
Now that generative AI tools like ChatGPT are available, classwork is bound to change as a result. How do we preserve academic integrity? What's cheating, and what's OK? Here are some ideas.
Artificial intelligence-powered tools are becoming more and more widespread.
As they have grown, educators have started to see a change coming. We wonder ...
- What traditional teaching practices will need a slight adjustment? Or an overhaul?
- How do we preserve student thinking and student skill development?
- What should we consider "cheating"? What's considered responsible use?
- How do we prepare students the their future -- one where AI's a part of it?
One of the hardest parts is envisioning the future of classwork. If artificial intelligence can write essays, what place do essays play in the future of learning? How will other examples of classwork change?
How should we adjust? Should we adjust?
There's one reality we need to grasp: AI isn't all good or all bad. AI tools are just that: tools. It's all in the way we use them.
So ... how do we use them? Can they be used to promote solid student learning?
Below, you'll find a spectrum of student AI-assisted work -- and then 10 considerations regarding AI and cheating.
A classwork spectrum: From "all AI" to "all human"
Early in 2023, I created a slide for presentations I co-presented about ChatGPT/AI and their place in education. It was a spectrum, from "all AI" to "all human."
Every time I gave that presentation, people took pictures of that slide. They shared them on social media. They used the graphic as a discussion piece with fellow teachers and even with students.
You can find the original graphic here.
Based on that response, I've expanded that graphic (below) from six examples to 12 examples.

Full discussions about each of the 12 examples above are available in the collapsible sections below.
The examples in this graphic show that there are shades of artificial intelligence use in classwork. It's not a binary black-and-white case of "it's all bad" or "it's all good."
Granted, many of these examples are very writing-heavy and essay-focused. Here's why ...
- Large language models like ChatGPT are focused on creating text -- and that's the main complexity we seem to be trying to unravel right now.
- Essays -- and writing assignments -- are widespread across lots of types of classrooms now.
- It's a concrete example that many educators can understand and use for considering new ways of doing classwork.
Here's how you might use this graphic:
- Look at examples of classwork your students do now and consider if a variation of one of these would promote student learning -- and prepare your students for a future that AI is a part of.
- Identify where you would draw a figurative line through the graphic on what's acceptable and unacceptable in certain context/circumstances for your class (or a type of work in your class).
- Use it as a discussion piece for conversations with students or teaching staff about acceptable or appropriate use of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning.
- Re-create the graphic with your own examples! Here's an editable copy of the template in Google Slides and in PowerPoint.
Let's discuss: 12 examples of AI-assisted classwork
What should we be aware of with these 12 examples? What are some pro's and con's of each?
The clickable collapsible sections below contain discussions about each of these AI-assisted examples of classwork.
Also, with each example, there's commentary about student transparency -- to what extent students might disclose their AI use and what the implications are.
👇 Click on any section below to expand it and read a discussion about it. 👇
Let’s just say it. This isn’t what we want. If a student uses AI like this to do classwork, there are deeper issues at play. Is the student able to do the work? Does the student feel confident enough to start? Does the student have motivation and reason to do the work?
Also, this isn’t the only way generative AI tools like ChatGPT is being used by students. And it isn’t the only vision for generative AI in learning … but students might not know what a responsible vision looks like unless we help them to see it.
Student transparency: There is none. Student is passing off AI work as their own.
There’s actually some student demonstration of skill and understanding here. Students are making surface-level changes to the AI writing and leaving big ideas in place. If the goal of your assignment is for students to write a coherent, well-organized essay from start to finish with clear communication, this assignment will miss several of those steps.
But if you want to talk about the process of writing, it could work. If you want to evaluate the writing of the AI tool, it could work. This is more about looking at the work writers, creators, and thinkers do than actually doing the work -- and that is beneficial in many situations.
Student transparency: Student discloses that most of the writing is done with AI. This probably only works if student provides the original AI creation and highlights the changes the student made to it -- and why.
