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Gen AI Student Resource Hub
As a Laurier student, you may be wondering:
- Can I use generative AI (gen AI) for my assignments?
- What are the risks?
- Which tools are approved at Laurier?
- How do I use gen AI responsibly?
- How do I avoid academic misconduct?
This page will help you make informed decisions about if, when, and how to use gen AI in your learning process. The better equipped you are to think about gen AI, the better able you’ll be to use gen AI appropriately for your studying and learning goals.
Before using gen AI in any course, always check your course outline and your instructor’s expectations.
If your instructor has not clearly stated that gen AI is permitted, assume it's not. All Laurier students, staff and faculty are expected to follow Laurier's principles of use for gen AI.
What is Generative AI?
AI vs. Gen AI
- Artificial intelligence (AI): Refers to machine-based systems that use data to generate outputs that influence physical or digital environments.
- Generative AI: A type of AI that creates new content in the form of images, text, and audio, based on the data used for training.
Before You Use Gen AI, Ask Yourself Why
One of the benefits of gen AI is speed. It can create content in seconds.
But university isn't just about completing tasks. It's also about developing knowledge, skills, and a way of thinking.
The time and effort devoted to learning – the learning struggle – is a good thing.
Before using gen AI, ask yourself: Am I learning, or am I skipping the learning?
Remember:
- If a task feels too hard: You are building new skills. Learning often feels challenging before it feels doable.
- If a task feels too time-consuming: Meaningful learning takes time. Quick answers don't always lead to lasting understanding.
- If a task feels too tedious: Consider what skills your instructor wants you to practice. The process may be just as important as the final result.
Gen AI can support learning, but it shouldn't replace the thinking, practice, and reflection that help you grow.
If you want to discuss how gen AI tools can be used to support and complement your academic skill-building and learning, book an appointment or attend a workshop with the Student Success team.
Can Gen AI Help Me?
Sometimes. If your instructor permits it, gen AI may support your learning in the following ways:
Gen AI may help you:
- List possible topic angles, generate questions to explore, and suggest themes or debates.
- Draft ideas for emails, reports, and marketing content.
- Offer alternative perspectives or approaches if prompted correctly.
Gen AI may help you:
- Translate readings into different languages, making them easier to digest.
- Create an audio version of notes or readings to review content.
- Create study questions that promote deeper and more active learning strategies to move beyond memorization (see: Bloom's Taxonomy).
- Create additional practice problems and explain solution logic for difficult content.
- Review content in multiple formats to fit your study schedule.
Gen AI may help you:
- Brainstorm ideas and outlines to overcome writer's block.
- Identify grammar errors, generate synonyms, and polish sentence structure.
- Demonstrate the expectations for different types of writing assignments.
Gen AI may help you:
- Generate search terms when doing online and library research.
- Develop research questions from difficult or unfamiliar topics.
- Demonstrate citations.
Know the Risks
Gen AI may be useful, but it can also be wrong. Before relying on any output, check the list below:
Did you know gen AI:
- Can sound confident while providing incorrect information or misinterpret information?
- Can invent sources or exaggerate facts?
- Can misinterpret complex questions and articles?
- Can reinforce biases and stereotypes?
- Cannot accurately perform numerical computations since its training data doesn't allow for numerical computations?
- Does not automatically use diagrams or graphs for quantitative explanations?
- Can give you a false sense of knowledge and understanding?
Protect Yourself
Did you also know that gen AI tools can collect and share prompts and inputs for training purposes? For that reason, when using public gen AI tools never upload:
- Personal information
- Confidential information
- Course materials you don't own
- Copyrighted content
- Another person's work
Not all gen AI tools are created equal. Some gen AI tools may promise increased privacy, accuracy, speed, and capability. But these benefits will be locked behind a subscription.
Which Tools Should I Use at Laurier?
Microsoft Copilot is currently Laurier’s approved generative AI tool. Tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude have not been approved by Laurier through the same review processes.
When you sign in with your Laurier account, you get the following benefits:
- Your prompts and responses are protected through Microsoft's enterprise data protection.
- Your conversations are not used to train Microsoft's public AI models.
- Your activity remains within Laurier's Microsoft 365 environment.
To sign in to Copilot:
- Navigate to copilot.microsoft.com
- Select the person icon on the bottom lefthand side of your screen and select "Sign In"
- Select "Continue with Microsoft"
- Sign in with your MyLaurier student account
- Don't upload course materials unless you have explicit permission from your course instructor.
- Don't upload copyrighted materials.
- Don't upload personal or condifential information.
- Don't use your Laurier password when creating accounts.
Every use of gen AI has an environmental cost. As you use these tools, consider their environmental impact alongside their benefits. The Laurier Sustainability Office has put together helpful considerations for the responsible use of gen AI.
Gen AI and Academic Integrity
This is the most important thing to know:
Using gen AI tools without permission in your course work is academic misconduct.
Every instructor may have different expectations. Before using gen AI, review your course outline, look for instructions about gen AI, and ask your instructor if you’re unsure. If gen AI is permitted, follow the instructions provided, review all generated content carefully, and be transparent about your use of a gen AI tool.
