Instructions for use
1. What the assistant is for
The VU Education Lab AI Assistant helps teachers and other staff of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) and its partner institutions prepare teaching material from sources they are reading: summaries, explanations, glossaries, translations, quiz questions, flashcards, in-class questions, rubrics, learning objectives, reading guides, slide outlines and lesson ideas. It can also review test questions you wrote yourself for item-writing flaws. Every result is a draft for your own review and editing before any use in teaching.
2. What it may not be used for
VU Amsterdam has designed and assessed the assistant only for the purpose in section 1. Do not use it to:
- grade, score, rank or otherwise assess the work of students, or decide whether a student passes;
- write feedback to a student on their work;
- decide on admission, placement or the level of education a student receives;
- monitor students or detect prohibited behaviour, including detecting the use of AI;
- make or prepare any other decision about a person.
The assistant is not built for these uses and has not been assessed for them under the EU AI Act or the GDPR. Using it this way would make it a different system, which VU Amsterdam has not put into use. If you see a need for one of these uses, contact the Education Lab first. The assistant does not read Canvas pages that show students' work, grades or personal details, and it declines requests to grade or give feedback on a student's work.
3. What you send
The assistant sends the text you work with to VU Amsterdam's server and to an AI model that Microsoft runs for VU Amsterdam in the European Union. VU Amsterdam's framework for generative AI in education asks you not to put personal data or confidential information into AI tools. Do not send student work, student data, health information, exam papers that must stay confidential, or unpublished research data. Respect the licence of the material you use; the University Library answers questions about publishers' licences.
4. You are responsible for the result
AI output can be wrong, incomplete or one-sided, also when it sounds certain. Read every result against the source before you use it. Results that rest on a passage quote it, so you can check them. Questions you use in a test fall under the normal assessment rules: the examiner answers for their quality, and they are reviewed like any other question before the test.
5. Telling students
VU Amsterdam asks staff to be open about their use of generative AI. When you use material made with the assistant, tell your students that it was prepared with AI and checked by you. Word and PowerPoint exports carry a line saying that they were made with generative AI and from which source; keep it, or replace it with your own wording.
6. Web search
Web search is off unless you ask for it. A search sends a few words that the AI writes, not the page itself, to Microsoft Bing, outside the EU. Do not ask for a search about a person.
7. Learning to work with AI
The Centre for Teaching and Learning and the University Library offer workshops and self-study on using AI in education; see Teaching and AI. The assistant's welcome page explains how it works and where its limits are.
8. Questions, problems and complaints
Report a wrong, harmful or biased result, or anything that looks like misuse, to the VU Education Lab at onderwijswerkplaats@vu.nl. Report a possible data leak straight away to the IT Service Desk (servicedesk.it@vu.nl, 020 59 80000). Questions about your personal data go to the data protection officer (functionarisgegevensbescherming@vu.nl); see the privacy statement.