This gives the student a heavier hand in the writing, sharing, creating process than the entry above. Instead of making small adjustments, the student develops their own writing voice. They take more ownership of the final message -- instead of just accepting what the AI tool creates. Again, this is a gradual release of responsibility and creation work. This third option in the list (and the two options above) could be empowering steps for emerging writers -- those that feel paralyzed trying to create from scratch from a blank screen with a blinking cursor. It could also be empowering for students learning English as a new language.
Student transparency: Student discloses that most of the writing is done with AI. This probably only works if student provides the original AI creation and highlights the changes the student made to it -- and why.
In previous examples, students count on AI to decide on the final ideas and writing in the assignment. Here, students are picking and choosing the best parts of several AI-generated drafts. This assignment increases the complexity of the decision-making process.
Students make choices about the best content to include. But they also have to remember the writing format they’re using and stick to an appropriate format. (Example: It probably wouldn’t make sense to include three fully-developed conclusion paragraphs. A better choice might be to stick to one -- or to write one that logically takes all the points from the three conclusions into account.)
Student transparency: Student discloses that most of the writing is done with AI, but organization and choices are done by them. Providing the AI-generated drafts with the final product would help preserve academic integrity.
Want to prepare students for the real world and a real future that includes AI? I think we have to seriously consider versions of this example. Why? Because this is an option that lots of adults really, really, really like.
(It’s fair to say “but the adults have developed their thinking and writing skills and can skip to this step -- while students still need to develop those skills.” There’s something to that. But we also shouldn’t force students only to do work that’s inauthentic to what is expected -- and commonly used -- in the real world, either. We need balance.)
How do we further boost student skills through an assignment like this? Encourage them to create better and better lists of bullet points -- and to test them to see if those improved bullet points get better drafts written by AI. Also, encourage students to improve on the draft created by AI, adjusting it for clarity, tone, personal writer’s voice, appropriateness for audience, etc.
Student transparency: Student discloses that the draft was created by AI with the guidance of ideas/points provided by the student. Student provides bullet point list of ideas, AI draft, and even summary of changes made to the AI draft.
This example is a big shift. It’s the one where the pendulum swings from “mostly written by AI” to “mostly written by human.” For that reason, lots of teachers will want to rush from the previous steps to this point. But if we rush too quickly and neglect the important scaffolding of skills, students will feel stuck and unable to do even this work -- and make hard decisions about how to do work they’re not equipped to do.
This step is based on having a tool that can serve as a writing coach. More and more large language AI models with natural language processing will arrive in the K-12 education space. And some of those models will be trained in best practices for writing and communicating clear thought. (For example, Khan Academy’s Khanmigo already has a version of this.) Until then, other large language model AI assistants (like ChatGPT, Bard, Bing, etc.) can do this to some extent if you prompt them carefully.
In this example, instead of doing the thinking and writing work for them, AI guides students through the writing process. It prompts them to brainstorm ideas, to prioritize them, to list reasons why they’re important, to create an introduction to provide context, etc.
Student transparency: This will depend on teacher preference and how heavily the AI coaches the student. Student could disclose how much the AI coached them and even provide a transcript of the interactions with the AI model. Or the student could claim that they wrote it themselves. (In the real world, at some point, even responsible adults don’t have to cite all of the supports they used. A professional wouldn’t submit a resume with a disclaimer: “Created with the aid of a career coach.”)
This example is maybe the most vague and nebulous one in the list. What do you consider “stuck”? We all know there are varying levels of stuck. In my own writing work, there are times my mind is tired and I need a break … and there are times where I really don’t know what to write next. Both of them make me feel “stuck,” but a level of persistence (or a quick break) will get me through mental fatigue.
If students understand the importance of grit, tenacity, and persistence -- and you feel that your students will follow through accordingly -- maybe this is a good option for them. It’s definitely a good example of how artificial intelligence can support and assist human intellect in a symbiotic way.
