AI Tools at BCU: Student Guidelines

As explained, ‘Academic integrity’ is the attitude of approaching your academic work honestly by submitting your own original assignment. As nearly all assignments will require you to conduct independent research and paraphrase this information in your own words, only very limited use of AI tools is permitted (see examples in FAQs, below).

On occasion an assignment may require or allow the use of AI; in these cases this will be made very clear in the instructions.

Please contact your module leader with any questions about your assessments.

If you are in receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA) because you have a disability or specific learning difficulty (such as dyslexia) and you have been awarded the use of a generative AI writing assistive tool as part of your Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) package, you ARE allowed to use this in completing your assessments. Please see Q4 and Q5 for further information.

While AI tools can be helpful in assisting learning, when it comes to assessment, the University Academic Misconduct Procedure is clear that this should be a student’s own original work, and not the work of other people or AI tools.

The unauthorised and unaccredited usage of these types of tools to write or create assessed work constitutes academic misconduct (also called cheating), and there are severe penalties for students who are found to have committed academic misconduct.

BCU has access to AI detection software to help detect the use of AI in assignments, in a similar way to the plagiarism detection tool that we use.

If it is suspected that an AI tool has been used inappropriately in assessed work, you may be invited to a conversation with the marker to discuss your work (please see Q11 for further information).

Then, under the University Academic Misconduct Procedure, your work may be referred to Student Governance, with the mark potentially reduced to reflect the proportion of work that is your own.

Q1: I’ve heard of ChatGPT. But what does ‘generative AI’ mean?
Q2: Can I use a generative AI tool (like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Copilot) to write an assignment for me?
Q3: Can I use a generative AI tool (like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Copilot) as a planning and research tool to help with my assignment?
Q4: Can I use a generative AI writing tool to help me write e.g Grammarly, Wordtune, Paperpal?
Q5: I am allowed a generative AI writing tool (e.g. the Premium version of Grammarly) in my DSA package – how will the tutors marking my assignments know?  
Q6: Surely allowing students in receipt of a DSA to use a generative AI writing tool for their assessments amounts to giving them an advantage over students who do not have this permission?  
Q7: Can I use a paraphrasing tool like QuillBot to help me paraphrase a source text such as a journal article or textbook?
Q8: Where can I get support with my academic writing?
Q9: How can I safely use an AI tool?
Q10: What’s the difference between the Turnitin Similarity score and the AI score?
Q11: Can I see the Turnitin AI score?
Q12: Might I be asked to a meeting with the marker about my assignment submission?
Q13: Can I use AI to translate from my first language into English? 
Q14: Can I use an AI tool to write code or a computer program for an assignment?
Q15: Can I use an AI tool to write an assessed presentation for me?
Q16: Can I use an AI tool to help me with revision?
Q17: Can I use an AI tool in an exam?
Q18: Can I use an AI tool to generate media outputs (videos, images, audio etc.) for an assignment?

Generative AI (often shortened to GenAI) came into the mainstream with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. Generative AI creates new data such as new text or images from a user prompt (e.g. ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Copilot, DALL-E, Midjourney). Unless stated in your assignment brief, you are not permitted to use generative AI tools for assessed work.

Unless your tutor and assignment brief specifically permit the use of AI to write your assignment, this is not permitted by the University Academic Misconduct Procedure. Your assignment is expected to be your own original work, not produced by someone else or an AI tool. Use of generative AI to write assignments will be flagged by Turnitin’s AI detection tool and likely to be considered academic misconduct.

If you ARE permitted to use a generative AI tool for your assignment as stated in the assignment brief, you must reference this within your work. For example, the citation should appear as (OpenAI, 2024) or OpenAI (2024) with the reference in the format: AI tool provider (Year) AI tool. Please see the library’s AI referencing guidelines. For advice on the use of media outputs (videos, images, audio etc.), see Q18.

Yes, you can use an AI tool in the preliminary stages of your assignment process, for instance to brainstorm, as well as planning/researching to identify relevant sources. There is evidence that models such as ChatGPT are really useful in this respect and there is no need to cite the AI tool. Beyond the AI tool’s suggestions, you must then do your own reading in academic sources, as per usual practice. The sources you cite in your work will be the academic journal articles, books, professional papers etc. that you directly consulted to write your work. Unless permitted (see Q2, above), it would not be appropriate academic practice to cite an AI tool as your source of information, as it may be unreliable.

