All assessments must be submitted electronically. Turnitin plagiarism detection software is used to check all written assessments against published sources and previous student submissions at Macquarie and other universities. It is the responsibility of all students to ensure that their submitted work is in a format compatible with Turnitin software for plagiarism checking. Submissions must meet the required file type and formatting specifications outlined in the assessment guidelines. Failure to submit work in an acceptable format may result in delays in processing your submission and potential penalties for non-compliance with assessment requirements. If you are unsure about the file format or have technical difficulties, it is your responsibility to seek assistance before the submission deadline. Students should be careful to check that they submit the correct file for an assessment as no re-submissions will be accepted after the due date and time, including instances where students upload an incorrect file. It is not the responsibility of unit staff to contact students who have failed to submit assessments. If you have any missing items of assessment, it is your responsibility to contact the unit convenor. Students can use Turnitin’s Originality Report as a learning tool to improve their academic writing if this option is made available in the unit. Word limits are strictly applied. Work above the word limit will not be marked.

Word limits are strictly applied. Work above the word limit will not be marked. Students should be aware of and apply the University policy on academic integrity (see: https://policies.mq.edu.au/document/view.php?id=3).

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The use of Artificial Intelligence is not prohibited. The use of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as OpenAI's ChatGPT GPT-4 (paid), Perplexity.ai (free/paid), Microsoft Copilot in creative mode (free), or Claude 3 Opus (paid) when working on assessments in this unit is permitted. These tools can complement your efforts on assessments and can assist with planning, research, and editing, but they must be used intentionally and with utmost care. Intentional and careful use of these tools may assist the quality of your final submission, but poor or reckless use of the tools can quite easily negatively impact the quality of your submission. You are fully responsible for any issues or errors arising from their use. If you are considering actively engaging with LLMs to assist in completing an assessment, then please read the following very carefully.

The Role of Generative AI in Teaching

Skilled and proficient use of AI is helping teachers to plan, prepare resources, communicate, provide feedback and document activities effeciently so it is good to learn how to use it well. Using AI well requires an expert understanding of learning theory so you can devise the prompts that generate pedagogically strong output. AI tools such as Elicit and Consensus can help you find research papers and Notebook LM can help you create notes on those sources, but you need to read, think and thoroughly engage your mind with the text in those sources to learn enough to be a great teacher who is more efficient because you use AI. Use AI to help you:

• Build your knowledge
• Locate relevant sources for you to read
• Outline contrasting theoretical positions in the literature
• Suggest improvements to your writing
• Format classroom resources
• Brainstorm ideas
• Convert conversational speech recordings to succinct grammatically correct prose for feedback and parent communication
• Customise resources for individuals and groups in your class

If you simply asking AI to write sections of your assessment task for you, you will not learn what you need to know to be an effective classroom teacher and the parents and children in NSW schools deserve to have highly professional, knowledgable teachers in schools.

Acknowledgement

Transparency is an important part of academic scholarship. You must clearly indicate what parts of your assessment were generated by AI within the text and reference the genarative AI tools you used in the bibliography. Please use APA referencing style to cite and reference your use of AI. Most AI chat tools now include a sharing option that provides users with a unique URL and a title for each chat. This enable easy creation of an APA Style reference for a specific chat  following the author–date–title–source format used in APA Style references.

The four elements of author, date, title, and source that you need to include in your references to AI are: 

• Author: The author is the company responsible for developing the AI tool. Although these companies did not “write” the generated text in the traditional sense, the author element of an APA Style reference is broadly defined as who is “responsible for a work.” Whereas in some other references that is an individual author, editor, film director, or podcast host, here it is the organisation that created the AI tool. AI itself cannot be an author because it is not a living, conscious human who can give consent and promise to abide by the rights and responsibilities that come with authorship. For example, OpenAI is the author of ChatGPT, and Google is the author of Gemini.
• Date: The date in an AI chat reference is the specific year, month, and day on which a chat occurred or concluded.
• Title: The title is the title of the chat (in italic sentence case) followed by a bracketed description to clarify for readers the nature of the source; for example, “[Generative AI chat].” In most AI tools, users can edit the title of the chat, so before creating the reference, consider editing the title within the AI tool to be something descriptive and helpful for readers.
• Source: The source begins with the name of the AI tool, which can be general (e.g., ChatGPT or Gemini) or the name of the model (e.g., ChatGPT-5 or Gemini 2.5 Flash). The final piece of the source element is the URL of the chat.

Example Bibliography AI References

Anthropic. (2025). Claude 4 Sonnet [Large language model]. https://claude.ai/new

Google. (2025). Gemini 2.5 Flash [Large language model]. https://gemini.google.com

OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com/

Within The Text

• Parenthetical citations: (Anthropic, 2025; Google, 2025; OpenAI, 2025; Perplexity AI, 2025)
• Narrative citations: Anthropic (2025), Google (2025), OpenAI (2025), and Perplexity AI (2025)

Documenting AI Prompts

An AI prompt is the instruction that you give AI to generate results. Providing information about prompts increases transparency and helps readers better understand exactly how you used the AI tool. Prompts can be within the text where the AI use is disclosed, or elsewhere as appropriate, such as in an appendix. 

