Artificial intelligence in your studies and learning
Introduction to our AI guidelines and mission
Generative AI systems, especially large language models have become more powerful and more accessible, and their use has become more widespread and used in education. ChatGPT is one example, but generative AI is also increasingly incorporating into existing software and models that can generate images, audio, and videos. AI has the potential for a profound impact on the ways we teach, learn, assess, and access education. In general, studies at Hanken should prepare students for a future society and working life where AI methods will be largely used. Ensuring students develop skills for the future within an ethical framework.
This development provides us with new opportunities and challenges. At Hanken we want to explore what the technology can do and learn how to make use of it in our studies. At the same time, we want out students to have the skills necessary to understand the legal and ethical implications of this technology in academic work. Our hope is that the outputs of generative AI will be equal and unbiased. It can support the access to and the accessibility of educational technology but also, we believe it will enhance teaching practices and student learning experiences. Hanken School of Economics is committed to ethical and responsible use of generative AI and to preparing students to be leaders in an increasingly AI-enabled environment.
Our AI vision and aims are to:
- Support students to become AI-literate (See definition below).
- Support students to use generative AI tools effectively and appropriately in their learning experience.
- Develop teaching and assessment to incorporate the ethical use of generative AI and support equal access.
- Ensure that academic rigour and integrity is upheld.
- Work collaboratively to share best practice as the technology and its application in education evolves.
AI-literate:
“A set of competencies that enables individuals to critically evaluate I technologies; communicate and collaborate effectively with AI; and use AI as a tool online, at home and in the workplace” AI Unplugged, Georgia Tech University
The use of generative AI in various disciplines and fields of study can be affected differently, consequently our guidelines for teaching, learning and even research relate to the university’s general rules and regulations of existing ethics and conduct, and data protection regulations regarding reproducibility and accountability. As well as the ethical requirements of GDPR and European AI-act . These are all general rules that cannot be disregarded when utilizing AI in teaching, learning and research.
To help support the usage of generative AI for teaching and learning the university would like to emphasise that:
- The main aim is always to ensure that students meet the learning outcomes of the course/programme*
- We always require assignments to contain the student’s original work
- Generative AI is potentially useful in many of the subject fields taught at Hanken and can also improve the learning process of the students
- There is a need to acknowledge the use of generative AI when and how it is used
- AI software should be equally accessible to all students, to ensure fair evaluation; at Hanken faculty, administrative staff and all students should have access to AI software
- The way AI software is used, should consider ethical considerations
* Use of AI software should be restricted in teaching situations where the use would not promote student learning and learning outcomes.
AI-based services at Hanken
AI-based tools can act as a tutor or coach to help you build your own competence when studying independently. Due to the fact that AI language models can sometimes produce text whose origin and reliability is unclear, and in the worst case hallucinated (fake), the tools should only be used as a support tool with academic and ethical considerations. You, as a student, are always responsible for the content of all your work.
You can use AI-based tools to, among other things
- create questions and quizzes to help you check if you understand difficult terms and concepts correctly. AI-based tools can also offer alternative descriptions that may be easier to understand. However, remember to always verify that the information provided by AI tools is correct. This also applies to references.
- language check your work or correct errors in coding. By studying the errors flagged by the AI tool, you can learn from them. You are always responsible for the final text, so it is worth checking what changes the AI tool suggests before accepting the edited text. It is also important to save the old version of the task for follow-up and reporting.
- generate ideas or provide a template for your own work and work process. You can also get direct feedback on your existing text to suggest how to improve its tone, structure and argumentation.
- transcription of interview data via the Panopto programme.
Teachers always have the right to prohibit the use of AI-based tools in their course if they consider that AI-based tools hinder the achievement of the course's learning outcomes and competences. This can happen, for example, in language courses, academic writing courses and in courses where students have to demonstrate that they can independently formulate arguments.
In short, Hanken does not prohibit the use of AI-based services during the writing process to search for information, provide templates, help with rephrasing or with improving the language of a raw text written by the student, as long as it does not hinder the learning goals and competences. Just remember to always report how AI has been used unless instructed otherwise by the teacher.
AI-based tools support and help you in your learning, but they must be used correctly, and they do not replace your own knowledge!
Hanken has the following AI-based tools for students to use:
- Chatbot Microsoft Copilot
- Automatic subtitling (transcription) for films in Panopto
- Automatic feedback suggestions for improvement on feedback given by students to each other in Feedback Fruits (Peer review tool in Moodle)
When AI is not allowed your studies
Hanken has explicitly specified cases where AI-based tools are not allowed. In addition to these cases, teachers may forbid the use of AI-based tools in a course when it prevents the completion of the course's competency goals and learning objectives.
