Guidance and support for the use of AI in media and film studies
05 March 2024
John Hibbert, Media Subject Advisor
The rapid and ongoing advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools bring both benefits and challenges to education and assessment. In this blog, we highlight the guidance available for managing AI use in media and film studies and how to deal with misuse in assessments.
What is AI?
AI tools generate text or images in response to user prompts and questions. The responses of AI tools are based upon the data sets upon which they have been trained. ChatGPT is the best-known example of an AI chatbot, but many other chatbots and tools are available.
Some uses of AI are already well-established within the media and film industries, including its use in personalised content recommendation systems. Generative AI use is becoming increasingly widespread across different media sectors and within the film industry. This includes its use to write news stories and in a wide range of media production processes. AI tools are increasingly being integrated into media production software such as Photoshop. AI is becoming a key part of media production and post-production across publishing, film and video production, animation and video games.
Appropriate use of AI
Whether the use of AI by students is appropriate for a given task will depend on the marking criteria and nature of the task.
Most appropriate uses of AI in media and film studies will relate to preparing students for the exam units, and in general teaching and learning activities. AI can be used to support homework and flipped learning activities, as well as to create notes or provide explanations of key terms. You can prompt AI tools such as ChatGPT to produce written content suitable for a specific target audience, so you can, for example, ask it to produce a definition of mise-en-scene suitable for 14-year-olds to support your GCSE students.
AI can be a useful starting point for students to investigate a specific topic or theme. For example, you could ask it to explain the aesthetic of one of the set films for A Level Film Studies or to provide an overview of public service broadcasting in Britain for A Level Media Studies. It’s worth bearing in mind that information provided by AI can include errors so it should be checked for accuracy.
For the NEA units, AI could be used as a research tool. Students could use it to investigate the conventions of their intended product, or to find out more about narrative techniques for A Level Film Studies, or to research the industry context provided for A Level Media Studies NEA briefs.
If students do use AI when producing work for assessment, they must acknowledge its use and clearly indicate how it has been used.
Inappropriate use of AI
Like plagiarism, AI can be used by students to create work which they then try to pass off as their own. Where a student has used AI to complete all or some of their work, they are not demonstrating their own knowledge, understanding and application of skills. This may prevent the candidate from presenting their own authentic evidence.
Examples of AI misuse include using or modifying AI responses without acknowledgement, disguising the use of AI, or using it for substantial sections of work. You can support your students by teaching them about appropriate use of AI in media and film studies, demonstrating how to reference AI correctly where its use is appropriate, and having clear policies for AI use within your department.
Submitting content generated by AI for assessment would not allow students to independently demonstrate they have met the requirements of the mark scheme. Inappropriate uses of AI in the NEA for media and film studies would include using it to generate written content in work submitted, for example producing text for magazine or website pages in media studies or using AI-generated content in screenplays or evaluations in film studies.
Students should not use AI to create images for their NEA productions. Images created by AI would not constitute original images and should be treated accordingly when work is marked. Students completing the screenplay and storyboard NEA option for AS/A Level Film Studies should be reminded that all frames in their storyboard must be original photographic images. For AS/A Level Media Studies students must use original images. If students use any images generated by AI these cannot be rewarded when work is marked. For GCSE Media Studies, guidance on the requirements for original content is given in the NEA briefs.
Students should avoid use of AI tools in production work which results in them not being able to show they have independently met the required criteria.
What to do when candidates misuse AI in assessments
Teachers must not accept work which is not the student’s own. Ultimately the Head of Centre has the responsibility for ensuring that students do not submit inauthentic work.
If you suspect AI misuse and the student has not signed the declaration of authentication, your centre doesn’t need to report the malpractice to OCR. You can resolve the matter prior to the signing of the declarations.
If AI misuse is suspected after formal submission and signing of the authentication sheet, AI concerns within candidate work should be reported with a JCQ M1 form, as outlined in the JCQ AI guidance, available on the Malpractice section of the JCQ website. Please email your completed forms to OCR at malpractice@ocr.org.uk.
Further support
Please refer to the JCQ AI use in assessments: Protecting the integrity of assessment document for further information on managing the use of AI within your assessments.
We are also producing a range of support resources, included recorded webinars, on our AI support page.
Stay connected
Share your thoughts in the comments below. If you have any questions, you can email us at media@ocr.org.uk, call us on 01223 553998 or message us on X (formerly Twitter) @OCR_Media_Film. You can also sign up to subject updates to keep up-to-date with the latest news, updates and resources.
About the author
John Hibbert has been Subject Advisor for Media and Film Studies since 2018. Prior to joining OCR John taught a range of media and film studies qualifications in secondary schools and was a head of department for eight years. Predictably, in his spare time he is a keen filmgoer, and in addition enjoys reading and miserable indie music.
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