The Summative Assessment of Generative AI Usage within Academic Writing in a Computing Foundation Year

With the introduction of AI chatbots and coding assistants, and particularly since the release of ChatGPT in November 2023, there has been significant consideration of the use of Generative AI (GenAI) within education and computing education. Within computing education, considerable attention has focused on the use of GenAI in programming. However, whilst programming is a critical curriculum component, much study of computing at universities and in professional practice also includes writing and secondary research (in the form of essays, reflections, reports, project dissertations, etc). Within the computing education literature, the use of GenAI to support academic writing has been less commonly explored. This paper explores the embedding of GenAI in academic writing for summative assessment in a foundation year of a computing undergraduate programme at a UK university. The approach presented may be extensible and employable in various contexts as a mechanism to encourage students’ ethical use of GenAI in academic writing and their appreciation of the related strengths and limitations of this usage.