Every day, new articles are published about AI and while once ChatGPT was the main focal point, new models are continuing to develop and become a part of everyone's online interactions. Every day, educators are faced with challenges relating to these tools as search engines and social media are attempting to harness AI’s power. Preparing our classrooms to combat academic integrity issues such as student collusion, a “copy-paste,” text spinners, or contract cheating have expanded. Questions about the veracity of online searches powered by AI are now a factor that must also be considered. Every day. We’re in deep now as educators have started to understand the threat, the responsibility, and the promise of AI. Our Turnitin Teaching and Learning team - all former and current educators - is there too, and one thing we’ve learned is that AI isn’t going away… and that’s okay.

More practitioners are beginning to realize that there could be some benefits to AI in education when implemented with intention. It is a balance, though, as not every use of AI tools will support teaching and learning. For example: What if AI is used to replace actual student thinking? What if it’s used to complete an entire assignment? That type of usage is the threat we as educators (yes, I am still teaching!) are working tirelessly to avoid. But WHAT IF there are things we can do to protect our writing assignments against student misuse for classrooms today?

Let’s pull a tool from a therapist toolkit–instead of reacting to AI after it was potentially misused by a student, we can proactively respond by putting some guardrails in place.

We recently shared guidelines that focused on eleven strategies for approaching AI-generated text in your classroom. Today, we’re going to expand on six specific tactics for educators:

1. Update academic integrity policy to inform instruction and assessment practices

2. Communicate new policy and assignment guidelines with students.

3. Review and revise writing assignments and associated scoring tools (rubrics, etc.).

4. Employ the writing process; live in a formative space.

5. Direct students to use writing platforms where multiple drafts can be saved for review.

6. Institute opportunities for students to discuss their work.

Notice that these six strategies focus on careful planning and approaching AI proactively. While time is a luxury educators do not have, these tactics may save time later responding to potential AI misuse cases. Let’s dig into the tactics:

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