Cogniti
Cogniti is an AI-based learning platform for students created by the University of Sydney. The platform allows staff to create and customise the behaviour of Cogniti agents as well as set-up activities and sandboxes to support teaching and learning.
Quick links
What is Cogniti?
Cogniti is a learning tool that enables staff to create AI-assisted learning agents and activities. Cogniti agents and activities can be configured and adapted to specific courses, resources, and roles. Agents and activities rely on large-language models for their responses, and parameters such as rules and knowledge bases, can be applied to ensure that agents support students in ways that are intentional and beneficial to their learning.
For more information on accessing Cogniti, see our guide on Getting started with Cogniti.
Teaching and learning applications
Cogniti agents can be configured through a range of settings, allowing staff to create agents that are specific to teaching and learning initiatives. Configurable settings include prompts, AI engine, resources and knowledge, access, and interactions.
The use of AI agents in teaching should be anchored by considerations that put students and learning first. For more information on the pedagogical considerations of using AI agents, see Principles for designing AI agents for learning.
For more information on how to create and manage Cogniti agents, see Creating and managing Cogniti agents.
Academic integrity
Supporting learning and academic integrity
Cogniti is designed to give staff more awareness and visibility over their students' learning and use of AI. Large language models and general all-purpose AI tools can provide inaccurate information that can impede student progress and understanding. Chat histories and flags afford staff greater transparency over how students are using AI as well as identify trends in students' questions.
Additionally, staff can configure and set guardrails over the knowledge base in which agents draw upon for their responses, set up rules on the types of information the agent can or cannot provide, and built-in safeguards will inform staff of potential breaches of safety and integrity. These constraints allow for more reliable outputs that can support student learning and are more in line with the University’s academic integrity policies.
Students are advised that the rules around academic integrity apply equally when using Cogniti. If a student uses text generated by Cogniti in the preparation of an item for assessment, it must be appropriately acknowledged and cited in accordance with the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Unauthorised or undisclosed use of AI is a breach of the University’s student academic integrity standards, and may be subject to the penalties outlined in the Student Academic Integrity Policy (MPF1310).
Considerations
AI agents using large-language models may provide information that is not fully accurate or up to date.
Importantly, when creating or editing an agent, there is a toggle so that the Agent should cite any resource(s) that it uses. However, this will only apply to resources manually uploaded by the agent’s author.
It is therefore recommended that staff and students critically review the output of Cogniti agents, as well as familiarise themselves with effective prompt authoring.
Cogniti is in active development and is therefore subject to updates and improvements.
Access and licensing
Teaching and Learning Innovation is piloting Cogniti in Semester 2, 2026. Expressions of interest are currently closed.