AI @ UWE Bristol
The use of AI will vary across departments and disciplines, and even among teaching staff within the same programme. Some colleagues may find AI tools particularly helpful in certain contexts, while others may choose not to use them due to ethical concerns or pedagogical preferences. Whatever your situation, you will have opportunities to engage with AI tools in your teaching practice at the University.
With so many AI platforms available and constant claims about which is “best,” it’s easy to feel like you’re falling behind. You don’t need to chase every new tool.
At UWE Bristol, we focus on five key considerations when thinking about AI use in teaching:
As well as desired outputs, you will need to consider your approach to the associated ethical implications of using a tool. This may be environmental, the data used to train its models or the political and business practices of the company that owns it.
The expectation is that you approach these technologies with an agreed approach across your team – whether that is your programme or other work team. You do not want to be approaching or disengaging from these systems in isolation. Conversations about this technology are live and constantly developing. We need to be responsive to input and guidance from our students, colleagues, departments, schools, colleges, professional services and business teams.
Teaching teams will want to consider the specific demands and contexts of their cohort, as well as market expectations and ethical issues particular to their sector. While this will mean engaging with debates beyond the University, and taking guidance elsewhere, there are a number of key messages and points that all staff will need to adhere too that might be particular to this institution.
For most teaching activities at the University, Microsoft Copilot will be your go-to AI tool. Here’s why:
Data protection: Student work and your materials stay secure and private, meeting UK data protection standards.
Premium access for everyone: All staff and students have full access to Copilot’s advanced features at no additional cost.
Respect for content: When you work with student work, colleagues’ materials or other people’s content, it won’t be used to train models or have aspects of it potentially shared with others.
Consistency: Everyone across the University uses the same tool, making it easier to share pedagogical approaches and get support from colleagues.
While Copilot is our default, we recognise that different tasks associated with teaching might benefit from different tools. The key is to think about what you’re trying to achieve and what information you’re working with.
Ask yourself: What am I trying to do? What information am I using? Who might be affected by my choice of tool?
Here are some of the tasks you are likely to engage in during your teaching:
If you’re creating new teaching resources and not inputting student work or personal data, you have plenty of flexibility. You might use various AI tools to generate different approaches or find the one that explains concepts in a way that works for your students.
When you’re developing new teaching approaches or designing assessments without using sensitive information, a wide range of tools can be useful for inspiration and ideation.
There’s lots of scope to use various image generation tools for teaching materials, but it’s worth knowing the ethical differences. Adobe’s AI tools only use Adobe Stock images, meaning there’s a contractual relationship with the original creators who in theory have been compensated for their work. Other tools like ChatGPT or Midjourney train their models on other people’s creative work without acknowledgement, reward, or recognition to those artists.
Working with student work or sensitive content
If you’re using student submissions, personal information, or colleagues’ materials (such as essays, assessments, or research), you must use our Microsoft Copilot chatbot. This is the only tool that meets our data protection requirements and ensures that content isn’t used to train models or potentially shared with others.
You must never submit student work to third-party tools without their consent.
The task-based approach empowers you to make informed decisions about AI tools in your teaching practice. Consider the context, think about the implications of your choice for your students and colleagues, and when in doubt, Microsoft Copilot is always a safe, powerful and capable option.
Many staff and students will want to create their own AI tools. When wanting to use them in a university-setting, there are key considerations and rules that need to be considered.
It’s good practice to engage to engage with IT Services, learning and teaching teams and key professional services departments before starting out to develop tools that engage staff or students – or use their work.
Concerns around intellectual property, data protection, potential harms, third-party tools, sustainability, pedagogical and other ethical issues need to be addressed before rolling out bots.
If you are developing – or thinking of developing – tools then please get in contact to discuss further. You can use the feedback form at the end of the course.