Getting Started with Generative AI at MTU
Key guidance for teaching staff on AI use, assessment, academic integrity and AI literacy.
Key guidance for teaching staff on AI use, assessment, academic integrity and AI literacy.
1.1 What is Generative AI?
- Generative AI (GenAI) produces new text, images, audio, code and video in response to a prompt. Familiar examples include Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Claude.
- It works by predicting likely continuations from patterns in very large training datasets. It does not look facts up the way a library catalogue does, so it can be fluent and wrong at the same time.
- Current tools can also search the web, read uploaded files, analyse data, and carry out multi-step tasks ("agents"). Capabilities change every few months, so this page is reviewed each semester.
Why it Matters for Teaching
Since late 2022, students have had free access to tools that can complete many traditional assessment tasks. The question for educators is no longer whether students use AI but how, and what that means for learning. In the UK, 95% of students now use AI and 94% use it for assessed work (HEPI Student GenAI Survey 2026).Definitions Used at MTU
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| AI System | The EU AI Act defines this as "a machine-based system that is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment, and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions." |
| Generative AI | Although not specifically defined in the AI Act, Generative AI is generally understood as general-purpose AI models and systems capable of generating synthetic text, images, audio and video content. |
1.2 Summary of MTU's Position
MTU's Statement of Intent on AI supports legitimate and appropriate use of AI tools when used responsibly and in line with University values, academic integrity requirements, cybersecurity guidance, and relevant legislation.
Current Position: Microsoft Copilot Chat is MTU's approved default general-purpose AI tool.
What this means for teaching staff
- Design assessments that remain valid and meaningful in the presence of AI.
- Clearly state permitted, conditional and prohibited AI uses in every assessment brief.
- Maintain a baseline level of AI literacy relevant to your teaching role.
- Tell students when AI is used to prepare teaching materials or feedback.
- Use informed academic judgement when deciding how AI should be integrated.
1.3 Five Things to Do This Semester
- Test your assessments. Put an assessment brief into an approved AI tool and review the output.
- Say what's allowed. Include an AI-use statement in every assessment brief.
- Talk about AI in week one. Explain expectations and responsible use to students.
- Build your AI literacy. Complete a professional development course such as AI Fluency for Educators .
- Protect student data. Never upload student work, personal data or grades into non-approved AI tools.
1.4 Key Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AI Literacy | Skills, knowledge and understanding needed to use AI in an informed way while recognising opportunities, risks and harms. |
| AI Fluency | Human-AI collaboration built on Delegation, Description, Discernment and Diligence. |
| Cognitive Offloading | Handing mental work to a tool. Helpful when it supports learning, problematic when it replaces important thinking processes. |
| Hallucination | Plausible but incorrect AI-generated content, including invented facts and references. |
| Large Language Model (LLM) | The technology underpinning tools such as Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. |
| Prompt | The question, instruction or request given to an AI system using text, voice or other inputs. |