Student transparency: This will depend on teacher preference and how heavily the AI coaches the student. Student could disclose how much the AI coached them and even provide a transcript of the interactions with the AI model. Or the student could claim that they wrote it themselves. (See “in the real world” point above.)
All of the responsibility of creation has been laid on the shoulders of the student at this point. In this example, artificial inteligence serves as a point of comparison afterward -- and one that can help refine and edit the student work.
When I was writing my book AI for Educators, my friend and fellow author Holly Clark was writing her book, The AI Infused Classroom. We did a version of this activity: we wouldn’t read each other’s work until our own work was complete. That way, we wouldn’t let it influence our own work -- consciously or subconsciously. However, the classroom example of this lets the student improve their work with the AI draft -- a skill that is relevant and responsible in today’s world and in the future.
Student transparency: This might depend on how much the student’s work is influenced by the AI draft. If the student makes minor changes, they might not need to cite the influence AI had on their work. With major changes, asking the student to reflect on the changes and why they made them could be beneficial for everyone. If the AI draft is part of the assignment, the student could turn it in with the student-created work.
In a way, this is the real world work of a researcher. Researchers gather information. They analyze it. They figure out what’s important. Then, they find a coherent, clear way to communicate their findings to benefit the reader. If AI helps you write lesson plans as a teacher, you’re doing a form of this. You’re responsible for the final product, but AI can assist you in getting there.
Of course, the big caveat here is accuracy. AI is notorious for inaccurate information, statistics, and claims. Fact-checking is crucial. Honestly, it has always been crucial. Consider the mantra of the journalism profession: “Even if your mother says it, check it out.” Maybe AI’s inaccuracies will help us focus in on verifying information and information literacy more than ever.
Also, you might not consider AI a primary source in the first place. We don’t let students count Wikipedia and Google as sources of information. They’re ways to find sources. They’re summaries of what the source said. An AI tool like ChatGPT isn’t the actual source itself; they can be helpful for understanding and improving our work, but it isn’t an actual source. (That’s my take, at least.)
Student transparency: Student could provide a transcript of stats/research collected with AI; however, it may be more precise for the student to create a bibliography with the sources that the AI model draws from instead.
This is like going to Pinterest for home decorating ideas. It’s like looking up recipes online. It’s like mimicking your favorite YouTuber in a video -- or your favorite singer or artist or author. Referencing the internet for ideas is something we do every day. Ideas are everywhere. It’s up to humans to capitalize on them. Of course, there are real world lessons to be learned about “citing your sources” and when to do it. But then again, there are also real world implications to understanding when it isn’t necessary. Blues artists don’t preface every song by saying “I love the blues because of BB King, so he gets the credit.”
An important question in this process: is there a benefit to limiting the student to only seeking inspiration from AI? The answer here might be “yes,” and you might have your reasons. Just be sure that the reasons benefit the student -- and prepare them for a world where AI is present and used in lots of walks of life.
Student transparency: Student might not need to cite AI if it was only for ideas and inspiration. Teacher might ask student to supply a transcript of AI-generated ideas for discussion of the writing/creation process.
This is really the bare minimum in my opinion. Spell check, autocorrect and Grammarly (among others) all use artificial intelligence to improve our writing. They’re a first line of defense that we ask students to employ every time they turn something in to us. Even if students aren’t using a large language AI model like ChatGPT (or another AI writing tool), they should at very least use spell check and a grammar checker.
Lots of writers use AI tools to improve individual passages, paragraphs, and even entire written works. An AI model can take best practices in writing and make suggestions to align writing with them. The big question students and teachers should ask, though: Are the AI suggestions in line with what students have been taught in class? Because there are lots of ways to write -- and different ways to interpret the world -- the one an AI model suggested might not line up with what students have been taught by the teacher.
Student transparency: We don’t ask students to disclose that they’ve used spell check, grammar check, or autocorrect. Unless you want to have a conversation about the process of creating, student likely doesn’t need to do anything.
