Recently, I was leading a virtual workshop with college professors on a topic I am passionate about — student engagement (and how technology can support it). I have LOTS of examples from my classroom and my Ditch That Textbook work over the years.
I was digging into some of my favorite free Google Slides and PowerPoint templates from our template library, like the Instagram Stories template and the Amazon product page template.
I checked the chat to see if anyone had questions or comments, and one professor asked this:
“Are these templates AI-proof?”
I knew I had to respond to it … but honestly, I wasn’t ready to.
I tried to address it, saying …
that responses to creative activities and assessments like these weren’t as easily AI-generated
that nothing is really completely AI-proof
that if you did them in class instead of as homework, they’d be even less susceptible to AI cheating
that they could also be used as a way to teach and illustrate a concept and not just as an assignment
My response was OK, but I didn’t feel like I addressed the root of the problem.
I kept thinking about that question the rest of the day — and that concept. “AI-proof.” Maybe you’ve been asked about this. Maybe you’re thinking about it, too. Let’s start peeling back the layers of this onion.
What I think “AI-proof” really means
I’ve been wondering … what did this teacher really mean when she said “AI-proof”?
At its core, I think it’s an assessment question … a measurement question.
At its heart, it’s really saying: “I want my grades to mean something. I want to know that students have done the work and that learning has happened.”
In a way (even if she didn’t mean this directly), I think it’s trying to say: “I don’t want to get duped by my students. Learning is important, and I want to make sure that it actually happens.”
And truthfully, this isn’t even really an AI question. We’ve been asking a version of this for a long time with other student ploys — cheat sheets, Spark notes, a friend writing an essay, getting an old copy of a graded test, etc.
Here’s the real problem. In education, we have struggled to get to the root cause of why students use those ploys to avoid the work and shortcut the thinking. It was this way before AI — and now, AI is just the latest (and most irresistable) tool students are using.
If we want to make progress, we have to ask the deeper question …
Why are students using AI to cheat in the first place?
I present a breakout session at conferences (and sometimes as part of school/district AI workshops) called: AI and Cheating: Real Talk from the Classroom.”
Early in that session, we lay the foundation by discussing that very question: Why do students misuse AI to cheat?
After presenting it dozens of times, I’ve heard lots of the same responses. Most of them match my own list, which is below. I’ll also share some things we can do — knowing that none of these will fix the problem by themselves, but they’re steps we can take to start to address some of the conditions.
“They’re lazy.”
The first words off the lips of lots of teachers — because there’s a TON of truth to it. But we have to be careful. It can be a reason to throw up our hands and give up. “They’re just lazy and there’s nothing I can do to change it.” As a teacher, if there’s something I can do, I want to be empowered and do it.
Students don’t understand the assignment — or the steps to complete it.
If a student doesn’t know what they’re supposed to do — or if they’re not able to visualize the steps necessary to complete it, there’s an element of uncertainty. Instead of working through it, they might just bypass the dread of that uncertainty by having AI do it.
WHAT WE CAN DO: Clear, simple, short instructions. Exemplars. Checking in once the work has begun to make sure students are headed in the right direction.
Students don’t believe they’re able to do the assignment.
Self-efficacy … the “yes I can” feeling. Sometimes, students don’t even attempt because they’re afraid of failure or genuinely don’t think they’re good enough to get it right. Some students have found that they can bypass that fear by not doing the work at all. I inherited a Spanish class full of students who overused online translators. We slowly built that self-efficacy doing small, easy tasks and building to more complicated ones — together — to help them see they were capable.
WHAT WE CAN DO: Scaffold. Help students — either whole-class, in small groups, or individually — build from basic tasks to more complicated, part by part, step by step. Also: encourage. When students have shown that they’re capable, remind them to stop and notice it — even students that you don’t think need that reminder.
Students don’t have time to do the assignment.
Lots of students today are incredibly busy with extra-curricular activities, jobs, clubs, and other responsibilities. Some have tough home lives: mom works two jobs and the student needs to stay home to watch their siblings — or work a part-time job themselves. However, others just use their time poorly (on purpose or accidentally) — “I was too busy playing Fortnite with my bros to do the assignment.”
WHAT WE CAN DO: Ask about their family / home / life situations. Help them strategize if possible. We can’t usually force changes, but we can be understanding — and we can encourage.
Students don’t see the motivation or relevance for the assignment.
If we realize that this is the root cause of AI cheating, it’s a tough pill to swallow. It might mean that it has something to do with us and our teaching. We might not be helping students to see why the assignment or class important. (Then again, this whole compulsory education system where students are forced to attend school doesn’t help this situation much.)
WHAT WE CAN DO: Check ourselves. Is there anything we could try to improve motivation? Also: remind students why we do what we do. Students might consider your assignment unnecessary busywork until they realize why they’re doing it and how it helps them.
Note on the WHAT WE CAN DO sections: These aren’t cure-alls. And in some situations, there are bigger issues at hand than what we see and what we can control from the classroom. Also, these are just the things I came up with off the top of my head.
What are other root causes — and actions we can take?
In our free Ditch That Textbook online community, we’re going to keep this discussion going!
I started a discussion post — Why students use AI to cheat (and what we can do) — so we can hear from YOU.
What do you think?
What are the other root causes of AI cheating?
What else could we do?
What else needs to be said here?
