Challenges of University Students in Negotiating Academic Integrity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence in Open and Distance Learning Assessment

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools have emerged as a transformative force in higher education, their impact especially significant within open and distance learning (ODL) modalities in which assessment practices depend on trust, autonomy, and self-regulated learning, thereby fundamentally challenging traditional notions of academic integrity. This qualitative inquiry examined how students experience and negotiate academic integrity while using AI technologies in assessed tasks within the ODL context of a Malaysian institution. Data were collected from ten purposively sampled Open University Malaysia students through semi-structured interviews and analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis approach. Analysis revealed four overarching themes: (a) ambiguity in institutional AI policies, (b) students’ moral reasoning and self-regulation, (c) contextual pressures and assessment design, and (d) navigating the boundary between assistance and misconduct. The findings indicate that students occupy a complex ethical space shaped by conflicting institutional messaging, competing life demands, and evolving perceptions of AI’s role in the learning process, and that they must continually negotiate between their own ethical initiative and an ambiguous institutional environment. This study contributes empirical evidence to the growing discourse on AI governance in higher education, grounded specifically in the Malaysian ODL context, and carries practical implications for ODL assessment design, academic integrity policy, and digital literacy education.