Before using an AI tool to help you research or plan, consider the potential limitations. For example, tools like ChatGPT can hallucinate by making up facts and inventing sources that simply do not exist. Therefore, you must do your own research to independently verify/substantiate AI content. Secondly, AI models can excessively focus on datasets, which can create evident bias towards a particular viewpoint, such as a one-sided political perspective. While AI tools may be helpful for brainstorming and planning, it is your responsibility to engage critically with appropriate academic sources (such as journal articles, books, trustworthy websites) located via the library search (www.bcu.ac.uk/library). This is necessary to evidence your wider reading and gain higher marks in your assignments. 
 

Generative AI tools that 1) create sentences, 2) predict sentences, or 3) substantively rewrite your sentences (such as Grammarly's Generative AI assistance, Wordtune, Paperpal etc.), are not permitted*. This is because their use can make it difficult for your marker to know how well you have understood the content for yourself.  Tools that write or rewrite sentences for you are also likely to be flagged by the AI detection tool and lead to a high AI score.

Therefore, it is much better to do your best in writing in your own ‘voice’ in order to demonstrate your understanding of the ideas and sources you are presenting. Do not worry about writing in ‘perfect’ academic English. Please use the Centre for Academic Success’s support (workshops, tutorials, online resources) to develop your academic writing skills.
However, to help you, Microsoft Word’s Spelling & Grammar Check and Grammarly’s basic ‘correctness’ suggestions (spelling, grammar and punctuation, shown in red underlining) do not significantly alter the content of your ideas. Therefore, you can use these to help you revise your assignments in terms of spelling, punctuation and grammar – you are not required to include an in-text citation for this.

However, do not click on Grammarly’s Generative AI ‘lightbulb’ button pictured below. This feature will rewrite your work, Grammarly’s Generative AI is not permitted*.

Examples of what is or is not permitted

Original human sentence with some mistakes

The writing tool underlined spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes in the original text below:

Many scholar say globalisation often defined as process through what countries become more links in terms of there economies, cultures, and population.

Allowed: Minor corrections for grammar, spelling or punctuation

The writing tool corrections are highlighted in bold and underlined in green below:

Many scholars say globalisation is often defined as the process through which countries become more linked in terms of their economies, cultures, and populations.

Not allowed: Major (re)writing of your sentences by Generative AI tools

The AI writing tools made significant changes highlighted in bold below:

Globalization is frequently characterized as the phenomenon in which nations become increasingly interconnected in terms of their economies, cultures, and demographics.

Such changes made by an AI writing tool are not allowed and will likely be detected by the AI detector.

Here is an example of Generative AI features in Grammarly:

*Please note that if you are in receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) and your package of support includes generative AI writing tools, such as Grammarly's Generative AI assistance, you ARE allowed to use such tools to help you enhance your own work (i.e. to help you improve your own sentences/paragraphs). However, you must not use AI tools to create brand-new content ‘from scratch’ and copy-and-paste into your assignment. Your work must be your own, and we strongly recommend keeping drafts of the different stages of your work.

There should be a note on your Disability Support Summary (DSS) saying that you are allowed to use a generative AI writing tool e.g. the Premium version of Grammarly. Please check your DSS which you can find on mySRS. If you can’t find your DSS or you find it but it does not mention Grammarly, please email the Student Inclusion Team at disability@bcu.ac.uk.

Your assignment cover sheet may also have a place on it where you can indicate that you are allowed to use a generative AI writing tool. Please note, if you have indicated this, staff marking your assignments will be able to check this with the Student Inclusion Team. Falsely claiming that you are permitted to use such a tool may amount to academic misconduct.  
 

Students in receipt of a DSA who have been given permission to use a generative AI writing tool are given this by their funding body (not the University) to reduce the disadvantage they start out with in their studies because of their disability or specific learning difficulty (such as dyslexia). Allowing disabled students to use such tools is a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010.

If you think you might be entitled to apply for Disabled Students’ Allowance and would like to find out more, please email the Student Inclusion Team disability@bcu.ac.uk.
 

We do not recommend dependence on paraphrasing tools like QuillBot, as they can change or distort the original meaning of the text and are likely to be picked up by the Turnitin AI detector. Excessive use of paraphrasing tools does not demonstrate your own understanding of the source material or your academic writing ability.

Students must not use AI writing assistants (such as QuillBot) to paraphrase content that was created by generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. This would likely be detected by the AI detection tool.
 

