Learning with AI at SMU
AI is changing how people learn and work.
SMU's AI in Education Strategy prepares you to do two things well: think and work independently, and use AI responsibly and effectively in your field. This page explains what that means for your courses, which tools you can use and where to get help.
Our Three Commitments
SMU's goal is for you to graduate with strong human-centred skills and fluency in AI. Three commitments guide this.
Protect Core Competencies
Develop New Capabilities
Strengthen Human Value-Add
From AI Literacy to AI Fluency: SMU’s Approach to Learning
How Your Courses Fit Together
SMU is redesigning all its degree programmes so that different courses build different capabilities:
Your course outline tells you what each course expects and when AI is allowed. Undergraduates also build core AI literacy through the Digital Technologies courses in the Core Curriculum.
What's Available to You
SMU provides a baseline AI tool for all students. For research and academic work, SMU Libraries are your main resource; they offer guides and workshops on using AI tools soundly in your studies.
Google Workspace for Education Plus
Available to all SMU students across every school and programme.
Log in with your @smu.edu.sg Google Workspace account to use the Gemini app, Gemini Notebook, and Gemini in Docs, Slides, Gmail and Drive.
For access issues, contact IITS at helpdesk@smu.edu.sg.
SMU Libraries: AI-related Resources
Build your AI skills with SMU Libraries. Join workshops on evaluating AI critically, AI-powered research discovery, agentic tools, and machine-learning basics, and get hands-on with AI-enabled research tools for your assignments and projects. Contact library@smu.edu.sg or visit the SMU Libraries AI Literacy Workshops.
Other AI Tools
Some courses may specify or permit particular tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, or Grammarly. Read your course instructions carefully. For assessed work, use only the tools your course allows. If you want to use a tool your course does not mention, ask your instructor first.
Keep these in mind with any AI tool
How to Use AI Well
Using AI well is as much about protecting your own intellectual development as it is about following rules. These principles apply whenever you use AI in your studies.
The Golden Rule
Form your own view before you open an AI tool. AI helps most once your own thinking is on the table, and working through a problem yourself is what builds independent reasoning. If your instructor sets a task that starts with AI, follow the task instructions.
Good Practice
- Make sure the analysis, arguments, and conclusions in your submission are genuinely yours.
- Treat AI output as a starting point. Evaluate and verify everything before using it.
- Check every AI-generated reference independently. AI may invent sources that sound plausible but do not exist.
- Read your course instructions on AI before each assignment. Rules vary across courses.
- Declare your AI use clearly and honestly whenever it is permitted and your instructor requires a declaration.
What to Avoid
- Do not assume AI output is accurate. It often sounds certain precisely when it is wrong.
- Do not present AI-generated work as your own thinking. Where your course allows AI, say how you used it as instructed, and make sure you can explain and defend everything you submit.
- Do not cite a source without confirming it exists and says what you claim.
- Do not use AI in any assessment your instructor has designated as no-AI.
Using AI in Assessed Work
AI-related misconduct is handled under SMU's existing codes of conduct, with the same process and consequences as any other breach.
Academic Integrity
Passing off AI-generated work as your own, or using AI where your instructor has not allowed it, breaches the Code of Academic Integrity.
Declaring Your AI Use
If your instructor asks you to declare your AI use, use the form they specify and describe your use accurately. An inaccurate or missing declaration may be treated as a breach of the Code of Academic Integrity.
Student Conduct
AI-related academic misconduct goes through the same investigation, hearing, appeal, and sanctions process as all other violations. Account sharing and other non-academic misuse fall under the Code of Student Conduct.
What Your Declaration Should Cover
Your school or course may have a specific form. If not, include:
- Which tool(s) you used, for example Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Grammarly, or Microsoft Copilot
- How you used it: brainstorming, drafting, summarising, grammar check, translation, and so on
- Confirmation that all substantive analysis and arguments are your own
- Confirmation that any AI-generated content has been critically reviewed, independently verified, and substantially reworked
- Confirmation that you have followed your instructor's AI policy for this course and assessment
AI and Your Learning
Research on AI and learning is growing fast, and the findings are mixed. Results depend on the student, the task and how the course is designed. Studies suggest AI helps when it supports your thinking and harms learning when it does the thinking for you. Four lessons stand out.
What the evidence tells you to do
Think before you prompt.
Studies suggest students who work through a problem before turning to AI learn more and rely on it less. Getting your own ideas down first is part of learning.
Evaluate critically, every time.
Students who judge AI output critically tend to learn more from it. Check claims, sources and reasoning every time.
Watch your own reliance.
Becoming skilled with AI and becoming dependent on it can happen at the same time. Ask yourself regularly: am I using AI to challenge and extend my thinking, or to avoid doing it?
Build foundations independently.
Skills such as legal reasoning, quantitative analysis and academic writing come from practising on your own. Expect some courses, often in your first two years, to test these skills without AI.
Build Your AI Skills
Study Skills in the AI Era
Learn how to use AI to support your learning and maintain independent mastery.
Guidance on Responsible & Ethical AI Use
Explore Office of Integrated Information Technology Services’ (IITS) guide to responsible and ethical AI use, and Yong Pung How School of Law’s (YPHSL) discipline-specific guidance.
Research with AI
Discover practical guidance from SMU Libraries on using AI responsibly and effectively throughout your research journey.
AI Skills for Your Career
Discover what employers expect and how to showcase your AI fluency.