When students get fixated on getting a grade, they look for shortcuts. ChatGPT and other AI tools can create complex text and images that appear to be created by a human. Writing assignments are a common educational practice which requires someone to think about a topic and express what they have learned, but when a student turns in a generated paper, the student is missing the point of the writing process. What can instructors do to ensure students do the writing themselves?
GenAI & Ethics: Investigating ChatGPT, Gemini, & Copilot
Essential Considerations for Addressing the Possibility of AI-Driven Cheating - Part One
Essential Considerations for Addressing the Possibility of AI-Driven Cheating - Part Two
In these posts, Dr. Trust introduces a pedagogical tool for redesigning assignments so that students will be less likely to turn to AI for cheating. Strategies include transparency, real world applications, universal design for learning, social knowledge construction, and allowing for trial and error.
If you are concerned that students in your classes may be tempted to use an AI to circumvent the learning process, there are steps you can take to refocus their attention on doing the work themselves. (See the references below for more details on each.)
Add a section in your syllabus that directly references the use of AI tools in your class (e.g. prohibited entirely, allowed for certain tasks, or allowed with attribution.)
Discuss AI tools with students so that they understand your perspective and how these tools can undermine (or enhance) essential learning objectives in your class.
Structure assignments so that the learning and writing process is more transparent (e.g. require outlines, drafts, revisions, and reflections as part of the assignment.)
Assign different formats that are outside a standard written response or paper: visualizations, handwritten materials, audio or video recordings, in-class presentations. Allow multiple options so that students with limited means or abilities can choose one that gives them a fair chance to meet the objectives.
Focus assignments on applying concepts to current events and personal experiences.
Create assignments that co-opt AI tools as part of the learning assessment (such as having the students critique a response from an AI instead of writing their own.)
Peter Elbow and Mary Deane Sorcinelli outline a variety of approaches to improving writing assignments that are applicable to the concerns about ChatGPT in their chapter How to Enhance Learning by Using High Stakes and Low Stakes Writing in McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers (12th edition, 2004). Dr. Elbow's work on how college teachers can teach and use writing for learning offers many techniques which refocus students on the process of writing and away from grades (which in turn reduces both the temptation and efficacy of plagiarism). A few key ideas to consider:
Assign regular, short, low-stakes writing assignments that are completed in class: a few minutes at the start of class on the reading, in the middle as a way to consider a question before discussion, or a few minutes at the end to reflect on the main messages of the session.
Assign regular low stakes writing assignments in a journal outside of class. These writings are personal reflections on what they personally are learning, and struggling to learn in the readings, lectures, and assignments.
Score low stakes assignments as done or not done (saving qualitative assessments, or corrections, for higher stakes assignments.) Low stakes writing encourages students to simply get their thoughts down on paper in their own words. For the instructor, this reduces the grading load, gives a sense of each student's own voice, and gives insight into what students are getting from the class so far.
Build from low stakes writing to high stakes assignments. Instead of one to two papers in a class, assign multiple shorter papers, and/or assign multiple drafts of the same paper. Requiring that students turn multiple phases of the same paper (topic, outline, draft, near-final) helps students think more about the writing and revision process (while also reducing the efficacy of plagiarism, paper purchasing, and now paper generation by AI.)
In the chapter, Dr. Elbow and Dr. Sorcinelli offer more details on the above techniques, how make grading more efficient (and effective) as well as techniques for dealing with plagiarism that are more effective than simply running text through a checker.
The official UMass Amherst Faculty Senate policy is that, unless the instructor documents their own policy for AI use in a class, use of generative AI is prohibited. There are many sources for sample text in the resources below (Center for Teaching, Kevin Gammon, Ryan Watkins), we have also summarized a set of simple statements on this Google document: AI Syllabus Statements
ChatGPT & Education.(pdf) - Torrey Trust
a one-page summary of the main issues around use of ChatGPT, including its exploitation of student info and labor.
How Do I Consider the Impact of AI Tools like ChatGPT in My Courses? - Center for Teaching
a good overview, including templates of syllabus language that references ChatGPT and AI tools.
ChatGPT Q&A for Learning Professionals - IDEAS Group
a good overview on how the tools work, how to address them in class, and possible ways to co-opt them.
Should You Add an AI Policy to Your Syllabus? Kevin Gammon
a set of clear steps to take to adapt your syllabus to address AI based on your own perspective on AI tools.
ChatGPT: Understanding the new landscape and short-term solutions. Cynthia Alby
a series of questions and responses offering practical approaches to modify assignments to address use of AI tools in the near term.
New Modes of Learning Enabled by AI Chatbots: Three Methods and Assignments - Ethan Mollick & Lilach Mollick
a journal article offering techniques for co-opting the AI tools to enhance learning activities.
Update Your Course Syllabus for chatGPT. - Ryan Watkins
in depth article on how to reference AI tools in the syllabus, and suggestions for modifying assignments
ChatGPT & Education - Torrey Trust
a slide deck overview of ChatGPT (including samples of its responses) and strategies for addressing its use with students. Also refer to this list of questions that students and teachers can ask when analyzing AI writing tools from the ebook Critical Media Literacy and Civic Learning .
Teaching History/Social Studies in the Era of AI Writing Tools. - Torrey Trust & Bob Malloy
a discussion of ChatGPT specifically in the context of teaching history and other writing-intensive disciplines.
How ChatGPT Could Help or Hurt Students With Disabilities - Beth McMurtrie
an article about tools such as ChatGPT can assist students with a range of disabilities learn better and express what they learn more effectively; also how focusing on banning and policing the use of AI tools can harm neurodiverse students through false accusations and preventing the use of potentially supportive tools.
A college student created an app that can tell whether AI wrote an essay. - MPR News
a news item on a prototype (GPTZero) for detecting AI generated text.
Note that detection, enforcement, and surveillance may not be the most effective way to address the use of these tools.
On Equity and Trust and AI - Maha Bali
a post that takes a critical look at AI from a global perspective, considers where the AI gets it's "I", and thoughts on trustbetween students and their instructor.
Why I’m Not Scared of ChatGPT. Christopher Grobe
an instructor's experience with using ChatGPT with students: how the AI may be able to help people get past the terrifying blank page, but human work will still be required to assess and revise into words that convey meaning.
We come to bury ChatGPT, not to praise it. Dan McQuillan
an essay on how AI generators work, what they can't do, and why we should resist their use.
Resources for exploring ChatGPT and higher education. - Bryan Alexander
Artificial Intelligence in Teaching & Learning - University of Toronto
includes a list of many AI tools similar to ChatGPT.
If you have any additional questions, perspectives, or resources to add, send them to digitallearning@umass.edu.