To be a successful student and academic writer, we strongly recommend that you work on your academic writing skills (paraphrasing, referencing, academic language use, critical thinking etc.). Make use of the Centre for Academic Success’s support (workshops, one-to-one tutorials and online resources) or for HELS students, the Academic Development Department (ADD).

Please note that as both services are developmental, you should not view them as a proofreading service. Remember that for proofreading, you can use Grammarly’s basic ‘correctness suggestions’ to help you revise your spelling, punctuation and grammar (see Q4 answer, above).

We all need to abide by BCU IT’s guidance.

Most importantly we should not:

• Use our BCU account to sign up for AI tools (instead use a ‘throwaway’ personal account)
• Include any personal or identifying data (e.g. names or details of real people) 
• Upload the work of others
• Use apps that record people’s voices, faces, names, or comments when we do not have their permission (e.g. fireflies, otterai, read.ai etc. for online classes or meetings)
   

Turnitin’s Similarity check compares an assignment submission with other sources (such as journal articles, books, websites etc.) and highlights any places in the assignment where there are matches. This may be due to legitimate use, for example, of a “direct quotation” followed by a citation.

However, sometimes matches occur because the text has been directly copied, or poorly paraphrased from the original source. In which case, the student needs to paraphrase more carefully into their own words and cite the original source of information. Students can use the practice Turnitin Similarity submission link available on Moodle (under the <Student Help> tab) to help in this process. In contrast, the Turnitin AI score creates a separate report that indicates the percentage of a submission that was potentially created by AI.

No, Turnitin have not permitted students to see the AI score; only your tutor can see this. We understand this may make you nervous, but, as this may compromise the security of your work and potentially your Turnitin Similarity and AI scores, it is BCU policy that students do not upload work to third-party, external AI detectors.

The best solution is to develop your own paraphrasing, referencing and academic writing skills (please make use of the Centre for Academic Success’s support).

Yes, it is possible that your marker may wish to speak to you about aspects of your assignment submission. Most likely, all they want to know how your main ideas developed as you wrote your assignment and the research you did to find your sources. For this reason, you are strongly advised to save multiple drafts of your work, including a clear record of any use of AI. Then, if you are invited to a meeting with the marker, you can easily and confidently explain this process to them.  If you have done your own reading, research, planning and writing, you will have nothing to worry about, so please don’t feel nervous.

While you can of course use a dictionary and thesaurus to help you with words and phrases, translation of an entire piece of work from another language into English is not permitted. Firstly, translation into English can change the content of the ideas. Secondly, BCU accepts students onto courses on the understanding that students’ own language skills are strong enough to write and communicate effectively in English. However, remember that you are welcome to use the Grammarly’s free ‘correctness’ suggestions to help you check your spelling, grammar and punctuation (see Q4 above), and make use of the Centre for Academic Success’s workshops and tutorials.

No, you should not use an AI tool to produce code or programs that form part of an assessed piece of work, unless clearly stated in the assessment brief. A programming or coding assignment is required to be your own original work to demonstrate your understanding and expertise in whichever programming language you are using.

While you may want to use an AI tool in the planning and brainstorming part of your research, we would expect your assessment to be your own work, for which you understand the content and thus can explain and respond to questions.

Yes, AI tools can be helpful in finding and summarising information on most subject areas. They are also useful for creating quizzes to help test your own knowledge. However, due to the hallucinations (errors) AI tools can make, ensure you thoroughly check that the information is correct when you revise.

No, unless specifically stated, you may not use AI tools to write or help create exam answers. This would be a breach of the University Academic Misconduct Procedure as exam questions are intended to assess your knowledge, understanding, communication skills and critical thinking skills.

You should make sure that exam answers are your own original work.

To ensure that exams are fair, we use screensharing and webcams during exams to observe whether students are using alternative devices to communicate with others or accessing other sites.

This depends on the nature of the assignment. If your assignment brief explicitly permits use of AI tools, then they are allowed. If the assignment brief does not mention use of AI tools, you should assume that you may not use AI for the assessment task. Please clarify any doubts with your tutor.

Any use of AI must be referenced using the following formats:

In-text: (AI tool provider, year)

e.g. (OpenAI, 2024) or OpenAI (2024).

In reference list: AI tool provider (Year) AI tool. Response to prompt made by your name, date, time.
e.g. OpenAI (2024) DALL-E. Response to prompt made by Isabel Gupta, 4 May 2024.

Please see the library’s generative AI referencing guidelines for further information.