1 May 2026
Olivia Edmonds and Tarandeep Johal, University of Wales, Trinity St David
Background
University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD) is one of the oldest educational institutes in Wales, beginning in 1822 with the founding of our Lampeter campus. Today, UWTSD is a dynamic education establishment with campuses in Swansea, Carmarthen, Cardiff, London, and Birmingham.
The Institute of Inner-City Learning (IICL), comprising London and Birmingham campuses, is passionate about widening participation and raising aspirations of students from diverse backgrounds by maximising their potential.
As we focus and cater to more mature students, many of whom have been away from education for a significant amount of time as well as students from some of the most disadvantaged areas and communities in our cities, the Library and Digital Skills Team have to consider a variety of pathways to offer support and guidance to students in an online setting and this includes Generative AI.
Gen AI – Institutional level
The UWTSD Academic Office, working alongside other teams from across the University, created AI guidance, of which all our work at UWTSD Birmingham campus is based on. The library team has been involved since those initial phases and continues to be involved in developments to support students and staff. Likewise, the guidance has become a live document, changing and updating in a timely manner to offer the most up to date support and guidance possible.
One of the first follow ups to the initial guidance was the creation of an AI usage table, that was embedded into all assignment briefs, regardless of subject or qualification level and this is now a consistent feature across the University.
It is now expected and reinforced by Programme Managers/Subject Leads that the in-class lecturer should be discussing this table with their students on a regular basis and offer specific assignment related guidance on how GenAI can be used to support students in their work.
Alongside this, all staff have access to a Moodle page titled AI Learning Community. This not only contains the most recent version of the University AI guidance in full, as well as training materials and recommended resources, but also includes student speak assessment guidance, which can be shared with students by their in-class lecturer to support their understanding of the use of GenAI in their work.
Gen AI – Library and students
The Library and Digital Skills Team have 3 main support methods (outside of recommending students speak to their lecturer as the first point of contact) currently in use to support students in relation to the use of GenAI in their assignments.
- Library Online Infoskills programme.
Originally created as a means of student development during the COVID era, the Online Infoskills programme is an asynchronous programme that allows students and staff to develop their information literacy skills. This is done through a series of short interactive tutorials on topics ranging from searching the online library, critical thinking, referencing, being a good researcher and using GenAI.
There are currently two Online Infoskills modules relating to Gen AI – one is an introduction to AI, which includes background information, ethics and referencing, while the other is based around searching with AI, including in-house and external app suggestions as well as how the CRAAP test can be applied in the use of GenAI.
This section is constantly under review and development, and we hope to add further modules in due course.
- Primo AI Research Assistant
A built-in feature of our University’s LMS, the Primo Research Assistant has allowed us to showcase positive ways that GenAI can be used by our students. We have found that it is a tool that students ranging from CertHE courses all the way up to Doctoral courses have engaged well with and found useful and it is now a key part of all our in-class and one-to-one support delivery.
- Microsoft Co-Pilot
We also, as a University, have an institutional subscription to Microsoft Co-Pilot. The support for this for students and staff has primarily been led by the Digital Skills part of our team, which has included in-person and online training, as well as workshops delivered in partnership with the Student Union as part of their Skills Week initiative.
Gen AI and staff
Our support for staff encompasses various methods of support from 121 sessions, staff development and how to videos.
- AI and VLE
The university has developed an AI learning community, where the whole university AI guidance is placed for reference. The sharing of information, new ideas and academic research is also embedded into the VLE, alongside student speak guidance to support lecturer discussions in class.
- Staff Play Days
We set up interactive play days, where the digital skills team helped present an inclusive session for staff to have a go with AI specifically CoPilot. Giving examples of some basic ideas to try, we were able to build confidence, share ideas and give the opportunity to staff to see the benefits of AI and how to implement AI into their day-to-day work.
- AI resources
We have registered and given access to staff to resources such as LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn, to provide the learning material from the developers of CoPilot (Microsoft). The learning content breaks down learning about AI, and as we are using CoPilot already, the synergy of learning is quicker and easier for our staff.
- How to videos
We have recorded sessions and short how-to videos on the benefits of AI and digital skills. These videos we have shared on our dedicated Digicentre page. We have met obstacles in this offer of support. The idea of using AI to help with lesson planning for example, was not as productive and innovative as wanted. We learnt how to approach all aspects of teaching and learning to see how AI could fit well into the classroom
AI Chatbots
New AI workflows and Agents have become very popular recently; to keep up with the latest innovation within AI, we have been providing support on what Agents are and how to use them and how best they can be used. We are now looking into how we integrate agents into our work from information support on specific topics for students to chat with, to data driven automation. This field of AI is growing quickly, and we want to make the most of the recourse to help support learning and development.
Challenges
Multiple challenges continue to sit on the periphery of all we do in relation to GenAI. For our students in particular, the digital skills baseline that they join us with is the biggest barrier to not only their use of GenAI, but to accessing most of their learning and learning materials. This is currently addressed both in-class, through students studying a Digital Skills module in their first term with us, and outside of class through one-to-one and group support sessions as well as wider University activities, run alongside teams such as Wellbeing and the Student Union. The ethics behind the use of GenAI has also become a key discussion point across the student body and this will be continued to be reinforced throughout all our practice. Alongside the nature of the GenAI sector constantly changing and developing, it is essential we begin to equip our students with these essential skills as they look towards their post University lives and the working world.
For our staff, the biggest challenge is time. They want to be kept up to date with the latest developments within the GenAI sector and are very keen to practice and learn about GenAI in a supportive setting. Although several resources have been put in place to support these needs, we continue to review and monitor this area to look for the most prime opportunities available. With regards to the GenAI tools we use, we do currently have university subscriptions/access to a specific number. However, as GenAI further develops, many of the new tools in the sector, which are currently free to use or are based on several credits per day, are starting to disappear behind paywalls. If we want to keep up with the sector, the stance on subscriptions paid for by the University may need to be considered.
Looking ahead
The Library and Digital Skills teams continue to be at the forefront of the creation of resources and guidance of GenAI across UWTSD, while their support for the embedding of GenAI is also continuing.
While there are a growing number of resources tailored to support our students, we have recently been looking at the GenAI knowledge/confidence levels of our staff at Birmingham campus to ensure that support for them is as specific, relevant and tailored as it can be, as we know that our students look to their lecturer for guidance on all matters related to in-class work.
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