With the introduction of artificial intelligence in this digital era, education has its continuous benefits, but there has also been the introduction of challenges. One of the challenges includes how to ascertain whether students submit work that is wholly done by themselves or was aided with AI tools such as ChatGPT or other text generators. While AI can prove to be a very informative resource, it is the job of an educator to make certain that their students are learning and not merely allowing technology to do the work for them. Here are five approaches in this article that you can take in determining whether your students are using AI, and how you can best create a resolution to this issue.
Writing Style Inconsistencies
One of the easiest things that will catch a student using AI is when their writing style changes from one day to the other. Suppose during the previous four semesters, a student has written the same things using particular words, sentence structure, and even voice. That seems a grave cause for alarm if they turn in works that are suddenly different. AI content tends to be smoother, professional, and free of any of the kinks and mistakes generally seen in human writing. Being an educator requires at least some familiarity with your students’ normal writing style to then notice disparities that would hint at AI involvement.
Uncharacteristic Use of Advanced Vocabulary
AI tools can provide text with very complicated vocabulary that might be above the average level of your students. For example, if there is an assignment that a student suddenly does with complex words and phrases, they have never used in class before, that may be an indication that they have obtained the help of an AI tool in solving the assignment. While a student may be studying to improve their vocabulary, context would come in handy. If the higher-order vocabulary does not fit the student’s previously established work or otherwise seems out of place, then it is worthy of further investigation.
Lack of Personalization in Content
The personal touches in writing tend to be problematic for AI. Whereas AI can produce factually correct and grammatically appropriate text, it typically lacks personalization derived from the experiences, opinions, and voice of an individual. If a student submits a generic work and does not include any of the personalized insights or reflections you might expect from them, that is one potential marker of AI involvement. Request that students include personal anecdotes or opinions within the work to help determine if the content was created by them.
Use an AI Detector
Probably one of the most honest ways to find out if your students use AI is to use an AI detector. An AI detector is a type of text analysis tool that checks whether the text has been generated by artificial intelligence. These tools detect characteristic patterns of AI-produced text, such as syntactic structures or word choices that appear much more frequently in AI text. While they are not foolproof, AI detectors can help confirm your suspicions. If you suspect that a student’s work was AI-generated, running it through an AI detector can be useful in providing further evidence.
Very Fast Completion of Assignments
The other warning sign indicating the presence of AI in the work of a student is the exceptionally fast time of completion. With the help of AI tools, essays, reports, and other written work can be produced in a few seconds or minutes, a timeframe that most students cannot manage. A student who consistently turns in assignments significantly earlier than expected or is remarkably quicker than others in completing the work raises the question of how that might be possible. While some students are merely quick workers, a pattern of abnormally swift completions could raise suspicions of the usage of AI.
Conclusion
The use of AI in education is a two-edged sword. Though it offers several advantages, it also brings problems in maintaining academic integrity. As a teacher, it is your job to know whether your students are indeed working or are dependent on AI doing the homework for them. By being aware of changes in writing style, unusual vocabulary, lack of personalization, employing AI detectors, and monitoring assignment completion times, you will be better informed on whether your students are using AI. Ultimately, the ability to appreciate originality and personal effort is what will help navigate the new landscape.
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