Academic Integrity & AI at Dickson College
Dickson College upholds and strongly encourages and supports academic integrity in student work. Our school has worked with the BSSS, alongside an Education Directorate AI Schools Group, to update and inform our latest Academic Integrity Policy. This impacts elements of classroom assessment, student working requirements, and processes for supporting students and their academic integrity.
The BSSS states that students must genuinely complete their own original work. This allows students to build the skills we develop at Dickson College. Breaches of academic integrity could include: submitting another person’s work for assessment, or “Using AI generative software to substantially research, plan, structure and/or create the text/ image/ artwork.”
The ACT Education Directorate states that it “continues to restrict student access to generative AI applications on devices within Directorate networks.” It also states that “Students must not be encouraged to use unapproved tools by requesting that they undertake work off school networks (for example instructing students to use ChatGPT as part of homework).”
The BSSS does state instances where generative AI could be used for assessment, but only when instructed by the teacher and the task document that this is allowed - which the ACT Education Directorate is not allowing us to do at this time. It is important for students to read every task document carefully when it is released to ensure they know and understand what the teacher and task expectations and guidelines are.
This information is informed by the BSSS Teacher Guide to AI and Academic Integrity and is in line with the ACT Education Directorate Position on Use of AI in Schools.
Our school is developing the following guidelines to support student work, learning, and academic integrity, so please read all assessment documentation closely to see what has been implemented in your faculty. Tasks may:
- state that generative AI is not to be used for parts or the whole of an assessment
- require students to work only in assigned Google Docs generated in the Google Classroom [or they will state other approved file types]
- indicate that Grammarly is not to be used [as the spell check function provided in Google Docs will be sufficient]
- indicate that validation tasks of a written/verbal nature may be conducted before or after a task
- indicate that Academic Integrity Meetings may be requested with students
- state that failure to comply with task requirements may result in an academic penalty being applied
Further information and guidance can be found in the 2026 Dickson College Submissions and Assessment Conditions policy.
Our staff, policy, and processes are informed by a variety of research and readings.
You may like to refer to: the BSSS Plagiarism Student Guide, the BSSS Special Interest Paper: AI April 2023, the BSSS Special Interest Paper: AI October 2023, and the BSSS Special Interest Paper: June 2025 to find more information about academic integrity and your young person. You may also like to refer to: The Future of AI in Education: 13 Things We Can Do to Minimize the Damage by Arran Hamilton, Dylan Wiliam, and John Hattie; AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking by Michael Gerlich for more cognitive research about the use of generative AI.