Recent developments in writing-related artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, can quickly write logical, cohesive paragraphs on an apparently endless range of themes. Our students might already be using these tools, and there is a definite potential for abuse with regard to academic integrity. In all likelihood, we will see many more AI products like this in the years to come. With this in mind, it is time to reflect and rethink about how we assign college writing. It's crucial to become familiar with the resources that exist and think about how you might use them in your lessons. Here, we give a few different approaches to using AI.
Talking with Your Students About AI
We encourage you to talk with your students at the beginning of the semester about the fundamental questions AI is forcing us to ask. How do they see the role of AI in their education?
You may consider adding a statement to your syllabus about use of AI tools. Different faculty will have different expectations about whether and how students can use AI tools, so being transparent about your expectations is essential. If you want to forbid using AI tools, be explicit about this on your syllabus. If you allow these tools but want them to be acknowledged (cited or referenced), explain that on your syllabus. Consider including phrases such as:
- If you have questions about what is permitted, please reach out to me.
- It is important to remember that ChatGPT and other AI tools are not a replacement for your own critical thinking and original ideas. The ultimate goal of this course and any tool used to submit work is to enhance your own learning and understanding, not to undermine it.
- As a college student, it is your responsibility to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. This includes a) ensuring that all work submitted for grades is your own original work, and b) properly citing any sources that you use.
- Having AI write your paper constitutes plagiarism. If the source of the work is unclear, I will require you to meet with me to explain the ideas and your process.
If you’re comfortable with students using these AI tools to generate material, encourage them to focus on developing the knowledge and skills necessary to use the tool effectively. Once a draft is produced, they will need disciplinary knowledge in order to effectively ask for “more of this or less of that.” They still need expertise. AI-generation tools aren’t able to refer to your class discussion, create an infographic, handle citations, or accurately cross-reference course materials.
You may wish to point out that at this early and temporarily free stage of the software, AI can produce a passable but not great paper. Overall, the information is generalized, unreliable, and limited by what it has been fed.
AI and your syllabus
As instructors, it is strongly recommended that you include a statement about the use of artificial intelligence in your classroom as part of your plagiarism statement on your syllabus. Consider the ways you would like to address AI and its implications for your classroom.
Some instructors in various fields may want to use AI as part of their process, while others may want to ban it altogether. It does not matter what you decide to do regarding use of AI in your classroom - but it is important that you communicate your stance about AI tools to your students, and that you create a policy about this that they know about right away.
If you're unsure of how to construct your syllabus statement about AI use in the classroom, please feel free to browse this link, which contains examples of AI policies used around Simpson: Examples of AI Policies
Ways to deter AI use in your classroom
- Make your writing assignments as specific as possible to your course. Academic misconduct is easier to detect when the writing prompts are so specific to the course and the discussions within the class that an outsider, or an AI, would have little chance of producing an output that would earn a good grade. It can also help to specify heavy citations and a specific length, both of which are difficult for the AI to deliver convincingly.
- Break major assignments into smaller graded chunks. By scaffolding assignments into smaller bits, students are not only less likely to cheat, they are more likely to create stronger final products. An annotated bibliography might be an especially good idea to blunt the advantages of AI-generated writing.
- Collect at least one example of in-person writing to compare to submitted essays. A student whose formal essay writing style is significantly different from their spontaneous, hand-written writing might lead to better detection of AI software.
- Assign writing with heavy citations. The AI software is more likely than a student to use citations that you (let alone a student) might never think to use, making them appear suspicious.
- If possible, assign a writing prompt that requires information after 2021. ChatGPT only includes information up to 2021, so anything from 2022 and beyond will halt the software.
- Preview your writing prompt on the AI platform yourself. The type of prose produced by ChatGPT is remarkably cohesive, but the style can be recognized over time. Certain markers, like the flat topic sentences that begin most paragraphs, can help identify the prose as machine-generated. The rhetorical level of the prose can also be a marker—for many topics, the produced essay is superficial and can be characterized more as summary than analysis. It can also be helpful to know what your students might be seeing as output if they ask the AI a similar question, which can aid in detecting misconduct on student-submitted essays. However, do not rely on plagiarism detection software (e.g. Turnitin), since an identical prompt given to ChatGPT on two occasions will yield two unique essays.
- Explore formats beyond traditional essays. In some cases, there may be other ways to communicate thinking, analysis, or evaluation beyond a written essay. Examples might include mind maps, podcasts, vlogs, or debates.
Ways to Incorporate AI software Into the Classroom
1. Have your students use ChatGPT to answer a prompt and then comment on the answer provided. Where does it succeed? Where does it fail? Where does it not understand the nuance or depth of the question?
2. Incorporate AI into a drafting process: 1) Have AI write a first draft and then ask students to edit it or vice versa 2) Have students write the drafts and ask AI software to edit it.
3. Assign students to create an AI essay and grade it, providing specific feedback justifying each of the scores on the rubric. This assignment might be paired with asking students to create their own essay responding to the same prompt.
4. Re-envision writing as editing/revising. Assign students to create an AI essay with a given prompt, and then heavily edit the AI output using Track Changes and margin comments. Such an assignment refocuses the work of writing away from composition and toward revision, which may be more common in an AI-rich future workplace.
Detection software: What's Out There?
There are emerging sites that are improving at detecting AI-produced content. The most prominent is http://gptzero.me/. The software measures a submitted text and then offers a prediction regarding how much of the writing has come from artificial intelligence.
The following link is a video that does an excellent job of walking through how GPTZero works: ChatGPTZero information video
This software is useful if the entire selection was produced by AI, but if the user has embedded some AI-crafted text within their own words, it’s much harder for the detector to identify AI.
A comprehensive PowerPoint with multiple ideas for deferring and incorporating ChatGPT in the classroom can be found here: ChatGPT Workshop.pptx
Feel free to contact the Teaching and Learning Center or the Writing Center with any further questions or ideas - we know that the world of technology is actively changing, and the more strategies we can identify, the better!