The use of AI in studies, Detailed guidelines of the Department of Language and Communication Studies
Table of contents
Basic principles
There are two distinct phases in the process of writing a coursework assignment while utilizing the help of AI: the brainstorming phase and the writing phase.
1. The use of AI is allowed in a wide range of ways in the pre-writing phase, for example to brainstorm research questions or interview questions, to define the topic and to find related concepts.
2. Students are responsible for the style and accuracy of their work and the text must be written by them. However, students may use AI and translation software to improve the language of their assignments, for example in the following ways:
- Students may use AI-based tools in a dictionary-like manner.
- Students can use AI to translate individual sentences.
- Students can use AI to translate examples of data in a thesis.
- Students can use machine translation to translate their research instrument and research consent form into the language of the thesis.
- Students may use available AI-based software to proofread the text they have written.
3. Any other use of AI should be discussed and agreed with the teacher.
4. The AI-generated text should be referenced according to the reference guidelines used in the thesis.
Reporting on the use of AI
The use of AI must always be addressed at the beginning of a larger assignment/coursework/thesis or, in the case of a thesis, in a separate AI appendix. For each assignment, for example the following will be stated:
-
“No AI has been used in this assignment” OR
- “In this assignment, AI has been used in the following way: ...”. Please report the tool used and the purpose of use in as much detail as possible. In the case of a longer text, distinguish how the AI was used in the different phases of the work (e.g. introduction, literature review, conclusions...). Accurate reporting also protects the author if, for example, review tools suspect academic misconduct. For reporting purposes, you can use the table below, for example:
| Tool used | For what was the tool used | Prompt used |
|---|---|---|
| E.g. Microsoft Copilot, DeepL, etc. |
For example:
“AI was used to improve the original text (language maintenance) by feeding fragments of the text to AI.” “AI was asked to think about possible research questions related to the topic.” “AI was used to find sources or to summarise key ideas from sources.” “AI was used to generate images for a PowerPoint presentation.” “AI was used to combine findings from the following articles.” “AI was asked to provide feedback on their own text.” Be as clear and transparent as possible when describing the use of AI! |
E.g. “Translate the following text” “Shorten the following text” “Tell me what are the main findings of the given text” |