Publication of school AI policy

The school has developed an AI policy, which has recently been published and can be accessed on the school’s policy website page. This policy sits alongside the department’s Generative Artificial Intelligence policy.  

The development of the school policy has been led by Mr Nathaniel Smith. Mr Smith has worked with teachers and students to develop a range of resources to address the changes resulting from new and increasingly accessible generative artificial intelligence technologies. 

Three challenges that the school is addressing in its work with staff and students are: 

• Student self-regulation and the use of generative AI to support learning 

• Academic integrity and assessment 

• Privacy and information security. 

Generative AI can provide many productivity benefits, creating content quickly based on a set of requirements. However, this productivity also provides opportunities for students to take shortcuts with learning activities. There are no shortcuts to learning, so self-regulation is needed from students to make good choices, understanding that taking shortcuts with learning activities does not lead to learning taking place. It is the expertise developed from authentic learning that allows students to reliably check the output of generative AI tools, which can produce incorrect and misleading content at times. 

Academic integrity is an important value in scholarship and of critical importance for VCE assessment. The school is working with teachers on strengthening their understanding of the potential of generative AI tools and how assessment tasks can be designed to reduce the risk of academic misconduct by students. 

The department has strict guidelines that relate to privacy and information security when using all software platforms, including generative AI tools. Schools are directed not to upload any personally identifiable information to generative AI tools, including student details or photographs.