This is the first in a series of blogs about preparing for Spring 2025, with parts 1 and 2 having a particular emphasis on Generative AI in the educational landscape. They are supported by the weekly GenAI drop-in on Tuesdays 11-11.45am – register through the event pages at the end of this blog post.
The ubiquity of GenAI tools means that we need to prioritise preparing our students to engage critically and ethically with GenAI. While the expectation remains that students will always present their own work for assessment, there are numerous ways that students can engage ethically with GenAI in an assessment context that do not necessarily contravene the academic integrity principles:
- Create something original
- Credit others
- Collaborate with care
It’s also important for you to be comfortable understanding, applying and communicating about GenAI. The Education Portfolio has developed a new self-paced online course to guide you through reviewing your assessments with GenAI in mind. The Assessment in the Age of GenAI Canvas course will assist you to think about assessment security at a subject-level. This is a companion piece to the Introduction to GenAI in Learning and Teaching course that was launched in Autumn 2025.
Preparing your subject
Students will need clarity on how and when GenAI can be used in a subject, particularly for assessments.
- Develop a plan for talking to your students about GenAI and introduce your expectations around GenAI in your Canvas site and during your first class.
- Specify acceptable GenAI uses (e.g. editing, brainstorming, initial drafts) and emphasise the importance of proper attribution and academic integrity. Access the UTS Academic Integrity site for useful resources including Canvas Commons templates.
- Once you’ve opened a discussion about GenAI use in your subject(s), look for opportunities for students to engage critically and ethically with GenAI tools. Student interaction with GenAI can be scaffolded through activities such as using GenAI to brainstorm, assigning GenAI a role to engage in role play and dialogue, or engaging GenAI as a critical friend to provide feedback on draft writing or code.
At UTS, all staff and students have access to Microsoft Copilot, a GenAI tool that is secure and accessed via your UTS credentials. When requiring students to use GenAI tools, remember to direct them to use UTS’s Copilot environment for security.
5 questions about GenAI at UTS
1. Can I ban the use of GenAI across a whole subject?
No. Students must have the opportunity to engage with GenAI within clear parameters. Students need clear guidelines about where and when they can use GenAI in each subject. For example, can they use it for editing work, generating ideas or other tasks? If GenAI needs to be banned in a specific assessment to support student learning, a secure assessment strategy should be used.
2. What makes an assessment secure?
A secure assessment is one that gives you confidence that a student is demonstrating their own understanding, skills, and knowledge. In general, assessments that involve real-time interaction are more secure than other assessment types such as written submissions. Vivas or oral assessments, presentations, OSCEs or practicums with real-time interactive components are more secure because they provide opportunities to probe students’ knowledge, skills and understanding. These strategies need to be designed with both staff and student workloads, as well as student accessibility, in mind. It is not necessary nor desirable to convert all assessments into more secure assessment types. We will explore this further in the next blog in this series.
3. Do I have to incorporate GenAI into my assessments?
No. Any use of GenAI in an assessment should be appropriate to the subject and discipline and is at the discretion of the Subject Coordinator.
4. Do I have to re-design my whole subject to accommodate GenAI?
No. You don’t have to change everything all at once. Small-scale incremental steps in the right direction each session is a good goal.
5. Where can I find more information?
You can find a wealth of information and support about GenAI in learning and teaching on the Education Portfolio Hub site. There is also a GenAI Special Interest Group (SIG) where staff can drop in weekly to talk about GenAI. Join us at the next online meet-up: