Don’t you just hate it when you suspect a student submitted a paper written by AI and you can’t tell for sure? You’re not alone – a recent survey finds that many faculty share your concern.
These concerns – and potential solutions – are the focus of two short articles worth checking out:
Faculty Use of Artificial Intelligence in Teaching
Did Your Student or a Bot Write This Paper?: Teaching and Grading in the Age of AI
The first article reports the results of a recent survey of law faculty. The second offers practical strategies to promote learning and uphold academic integrity in an era of widespread AI use.
Key Takeaways
Most faculty in the study are using AI – and believe their students are too. About 80% of respondents had used it in the previous month for teaching-related purposes. Most estimated that a majority of their students had done so as well.
While faculty identified benefits of AI for themselves and students, they also experienced problems.
Many faculty are uneasy. They’re unsure how to tell if students used AI to write their papers – and they feel unprepared to assess its impact on learning.
Students generally benefit from clarity and structure about AI use. Students are more likely to engage thoughtfully when faculty are specific about what is or is not permitted and design assignments accordingly.
Faculty can keep the ghostwriter out of students’ papers – and instead, invite a writing coach in. The ghostwriter makes it easy for students to cut corners. The coach can help them learn to think and write more deeply.
How to Keep the Coach – and Ditch the Ghostwriter
- Require students to include an AI use certification cover sheet with each paper
- Assign shorter, staged writing tasks where students “show their work”
- Require students to submit AI chats showing how they developed ideas
- Incorporate AI use into grading rubrics
- Assign tasks that require students to apply AI tools for brainstorming or revision
These approaches promote transparency, provide better feedback for students, and give faculty more insight into how students think and write.
Even if you’re not ready to require students to use AI and submit chat transcripts, simply requiring students to certify their work – and letting them know their grades may be affected – can have a powerful effect.
I invite you to attend my presentation at the AALS ADR Section Works-in-Progress Conference on Friday, October 24, at 9:45 a.m. The session will function as a focus group to explore how faculty can maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of using AI in our courses. It will also offer a chance to reflect on your own teaching strategies and hear what is working – or not – for your colleagues.
Showing What AI as a Writing Coach Looks Like in Practice
If you assumed that this post was written entirely by a bot, you’d be mistaken. I worked with RPS Coach to generate ideas and phrasing – much like a colleague or copy editor would. Then I took the lead in shaping the final product.
Here’s the link to the chat I used to help write this post.
his illustrates the process of human-AI collaboration that can help students write better. When they actively direct the writing process – using AI as a thinking partner, not a ghostwriter – they can deepen their learning and produce better work. That requires faculty to be thoughtful about how they plan the use of these tools.
Did Your Student or a Bot Write This Paper? offers practical guidance for faculty who want to make thoughtful use of AI.
Take a look – and join the conversation at my WIP session.
Pssst. Want an one-page AI-generated cheat sheet to help you teach with AI? Click here. Your secret’s safe with me.
