Guidelines for Students

Currently, the term 'AI tools' is used to refer to a range of resources (not just ChatGPT) which have to be used appropriately and with academic integrity. Using machine learning, AI tools can produce human-like text, images, and information, and can respond to specific queries. Tools that seem to replicate the complex responses and behaviours of humans are referred to as 'generative AI'. It is important to note that using any form of AI or other computational aids in your university coursework, study, exams, or research without acknowledging that input counts as academic misconduct.

While the use of AI is generally admissible, prohibiting the use of AI in teaching contexts is generally at the discretion of the instructors. You will need critical research and thinking skills which can only be taught without the help of AI. To learn these skills, it is necessary to repeatedly work WITHOUT AI and then check your own ideas against AI-supported output. Only then will you be able to get a clearer idea about the potential and pitfalls of AI. If your lecturers want you to use AI for specific activities, they will provide guidance on what is allowed or expected, and what is not.

In order to learn more about how students actually use AI, we have devised a new and expanded form for the Declaration of Academic Integrity which is aiming at implementing an ethos of transparency, responsibility and accountability between instructors and students. The filled in and signed Declaration of Academic Integrity will have to be appended with all written work submitted for courses at the English Department. Please note, however, that all final theses (B.Ed.-, B.A.-, M.Ed.-, M.A.-theses) will have to make use of both the Anti-Plagiarism Statement provided by the Central Examinations Office (Prüfungsamt) of the Faculty of Humanities and the Declaration of Academic Integrity provided by the English Department.