Sure, we can all agree that this is the one entry in the list where all teachers would agree: this isn’t cheating. But let’s be honest. When we ask students to do work without any assistance from AI or the internet, a few issues arise:
We probably aren’t preparing them in a relevant way to live in the real world of their future.
Some are probably going to use the internet or AI even if we tell them they can’t.
We may need to check our own motivations for asking them to do this kind of work. They may be rooted in our own misperceptions of what will truly help students to thrive in this world.
If our reasoning for this kind of work is “I want to know what’s in their head” or “I want to know what they can do on their own,” we’re kind of disconnected from the real world. To the first point, it’s extremely rare that the real world demands that we do something without the support of the internet and/or artificial intelligence. To the second point, doing work completely in a silo -- disconnected from other people or sources of support or information -- is also extremely rare.
If there’s resistance to this kind of work, we need to examine our own motivations instead of the motivations of those that are resisting.
Student transparency: Not really applicable. There’s no way a student can transparently prove that they weren’t supported by AI or the internet.
This whole AI in the classroom debate is messy. If teachers are worried about cheating, they should focus more on teaching skills rather than just policing. By the way, if you want to check out a cool tool for images, there’s something you might find useful here: Flux Krea.
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This AI discussion is all over the place. Students should know how to work with AI but not rely on it entirely.
This AI discussion is all over the place. Students should know how to work with AI but not rely on it entirely.
This AI discussion is all over the place. Students should know how to work with AI but not rely on it entirely. And hey, if you want insights into gaming like Tennis Zero codes, check out Tennis Zero.
This whole AI in classrooms thing is a double-edged sword. Yeah, it can help students draft better, but if they rely too much on it, they’re gonna struggle later on. Just like that tool can do a lot, it’s best used as a guide, not a crutch. Just saying, stay sharp and keep the MirageLSD handy for some real-world applications.
This is such a timely topic! It feels like we’re all trying to figure out the new rules of engagement with AI. It’s almost like a strategic game where everyone’s trying to adapt, kind of like when you’re figuring out your next move in age of war!
Such an important discussion! It’s really tough defining what’s cheating with AI. It makes me think about how we use resources. Like, if I’m stumped on a level, I might check a Royal Match walkthrough – that’s just a guide. But with school, using AI definitely needs clearer rules!
This is such a vital conversation! Defining what’s fair game with AI in classrooms is tough. It really shows how AI is becoming part of our daily lives, from complex tasks to even fun stuff like a free Emoji Translator for social media.
This is so relevant! Figuring out what’s fair use with AI is tricky. It reminds me how even simple-looking things can be complex, like how [Bloons TD](https://bloonstd.online/) seems easy but requires serious strategy to master. We need new strategies for education too!
This is such a crucial topic! AI’s impact on education is massive, and figuring out what’s fair use versus cheating is vital. It just shows how versatile AI is becoming, able to do everything from helping with essays to even something completely different like a face symmetry test! We need clear rules.
Spot on! Figuring out AI in classrooms is crucial. It’s like we’re all trying to balance academic integrity with the huge temptation of new tech. Speaking of things that can totally take over your focus, has anyone else fallen down the rabbit hole of Merge Brainrot? That game is hilariously addictive.
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All this AI talk, but what’s the endgame? Students should master their skills, not just gamify the process. On a lighter note, if you want a break, try this fun archery game: Ragdoll Archers
Funny how we want students to be original while tossing AI into the mix. They need the right tools to do that. Speaking of tools, there’s a great free white screen helper for artists: White Screen
AI can help, but too much reliance? That’s a slippery slope, man. Students need to learn to think independently, not just tweak AI drafts. For more inspiration on artistic transformation, check this out: Flux Kontext
It’s practical for teachers navigating this new terrain, encouraging thoughtful discussions with students.
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Look, we can’t pretend this AI stuff isn’t a game changer for students. They need to know how to use it without losing their own voice—seriously, just check out this helpful resource here: Jump Stars Roblox: The Ultimate Guide, Latest Codes (2025).
