How and when you can use AI in your studies, Canvas course for inspiration, Copilot, guidelines for exams, cheating and challenges with AI.

AI at the University

Copilot and other AI tools can be useful in your everyday life and studies, but they need to be used responsibly. AI tools are not a substitute for attending lectures, reading course literature or taking exams. If you want to use AI, you should do so according to your teacher’s instructions and be open about when and how you have used AI. As a student, you always have a responsibility to keep yourself informed about the rules that apply.

Canvas course in using AI

Malmö University has created the open course “Your studies and AI” to help and inspire you. You will learn not only academic skills such as reading, writing and information retrieval, but also new qualifications such as a basic understanding of AI, prompting, academic integrity and ethics in relation to generative AI.

Your studies and AI (Canvas)

Copilot: The AI tool for Malmö University

There are a number of AI tools that you can use but they differ in terms of quality, reliability and how they use your submitted data. During your studies at Malmö University, you will have access to Microsoft Copilot. Copilot can, for example, summarise documents, give suggestions about which bike to buy or create images based on your instructions. You can find more tips on how to use Copilot on the Software and web services page.

When you log in to Copilot, you can be sure that no personal data is being stored and that you are not in breach of the EU Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If you use other AI tools, you need to be careful about the information you submit. Find out more about the GDPR on the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (IMY) website.

Using AI

While studying a course

AI often works well for brainstorming, structuring your thoughts or explaining something in a simplified way. In other words, AI is allowed when used as an aid. Using AI to generate a text does not usually come under this definition, but it depends on what you have been instructed to do.

You are usually allowed to use AI to

  • create exercises or quizzes based on the course content
  • ask for feedback on your own text
  • ask for examples to help you understand the course content on a deeper level

As a student, you are allowed to use AI for many things, but you are always responsible for learning what your courses are aiming to teach you. If you are unsure about how to use AI, you can always ask your teacher. It may also be possible to get guidance from your student union. If your course is about AI, the teacher will inform you how you are supposed to use AI tools.

While sitting an exam

Assignments that are assessed (constitute an examination) will be specified in the syllabus of each course. These can take the form of a sit-in exam, a take-home paper or an oral presentation.

You must always follow the instructions for the exam. Remember that just because something is not specifically mentioned in the instructions does not mean it is automatically allowed. For example, you are not allowed to let someone else write your take-home exam even if this is not normally mentioned in the instructions. 

The Higher Education Act states that you must complete your examination assignments independently (Chapter 1, Section 8, second paragraph). This means that AI may not be used unless this is explicitly stated in the examination instructions. The requirement to independently demonstrate your knowledge and skills has not changed with the arrival of AI.

Your examiner must state what use of AI is permitted when you are given an assessed assignment. If the instructions are not clear enough for you, you should ask the examiner what the rules are.

Legally secure examinations and the use of generative AI (PDF)

AI and cheating

Always follow the teacher’s instructions, both written and oral. If you are unsure about what is allowed, ask your teacher. If you cheat on an examination, for example by using AI in a way that is not permitted, the examiner is obliged to report you to the Disciplinary Board.

Challenges with AI

Biased answers

AI tools have been trained on a very large amount of data, but we don’t know what that data is. This means that you can sometimes get biased answers, or simple answers to complex questions, if the tool has been trained on sources that are not objective, i.e. representing a certain ideology or coming from a small sample of countries. You must always be critical of the answers you get from AI and check them against other sources.

Copyright

The data on which the AI is trained also includes copyrighted works where the author is unlikely to have consented to its use in this way. It may therefore be unethical to use AI.

Energy use

Training and using AI, as well as storing data, requires a lot of energy. AI is not always the most appropriate tool. For example, you can use the spell checker in Word instead of asking Copilot about spelling. Also, keep in mind that text-based interactions require significantly less energy than generating images, animations or videos.

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