University guidance on academic integrity in relation to the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT.
Generative AI – case studies from Bath

University guidance on academic integrity in relation to the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT.
University guidance on academic integrity in relation to the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT.
High-level information, guidance and resources to support our understanding and usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT.
In order to help tackle some problems with plagiarism on a postgraduate programme in the School of Management, an early essay was introduced. This case study from Dr Bruce Rayton provides the background, information on the essay, and the results and advice.
There were a surprising number of similar plagiarism cases from the MSc students, with ‘explanations’ along the lines of:
“I didn’t know …”
“I did exactly what I did on my first degree.”
“I passed the Academic Integrity Test at 92%, but ….”
Taught postgraduate (PGT) students in the School come with a good first degree from a good university. However, there is a huge variety in their first degree subject and backgrounds. Approximately 80 percent pay overseas fees, and even though some of these students arrive from UK universities, there is a vast range of national educational backgrounds represented on these degrees. Because of the design of these postgraduate programme, students only have two taught semesters in Bath. There is no ‘pass/fail first year’ during which students can learn our ways: all marks count towards the eventual classification of the degree.
A short academic essay was introduced for the very beginning of the academic year. The 750 word essay is due in week 2 and is submitted online. Here is an excerpt from the instructions to provide some detail:
The Managerial Challenge Essay has been designed to identify gaps in your academic writing skills and/or understanding of how to apply those skills within this university’s expectations regarding academic integrity. A key aim is to give you the earliest possible feedback on your academic writing skills, which will cover a range of areas, but demonstrated mastery of reference technique will be essential to the award of credit for this task.
Identify an important managerial challenge facing organizations today and indicate one academic theory that can help organizations as they attempt to meet this challenge. Support your reasoning with reference to at least two articles listed within the Scopus database.
Feedback was provided with the following:
The essay was introduced in 2015 and the following figure illustrates a 52 percent the decline in the cases of plagiarism (per 100 students) in the 2015/6 cohort relative to the previous year:
From experience over two years of this essay, the following challenges have been identified:
However there are also several opportunities to consider further for the future:
Flipping is a useful case study to use to consider how we may teach the same course, content, and outcomes in a different way. It won’t work for everything, but it raises some useful questions for thinking about your course. This is an introductory briefing about the idea and some considerations for both staff and students.
This is the first of two posts shared to introduce some of the background and theoretical ideas to consider regarding the transition to university mathematics, as well as provide an insight and links to some of the literature and scholarship in this area.
This post focuses on the transition and the specific problems and issues frequently noted for mathematics. The second post discusses some aspects/models of advanced mathematics at university which are particularly relevant to these issues.
This is the second of two posts introducing some of the background ideas to consider when looking at the transition to university mathematics. The first post focused on the transition and the specific problems and issues frequently noted for mathematics. This post discusses some aspects/models of advanced mathematics at university which are particularly relevant to these issues.
Collected below are suggested example sources for ideas from the scholarship of learning and teaching. These are not the only sources, but some places to start that might be useful. Included are examples from different types of resources – textbooks, websites, tips/tricks, journals.
Motivation may be a major factor in the approach taken to learning by students. Changing attitudes within the student body, increasing diversity amongst the student population, widening participation, outreach work, fees, and national policy and debates may all mean that the motivations observed by staff shift over time and context. The study of motivation in education (at all levels) is a large field and so presented here is a short summary of some categorisations regarding student motivation from the literature, along with an example question that we can ask about our own students to help understand their differing motivations better.
Dr John Chew from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Bath discusses his preparation for the first lecture of a course and the importance of revision to making good first impressions.