Reading time: 2 minutes
When generative AI (GenAI) took off, universities were left to figure out, in real time, how to prepare students to use it well. Â鶹ֱ²¥ Library’s response was practical: build a resource that gives students what they need, from the ground up. That resource has been supporting students since 2023, and a significantly updated version went live in December 2025.
The Gen-AI Guide, available on UniSkills, is a free, self-paced learning module that assumes no prior knowledge. It takes students from a critical understanding of how GenAI works through to confident, responsible use in their studies. It works best completed in order, but each of its five sections also stands alone as a reference students can return to at any point.
What’s inside
The module opens with Understand, covering what GenAI is and how it works, including why it hallucinates and where bias creeps in. From there, Use introduces the Gen-AI Checkpoint, a practical framework for deciding whether and how to bring GenAI into a given task. Unpack zooms out to examine the broader implications of the technology and its likely future impact. Upskill gets hands-on, with an overview of common tools and a prompt library for practice. Finally, Declare and Reference walks students through how to properly acknowledge GenAI use in their assessments.
More than prompts and hallucinations
A working knowledge of GenAI goes further than most people initially expect. Knowing that a GenAI model can hallucinate is useful, as is knowing how to write a decent prompt. But genuine GenAI literacy, particularly for university students, means something more: understanding how you learn, what your assessments are asking of you, and making strategic decisions about when GenAI will support that process and when it will shortcut it in ways that cost you. It also means understanding the capabilities and limits of specific tools well enough to evaluate their output critically, something even experienced professionals are still working through.
The guide is designed to build that kind of reflective, transferable competency, not just tool familiarity.
Part of something bigger
The guide runs alongside a semesterly , giving students the option of self-paced learning, live facilitated sessions, or both. Together, they aim to build confidence and reduce the anxiety many students feel around the topic.
The technology will keep evolving, and so will this resource. If you work with Curtin students, we encourage you to share the guide with them. The more students who engage with it, the better equipped they will be to use GenAI in ways that genuinely serve their learning.
The Gen-AI Guide is free and open to all via :
Written by Emily McNamee, Project Coordinator
