules and any discipline seeking to encourage ethical, reflective and transparent use of AI and digital technologies