If the use of AI-based tools is forbidden in a course, this should be stated in the detailed syllabus document on the course page in Moodle.
AI-based tools are always prohibited in the following situations:
- All situations where the use of AI-based tools prevents completion of the course's competency goals.
- Maturity tests.
- Other uses explicitly forbidden by the teacher of the individual course.
NOTE! It is always forbidden to directly copy text created by AI-based tools or large language models and claim it as your own text.
Read more about AI and theses below.
If the use of AI-generated text is discovered where it is not allowed, this constitutes cheating. Cheating is dealt with according to Hanken's action plan for Academic Dishonesty.
AI and theses
AI-based tools can be used during the thesis process as long as you follow the following two basic principles:
- You must always clearly explain how you have used AI-based tools in your work.
- You must never directly copy and claim as your own any text created by AI-based tools.
If you do not follow these two rules, your thesis may be failed. A failed thesis means that you must start over with a new topic. You cannot continue with the same research question.
How can AI-based tools be used during the thesis process?
Students may use AI-based tools as an aid when writing their bachelor's or master's theses (also applies to the kappa in doctoral theses). However, it cannot be emphasised enough that it is only an aid - students are responsible for assessing how the tool and the result can be used responsibly and well, and for ensuring a sufficient degree of critical reflection at all stages of the work. As well as referring exactly how the tool has been used. Below are clearer instructions on how AI can support the different phases of the thesis.
Information retrieval
AI-based tools can be useful in explaining the relationships between two different phenomena, a phenomenon and a theory, or different theoretical concepts. Especially when the keywords you want to learn about are very basic and stable, AI-based tools can generate clear explanations. You are allowed to use AI-based tools to make inquiries and to get an initial understanding of a new area or to test whether a real-world phenomenon appears relevant to a specific theoretical perspective (or vice versa). However, note that there is no guarantee that the answer generated by large language models is true, and that AI-based tools can produce fabricated references and "facts". You must verify the ideas suggested by AI-based tools and find sources that confirm them.
You cannot copy and include text answers generated by AI-based tools in your thesis*, nor can you reference such an answer as a source. AI-based tools do not understand the answers they have generated. These tools calculate the probability of specific words appearing next to each other based on massive data. This can lead to incorrect, misleading, or biased information. AI cannot flag these problems on its own; humans must review the text and find reliable references.
*The only exception is cases where you specifically need to show that AI has provided such an answer. In that case, you should put the text in quotation marks, add a reference to the tool you used, and explain exactly how you obtained that answer.
Data processing
AI-based tools can assist you in processing your data and performing analysis. We update the information about different services as they become available. Just like with any tools you have used in data collection and analysis, you should describe how you have used AI-based tools in the methodology section of your thesis. Note that you are responsible for research ethics in your thesis process. This means that you must account for all the steps you have taken in data collection and processing. It also means that you are not allowed to input data into AI-based services that Hanken has not approved for this purpose. Hanken students can use Microsoft Copilot.
Allowed ways of processing collected data:
- Transcribing recorded interviews using the automatic captioning service in Panopto. (Click here for instructions)
- analyse data, summarise documents etc. with Microsoft Copilot (Hanken login).
Forbidden ways of processing collected data:
- Uploading data to external services such as ChatGPT to have it identify patterns, recurring themes, or other information from the data. Large language models like ChatGPT store the information users upload to the service. This information is used to train the language model, and the model can use the uploaded data in responses to other users. In other words, information uploaded to publicly accessible large language models is not kept confidential. This is particularly important when dealing with sensitive data, but it is best to always follow this rule to avoid violating Hanken's data management process and Finnish data protection laws by mistake.
Formulating, editing, and structuring your text
AI-based tools can assist in formulating, editing, and structuring your text. However, note that the argumentation must be your own, and you can only use AI-based tools to improve your own text. Carefully review the proposed improvements offered by AI-based tools to identify possible errors and correct them. Also, ensure that the references in the text have not been changed and still match the original source.
If you use an AI-based service to rewrite a paragraph from a source in your own words (paraphrasing), you must be extra careful to ensure that the content is sufficiently different to avoid being mistaken for plagiarism. You cannot rely on suggestions provided by AI-based tools being of sufficient quality. You must carefully review the text so that you can stand behind the text you incorporate into your thesis and ensure that the citation to the original source is correct. You are always fully responsible for the final version you submit. Read more about how to reference the original source when referring to a longer passage from a source in Hanken's referencing guide.