How to Stay Golden When Using Gen AI
You are responsible for anything you submit, even if it was created with a gen AI tool.
Whenever you use gen AI, cite or acknowledge it.
- Don’t upload someone’s intellectual property into a gen AI tool without their permission. This includes, but is not limited to, course materials such as lecture notes, assignments, videos, quizzes, articles, textbook chapters and assignments completed by other students.
- Gen AI tools will plagiarize directly from other sources. If you submit plagiarized work generated by a gen AI tool, you are responsible for the plagiarism, and it is considered academic misconduct. This applies even if your instructor permitted the use of gen AI in the assignment.
Build Your Gen AI Skills
Developing your gen AI literacy will take time and practice, just like any other skill. Explore these self-paced learning modules to help you build the knowledge and judgement you need to make responsible decisions about gen AI in your academic work.
- Module 1: Can I Use Gen AI in My Assignments?
- Module 2: What Are Some Effective Approaches to Using Gen AI When It's Allowed?
- Module 3: How Do I Cite Gen AI?
To earn a certificate for completing these modules, you must register through Self-Registration on MyLearningSpace. The above links only provide a preview of the modules.
If you have any questions about the content you learn, you can contact the Library, or Student Success at studentsuccess@wlu.ca.
Write Better Prompts
If you’ve ever tried using Microsoft Copilot and been frustrated with the output, that may be because the prompt was weak. The quality of your results depends on the quality of your prompts.
The next time you write a gen AI prompt, include these elements:
- Task: What do you want the tool to do?
- Context: What background information is important?
- Examples: What other content is similar to what you are looking for?
- Persona: Should the AI respond as a tutor, editor, coach, professor, etc.?
- Format and Tone: How do you want the output presented (e.g., bullet points, formal tone, concise summary)?
Weak prompt: "Explain photosynthesis."
Better prompt: "Think like a Biology instructor and break down the different major ground tissues of plant bodies into multiple choice quiz questions so I can quiz myself. Please include the characteristics of parenchyma, collenchyma, and sclerenchyma. Don’t provide the answer as I want to ensure that it reflects my course content. Let’s start with five multiple choice questions with four answer options."
*Adapted from the University of Saskatchewan, "Understanding Generative AI Series: Crating Better Prompts." April 20, 2026.
Evaluating Gen AI Outputs
Not every gen AI output is accurate, reliable, and relevant. So, before using any outputs, apply the E.V.E.R.Y. framework.
- E – Evaluate: Does the output answer your question and do what you want it to do?
- V – Verify: Check the facts, sources, and claims made in the output.
- E – Engage: Ask follow-up questions to improve the gen AI response.
- R – Revise: Adapt the content to fit your specific context, style and tone. The output should be a draft, not your finished product.
- Y – You: Remember that you are responsible for everything you submit.
*Adapted from Macquarie University, "Generative AI for Students." March 13, 2026.
Graduate Student Research and Gen AI
Graduate students may encounter different expectations about generative AI depending on their program, discipline, supervisor, funding agency, publisher, or research project. Because expectations vary, no single approach to using gen AI in graduate research exists.
Start with a Conversation
Before using gen AI in your work, talk with your advisor or supervisory committee. Together, you should discuss:
- Whether gen AI use is appropriate for your project.
- Which uses may be acceptable or unacceptable.
- Expectations around transparency and documentation.
- Any disciplinary, funding-agency, or publication requirements.
Your Responsibility as a Researcher
Using gen AI does not transfer responsibility for your work. Under Laurier’s graduate research expectations, you must be able to explain and defend all content submitted as part of your work (see Student Research in the Graduate Calendar for more details).
- Major Research Paper (MRP)
- Thesis
- Dissertation
- Publications
- Other degree requirements
- The accuracy of your work
- The originality of your contributions
- The integrity of your research process
- Any content generated with gen AI tools
If you use gen AI in your research process, be sure to cite or acknowledge its use. You can see examples of how to do this in the section above called, "Gen AI and Academic Integrity."
Ultimately, if you cannot explain or verify content, this may raise academic integrity concerns.
Still looking for more information? Review the OCGS guiding document, “Artificial Intelligence: Considerations for Graduate Research."
Graduate-Level Expectations Remain High
Generative AI may change how research is conducted, but it does not change the expectations of graduate scholarship.
Your work will continue to be evaluated on:
- Depth of knowledge
- Critical thinking
- Methodological rigour
- Originality
- Scholarly communication
These remain the foundation of high-quality graduate research.
The Bottom Line
You remain the researcher.
Whether or not you use gen AI, you are responsible for the ideas, decisions, analysis, and conclusions that make your work your own. Use gen AI thoughtfully, be transparent about its use, and work closely with your advisor to make informed decisions throughout your research journey.
Additional Laurier Resources
- Library: AI in assignments, AI in research, Citing the Use of AI
- Academic Integrity: Gen AI Guidelines (includes tools and modules)