ICT Inquiry Project

Overview

The emergence of Generative AI has revolutionised most aspects of IT occupations, enhancing efficiency by automating many steps of modelling and development processes. The availability of digital assistants has made parts of the processes easier while requiring advanced knowledge and critical reasoning of practitioners who guide the synthesis of the AI-assisted product. This unit introduces students to the practice of AI-assisted development of solutions to problems faced by a diverse audience of clients.

Unit learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

1. Analyse client requirements and investigate alternative technologies and AI-assisted approaches to develop, test and troubleshoot IT solutions
2. Critically evaluate the outputs of Generative AI systems, applying judgement to verify accuracy, relevance, validity and quality, and to iteratively improve proposed solutions
3. Design and communicate ICT project solutions with diverse stakeholders using professional, ethical, legal, culturally safe and inclusive practices that respect Indigenous perspectives
4. Collaborate effectively to design and develop context-sensitive and culturally responsive AI-enabled solutions that meet the needs of the intended audience and community
5. Apply project management principles to plan, coordinate and monitor tasks, manage teamwork, and contribute effectively to collaborative project outcomes
6. Communicate and justify design decisions, technology selections and AI-assisted solution choices using evidence-based reasoning appropriate to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Assessment

• achieve an overall mark for the unit of 50 per cent or more
  
• complete the project to an acceptable standard.

A rubric will be used to determine if students have met the acceptable standard. The rubric is available on Canvas.

Students who do not successfully achieve the hurdle requirements in full will receive a maximum of 45 per cent as the total mark for the unit.

Content

• Prompt engineering fundamentals
• AI-assisted research and information gathering
• AI-supported software development and troubleshooting
• Limitations, risks, and hallucinations in AI systems
• AI-assisted technology selection and suitability analysis
• Using AI for debugging, testing, and system diagnostics
• Synthesising multiple AI suggestions into coherent solutions
• Ethical principles in AI usage
• Cybersecurity considerations arising from GenAI
• Bias, fairness, accessibility, and inclusivity in AI systems
• Presenting AI-assisted solutions to stakeholders
• Goal setting and project planning
• Task allocation and workload management