The purpose of this academic policy is to provide guidelines on the use of AI in completing WQU course assignments. The University recognizes and embraces the potential of generative AI to aid student learning. However, it is critical that students be aware of AI’s inherent limitations and use it in ways that honestly support their learning journey.
The field of AI is moving quickly, and the University’s policies will evolve and adapt as the technology changes. For this reason, students should regularly check for updated policies that capture these changes.
AI Limitations
Students must be aware of the following:
AI does not use authoritative references as input (i.e. textbooks, peer-reviewed articles). Rather, the input data is taken from Internet sources of various quality, ranging from news articles and refereed journals to unverified and incorrect blog posts. The result is that it is not possible for the end user to cite the specific article from which the AI sourced the information. Students must be very familiar with the topic to be able to evaluate if the AI response is correct, and to effectively select the relevant text by applying their knowledge and critical thinking skills.
To emphasize: AI itself is not capable of assessing whether the responses produced are factually or materially correct. Over time, the accuracy of queries is likely to improve, but solely relying on the “truth” of the AI output without consulting other sources is misleading and not academically acceptable.
Requirements for the Use of AI
Unless different rules are specified in the Group Work Project assignment, students must abide by the following requirements for the use of AI when completing reports:
Students are not permitted to copy and paste text exactly as is. This is considered plagiarism, which is a violation of the Academic Integrity Policy, and will be treated as such. Rather, students must evaluate the information retrieved for accuracy, and only use that information that is pertinent to the question asked in an assignment as the basis for their own response.
Students must include in-text citations to clearly identify where AI has been used as the basis of one’s own reasoning. Using AI without proper citation is considered plagiarism.
In-text citations are mandatory for any reference used to support students’ work, the full reference must appear at the end of the report.
Students must add a footnote explaining the advantage of using AI - (creating an outline? Needing less time to collect information and to evaluate it for accuracy as compared to using bibliographical research?).
The purpose of AI is to assist in identifying and summarizing information. Critical analysis, reflection, interpretation, and application are the career skills being built in these assignments, and these simply cannot be developed by relying on AI.
Students must follow the report length requirements as specified in the GWP submission requirements.
Revised June 2023