Remember! When you have used large language models or other AI-based tools, you must describe this in detail in your work.
How to describe the use of AI-based tools is explained in the next section.
Report and referencing the use of AI-based tools in your studies
The basic rules for the use of AI-based tools at Hanken are that the writer should always describe in detail how the tool has been used in the work. This applies to both smaller coursework and dissertations. Simply referencing Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT is not sufficient; the description should also include information on exactly how the AI-based tool has been utilized. The teacher can provide specific instructions regarding this.
The description should be placed where it is appropriate to discuss how you have worked during the writing process, such as in the context of describing the structure of the work or in the methodology chapter. The specific location depends on the type of work. If you are unsure, it is advisable to consult the course instructor or your supervisor.
Examples:
| Use case | Description in writing | Citation in the list of references |
|
ChatGPT has been used to generate ideas and a template for course work. |
"I have used ChatGPT to generate ideas for important factors to consider in a PESTEL analysis with the question "conduct a PESTEL analysis for the logistics industry," to which ChatGPT generated the response "PESTEL is an environmental analysis that considers six factors: political, economical, social, technological, ecological, and legal factors. In the logistics industry..." (OpenAI, 2023). If the response is relatively short, you can paste the entire answer. However, for longer responses, it is better to include them in an appendix to your work. The description should be followed by a reference to the creator of the AI-based tool; for ChatGPT, it is the company OpenAI. In the reference list, each prompt or question posed to AI-based tools should be listed as a separate reference. |
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (version May 3) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat Opens in new window
Please make a note of which version of ChatGPT has been used. OpenAI's ChatGPT uses dates in their versions but other tools might use other ways, like numbers, to express the version, e.g. version 3.6.9. |
|
Automatic subtitle service in Panopto has been used to transcribe interviews. |
"The interviews were transcribed using an AI-based service in the Panopto program. The program created an initial version of the transcript that I then reviewed, correcting misinterpreted words and adding information about the speaker." | No reference needed |
| ChatGPT has been used for improving spelling and language errors, wordings and structuring of the work. |
"To improve the language and structure in my work, I have used an artificial intelligence language model called ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2023). The work underwent a two-step improvement process using ChatGPT. First, I inputted my original text into the model with the purpose of reviewing grammar, vocabulary, and coherence to enhance the overall quality. Suggestions from ChatGPT were carefully reviewed and used where appropriate. Next, the structure of the work was improved through iterative interactions with ChatGPT. I provided guidelines and specific prompts related to the organization and flow of ideas in my original text, based on which ChatGPT generated suggestions and alternative phrasings to clarify the logical coherence and argumentative structure of my work. I went through all the suggestions and only incorporated those into the final version that maintained the original intention and voice of my work. It is important to note that the role of ChatGPT was strictly limited to providing suggestions and assisting in the revision process. I made the final decisions regarding the use of suggestions and revisions to ensure that the work reflects my perspective and understanding of the subject." Please note that this is an example description. Your description should accurately reflect what you have done. |
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (version May 3) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat Opens in new window |
Instructions for the citation of AI-based tools are updated when necessary. Read more on APA's webpage.
Cheating and consequences
Teachers are allowed to use detection programs to identify AI-generated text. If you have not clearly expressed how you have utilized AI in your work, you run the risk of being accused of cheating if AI-generated text is detected in your work. False positives are also possible. To safeguard yourself against accusations of cheating, it is important to be able to provide evidence of the steps you have taken in the writing process. Being able to openly account for the steps taken in the process is a central aspect of academic integrity and reliability. So, this is not something new, but due to the possibility of false positives from detection programs, more students may be required to prove the steps they have taken in the writing process.
- Save all draft versions of your work until your work is approved and assessed. For example, everytime you start writing, start by saving your work with the current date in the filename. This way, you can demonstrate the progress of the writing process retrospectively.
- Keep raw data until your work is approved and assessed. Remember to follow Hanken's data management process!
- Always describe openly, clearly, and in detail how you have used AI-based tools.
Use common sense! Consider first whether using AI-based tools is ethically right, responsible, and beneficial for your learning in the task. If you want to use AI-based tools to avoid doing something that is a central part of the task, it constitutes cheating.
All cases of cheating are handled according to Hanken's action plan for Academic Dishonesty.
Fabrication of data, references, and facts always constitutes cheating, even if you are not aware that the answer provided by the AI-based tool is fabricated. You are responsible for the work you submit. You must be aware of all references and verify their reliability.