Student guide to generative AI

Ask yourself what you hope to gain from using Gen AI. If you are using Gen AI to make things quicker, make sure you’re not also rushing past the deeper learning that comes from working things out for yourself.

Learning is not just about reaching or producing an outcome. Learning happens through the process of curiosity, experimentation, dialogue and reflecting along the way.This takes time, patience and effort.

Gen AI may give you different ideas and perspectives, but give yourself space to explore, question and make creative leaps on your own.

View learning as an iterative process: try, test, reflect and refine.

Remember that your mistakes and revisions are valuable; they show growth, resilience and originality.

The result is important but there is understanding, joy and reward that comes with the process of developing ideas through researching, making, testing and reflecting.

When you use Gen AI, focus on what it helps you do rather than what it produces. Use it to strengthen your skills, rather than act as a substitute for them.

Life in and after university requires you to use and develop your transferable skills as well as confidence in your own thinking, communication and problem-solving abilities.

• Practice builds confidence, adaptability and problem-solving skills that Gen AI cannot replace.
• Engaging actively in research, writing or making helps you understand how ideas form, not just what the answers are. This also helps you build the skills you’ll need for future study and creative or research careers.

Gen AI may extend your thinking in various ways, for example, by offering alternative viewpoints or clarifying material you’ve explored. It’s important to pay attention to how these suggestions are produced and how they might shape your decisions, since AI outputs reflect the data and assumptions they’re built on.

• Gen AI may help in the creative process if used purposefully and critically.
• Gen AI is more effective when you use it to support the ideas you are already exploring, rather than becoming the source of ideas.
• Gen AI may offer prompts, questions or alternative perspectives for you to explore and that might help you think more deeply.

Your work reflects your unique way of thinking, questioning and creating. Use Gen AI in ways that keep your creative intent central. Stay aware of when its suggestions shape your decisions and ensure you can clearly explain and justify the choices that make the work your own.

• Gen AI may assist but it cannot replicate your individual voice, lived experience or perspective.
• Your individuality, judgement and reflection are what makes your work meaningful.
• Understanding how your ideas develop and how Gen AI influences them is an essential part of your learning and authorship.

Make your Gen AI use clear and traceable, reflecting on how it shaped your decisions.

Using Gen AI responsibly means being conscious of its role in your work and maintaining academic integrity. Transparency helps you reflect on your process, take ownership of your ideas and avoid plagiarism.

• Adhere to unit and institutional guidelines: consult your tutors if you are unsure.
• Track your use of Gen AI: be mindful of which tools you have used, how they contributed and when your own thinking drove the work.
• Reflect on your use: consider why you used Gen AI; what it helped you achieve; and how it influenced your decisions.
• Understand plagiarism: do not present AI-generated content or others’ ideas as your own. This self-study module on Moodle from Library Services provides exercises that will help you reflect on academic integrity, including use of Gen AI. Always provide references where appropriate, following guidance such as Cite Them Right.

Be thoughtful about where and how you use Gen AI. Protect your ideas and data by using UAL-approved tools and avoid uploading sensitive or personal information.

Using Gen AI responsibly also means safeguarding your own work, respecting intellectual property (IP) rights and handling personal data in line with UK legal regulations.

• Use recommended tools: UAL-approved Gen AI tools such as Copilot, Adobe Firefly and others which have “protected status,” meaning yours and others’ work and data are not available to being interrogated by other Gen AI tools or incorporated into their training data.
• Protect your data: avoid submitting personal or proprietary information to mainstream Gen AI tools that could use it for training purposes.
• Consider more ethical alternatives: if using non-UAL approved Gen AI platforms, consider open-source, local or offline tools that may allow you greater control over your data and creative outputs.
• Review the terms and conditions: they may help you understand how data is handled.

Decide purposefully when to use GenAI and when to work without it. Choosing not to rely on Gen AI can be a powerful way to strengthen your skills, creativity and critical thinking. Even when Gen AI is available or expected, resisting its use in some contexts may help you engage more deeply with your ideas and process. This can help ensure that your learning, creativity and critical thinking remain central to your work.

• Be intentional: consider why you might choose to resist Gen AI in a task or stage of your work. Are there skills you want to develop, perspectives you want to explore or creative decisions you want to take?
• Reflect on alternatives: think about how doing the work independently of Gen AI can enhance your understanding, experimentation or originality.
• Consider your personal values: resisting Gen AI can be a choice grounded in ethical considerations, such as avoiding bias, environmental impact or over-reliance on automated outputs.