An example of how prompts might be discussed within the text:

I provided the following prompt to Gemini (Google, 2025): “Please create an image of students in a classroom studying grammar concepts.” After reviewing the initial image created, I refined the images by adding more detail, asking Gemini to include more racial and ethnic diversity in the student population and specifying the age range should be adolescents.

Unacknowledged use of generative AI is a form of academic misconduct and will result in a score of zero for the task and possible disciplinary action by the university. Please note that spelling and grammar patterns commonly appearing in text generated by AI will be interrogated should they appear in students' submissions without acknowledgement.

CRITICAL: Confabulations, hallucinations, and fictitious sources

It is your responsibility to use Generative AI tools ethically and appropriately. Any fictitious sources contained in your submitted paper will result in a failure of the assessment, regardless of whether they originated from your own research, Generative AI, or a random webpage. This is not an academic integrity issue, but a matter of ensuring the accuracy and reliability of your work.

Remember, LLMs always sound confident but are not always correct (and depending on how the LLM is used may be very wrong). Proper prompting is essential for improving the quality of the results.

Vague responses

Poor prompting may lead to American-centric or vague responses that do not address the specifics of Australian curricula or school context. When using these models, it is your responsibility to thoroughly check all outputs to ensure they are relevant and accurate. Reliance on an LLM output without thorough oversight is strongly advised against.

A trap

Do not treat LLMs as search engines. Even those with web search capabilities (e.g., perplexity.ai, ChatGPT GPT+ subscription, Microsoft Copilot) may not search effectively. Ensure that all factual information you want the models to work with is well-contained within your prompts.

Recommendations

We strongly advise against using ChatGPT's free version, as it may lead to unsatisfactory results and is prone to confabulations. Use tools running GPT-4 or equivalent, such as Microsoft Copilot in creative mode (free with a throwaway account, not your MQ account). Avoid upsells from the LLMs and choose "creative mode" for GPT-4; "balanced mode" uses GPT 3.5.

Special Consideration / Late Penalties

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day to late submissions, up until the 7th calendar day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a mark of ‘0’ (zero) will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11.55pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical issue.

Important to note: ·

• Late submission of time sensitive tasks (such as tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, scheduled practical assessments/labs) will be addressed by the unit convenor in a Special consideration application. ·
• Students should not request an informal arrangement from their tutor, lecturer or Unit Convenor (or equivalent). ·
• Where an application for Special Consideration is approved and the outcome is an extension to the due date of a task, submissions that are received after the new due date will be subject to late penalties that are calculated from the new due date. This only applies where the outcome is an extension to the due date – see the Special Consideration Policy for a schedule of all possible outcomes. ·
• A Special Consideration outcome may result in a new question or topic.
• Applications must be made via Service Connect.

Marking

All assessments are marked using a rubric. Marking of all assessments is moderated by the Unit Convenor. The moderation process includes double marking of HD and Fail grades and frequent consultation between markers to establish consistency and resolve uncertainty.

University Policy on Grading

Assignments will be awarded grades ranging from HD to F according to guidelines set out in the University's Grading System and University Assessment Policy. 

Results

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed because they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit Service Connect.

Withdrawing from this unit

If you are considering withdrawing from this unit, please seek academic advice via Service Connect before doing so as this unit may be a co-requisite or prerequisite for units in the following sessions and may impact your course progression.

Classes

Students enrolled in Weekly Face to Face mode will attend one x 2 hour tutorial each week, beginning in Week 1 of semester which starts on Monday 23 February 2026. There are six weekly tutorials before the university recess/school holidays. After the break, classes run in Weeks 7 and 8 and then there is a three week break to accommodate PEX. The final two tutorials are in Weeks 12 and 13 starting on Monday 25 May 2026. 

Students completing the unit in INF mode attend two on-campus days on Saturday 14 March and Saturday 18 April 2026. Please note that Saturday 18 April is the last weekend of the school holidays and students have the option of joining the on-campus day for the Undergraduate Level unit on Sunday 26 April instead as the same content will be covered.

Information about the unit iLearn site

This unit has a full web presence through iLearn. Information for students about access to the online component of this unit is available at https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/index.php. You will need to enter your student username and password. Please do NOT contact the Unit Convenor regarding iLearn technical help. Assistance is available from IT Helpdesk: via email onehelp@mq.edu.au or Ph: 9850 4357 or 1800 67 4357. On Campus: Ground floor at 18 Wally’s Walk.

Weekly Lectures

Essential weekly lectures will appear in Echo 360 and embedded in iLearn modules and should be viewed before you arrive at your weekly tutorial or on-campus day

Readings

Students are expected to read the texts linked in Leganto for each week. Please consider using a digital referencing tool such as Zotero or Endnote to manage your professional library and develop a system for highlighting and taking notes on each of the texts as you read them.

Online Forums

All questions related to assessment tasks must be posed via the online forum for the particular task so that all students have the benefit of the reply. Do NOT ask questions about the assessment by private email or in class. Please read through the assessment task forum posts and replies when preparing your assessment task so that you understand the task fully. Also, please make the subject line of your forum post very specific to support searches. Do not title your post by the name of the assessment task only.