This stuff is so relevant to what is happening with students today. Good article.
This is such a helpful article! It’s crucial for teachers to explore how AI can genuinely enhance student learning rather than just being a tool for cheating. The examples provided are really practical and easy to apply. Definitely sharing this with my teacher friends!
Absolutely love how this piece brings clarity to such a complex and timely issue. The acknowledgment that AI is here to stay—and that it’s neither a miracle solution nor a threat, but a tool—is such a balanced and important perspective.
What stood out most is the emphasis on student learning as the core priority. It’s not just about preventing cheating, but about designing learning experiences that invite critical thinking and make shortcuts less appealing. By reframing AI as a way to support student growth, rather than undermine it, we open the door to more relevant, future-ready education.
This kind of guidance helps educators move from fear to empowerment. It’s not about banning the tools—it’s about teaching students how to use them wisely. A must-read for any teacher navigating the new AI-augmented classroom.
This is a thoughtful and much-needed conversation. The rise of AI tools like ChatGPT is undeniably reshaping education, and instead of resisting change, we should be asking the exact questions posed here: how do we adapt with integrity?
I especially appreciate the framing of AI as a tool—it’s not inherently good or bad, but its impact depends on how we guide its use. The challenge ahead isn’t just defining what counts as “cheating,” but rethinking what meaningful learning looks like in an AI-integrated world.
The idea of preserving student thinking and skill development is key. If we focus on process over product—on critical thinking, creativity, and reflection—we can design assignments where AI becomes a learning partner, not a shortcut. This spectrum approach and the 10 considerations are a great step toward nuance in a conversation that often defaults to fear.
This post encourages educators to lead with curiosity, not control. That’s the mindset that will carry us forward.
This work offers a novel and captivating perspective on the topic.
It’s smart to ask students to list prompts they’ve used—but if a student modifies AI output by hand, collecting prompts doesn’t prove cheating. At the end of the day, honesty and intent matter more—and those are hard to police.
This is a really interesting take on AI in the classroom! It’s not just about cheating; it’s about how we can use these tools to actually help students learn. The spectrum idea is super helpful. Gotta share this with my teacher friends!
This is such a helpful article! It’s crucial for teachers to explore how AI can genuinely enhance student learning rather than just being a tool for cheating. The examples provided are really practical and easy to apply. Definitely sharing this with my teacher friends!
Your spectrum model for AI integration in classwork is a groundbreaking framework for educators navigating this transition. The 12 concrete examples effectively demonstrate how we might scaffold AI literacy development while preserving core learning objectives.
Three aspects particularly resonate:
The “AI-generated draft + human analysis” approach mirrors real-world content creation workflows, preparing students for professional environments where human-AI collaboration is normalized
The emphasis on transparency protocols addresses academic integrity concerns proactively rather than punitively
The editable template invitation shows understanding that implementation must be discipline-specific
A pressing question: How might this model adapt for project-based learning where AI could assist with research synthesis but risk diminishing original investigation? Have you considered assessment modifications to evaluate the quality of human-AI interaction rather than just the final output?
This graphic should be required viewing for curriculum committees. The next critical step might be developing parallel rubrics that value critical thinking in AI utilization as much as content mastery.
This is a really helpful guide! It’s so relevant to what’s happening in schools right now. The examples give me a lot to think about in my own classroom. Definitely sharing this with my colleagues!
This is a really helpful article! It’s so important for teachers to figure out how to use AI in a way that actually helps students learn, instead of just letting them cheat. The examples are super practical. Gotta share this with my teacher friends!
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Great article. Love the graphic and discussion points for AI in the Classroom.
This stuff is so relevant to what is happening with students today. Good article.
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Thank you so much for sharing!!! AI is changing Education!
This is excellent, even for an AI newbie like me! Would love to hear what the standard is for citing AI. No clue at all.
Thank you so much for putting this together!
I’m so enthused!