Join the Discussion! AI in Education: Exploring Responsible Use Together (#AskTurnitin x ACUE)
Join Turnitin in collaboration with the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) for an #AskTurnitin event on “AI in Education: Exploring Responsible Use Together.”
This 2-week asynchronous Q&A on the Turnitin Educator Network (TEN) begins on March 9, 2026, kicking off with a 1-hour live Q&A where pedagogical experts address pressing questions about AI in teaching and learning.
Our educators will continue answering questions asynchronously for two weeks, giving educators around the world the opportunity to engage on their own schedule.
Whether you’re concerned about student authorship, unsure how to interpret AI-detection results, or seeking ways to balance innovation with integrity, this Q&A provides practical guidance you can apply in your classroom and across your institution.
Meet our pedagogical experts:
- Patti West-Smith – Senior Director of Customer Engagement at Turnitin
- Stephanie Speicher, PhD. – Academic Director at ACUE, Digital Fluency Faculty in Residence at Weber State University
How it works:
#AskTurnitin will be open for 2 weeks, giving you plenty of time to post your questions and join the discussion. Our educators will be checking in regularly to respond and share their insights.
Ask about:
- Practical strategies for responsible AI use in teaching
- Identifying when AI tools enhance learning versus when they create risks
- Success stories or challenges from educators using AI tools
- What support or resources would help in your context
#AskTurnitin Guidelines:
- Be respectful: Treat all participants with kindness and professionalism.
- Stay on topic: Focus on AI, teaching practices, and classroom experiences.
- No product support requests: Direct technical or account issues to Turnitin Support.
- Protect privacy: Do not share personally identifiable information.
- Engage constructively: Ask thoughtful questions and build on shared insights.
Helpful resources to support your participation:
- Turnitin Clarity: An annotated hotlist for educators
- Strengthening the reading-writing connection with AI
- Guide for approaching AI-generated text
- Responsible AI use checklist [Students’ Guide]
- Getting started with AI writing at Turnitin [Instructors Guide] [Administrators Guide]
- Diving deeper with AI writing at Turnitin [Instructors Guide] [Administrators Guide]
Start the conversation:
Reply to this post with your questions and join educators around the world in exploring responsible AI use together. We look forward to learning with you.
20 replies
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Welcome to AI in Education: Exploring Responsible Use Together (#AskTurnitin x ACUE)!
If you have questions for and about responsible AI use in education, this is the space to ask. We’re excited to hear what’s on your mind!
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Hello everyone!
I am honored and excited to be able to engage with all of you! Relevant, timely, critical - all of these words come to mind when I think about AI and education right now. Look forward to the questions and the conversation! -
Welcome to TEN! I'm thrilled you're making time to join us, with both the ACUE perspective, as well as your many years of educator experience in secondary and higher education.
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Thank you! Yes, I have been in education for over 30 years!
It is crazy to think about the technology education class I had in 1992, where I learned how to use film strip projectors and transparencies, to now...I never in my wildest dreams did I envision where we are today. I started my career as a social studies teacher, was a charter school director in several schools here in Utah, and was a teacher education professor. In COVID, I stepped into the position of the Digital Fluency Faculty in Residence at Weber State University, where I was introduced to ACUE. All of this experience should add to the conversation! -
My technology in education involved film strips and actual film projectors ~ we've come a long way, and I'm so grateful that I've been able to adapt along the way. While AI has certainly been a challenge to educators, I hope that it's also seen as an opportunity!
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Agreed, and me too - adaptability is one of our incredible skills as educators. AI is transforming the way I teach, interact with my students (ie, building stronger relationships, transparency), and create authentic learning experiences. Frankly, after 30 years in education, AI was the creative and critical boost I needed to re-engage with why I became a teacher in the first place. AI has pushed me to center the student and think deeply about the technological AND human skills they will need as they move through life.
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Hi everyone, Patti here—welcome to our two week-long #AskTurnitin conversation!
Regular TEN members will probably remember from our late 2025 live event that I’m the Senior Director of Customer Engagement here at Turnitin. I have a deep background in education before I came to the company, having been a classroom teacher, a principal, a curriculum and programs supervisor, as well as teaching as an adjunct in teacher preparation.
For this event, I’m thrilled to continue the conversation we started in a live webinar back in January, with our partners at ACUE. and I will be here live for the next hour and throughout the next two weeks of the event, taking your questions around AI and its impact on education. We had over 3,000 registrants for that live event, and we hope to see similar engagement here over the course of this event.
As Kat and Stephanie have already said, we can't wait to hear from you! Drop your thoughts or questions below—big or small. We’re excited to learn from you and support your conversations about responsible, balanced AI use over the next 2 weeks.
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Well since no one has jumped in yet, I will. :) Our campus has TurnItIn, but we are not using AI detection features. We've been reluctant to implement built-in "AI detection" because of experiences some faculty and admin have had (at other institutions) where students were faced with a hasty charge of academic dishonesty based on "AI detection" results from TurnItIn. Using separate web-based AI "detection" tools gives us an opportunity to have a discussion with faculty who ask about AI detection, so that we can offer them tools, but also bring up issues like incorrect identification of Grammarly-checked writing as AI generated, problems that ESL students can encounter if they write in their home language and then use AI as a translation tool, etc. My question is, what would be your suggested implementation strategy for launching integrated TurnItIn AI detection, while making sure that faculty don't just use it as a shortcut to avoid having nuanced conversations with students about the use of AI?
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This is a great topic to kick things off. Thank you for jumping in. I want to invite to jump in here. Karen has created many of our resources, including a number that are about how to approach this topic. From my vantage point, I like to start with this resource - One piece at a time: Solving the AI writing puzzle
This AI puzzle not only links to many different resources, but it also does a good job of demonstrating how AI detection is only ONE piece of the puzzle. For me, I think it really begins with setting policy (links to some of our guidance around developing policy) and helping educators understand that detection should never be a single determiner of misconduct. No matter the number from an AI detector, there's context that has to come around it in order to determine the right path forward. What would you add? Which resources would you highlight for Jennifer? -
Thank you for jumping in!
To begin, I understand being reluctant, from my own experience and talking with faculty around the world...we want to be so mindful of how we are implementing and using integrated AI detection tools. I feel like many faculty want a detection tool, because of the reassurance or catch element, but to your point, often these are inaccurate and unjustly impact certain students. Here are my thoughts...the nuanced conversations matter!! These conversations are central to our work as faculty, and it pushes us to shift our focus from "policing" to "pedagogy" - this is hard and takes time for many folks. I suggest pairing TurnItIn with a student-voice baseline established through early, low-stakes assignments, so that we have a much stronger human compass to enter into these conversations with students. I like to model how to use the tool as a partner in their writing, thinking about (and talking with the students about) their progress vs. focusing on the final product. -
I love that idea! In one of our earliest blogs after ChatGPT really hit the scenes, we talked about the need to get a baseline writing sample.
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That's an interesting thought. My concern about built-in AI detection tools connected to Blackboard Assignments (as an instructional technologist) is that instructors could find it so easy to turn on AI detection (basically just click a checkbox) that they are tempted to use it as a substitute for engaging with students on the topic of AI. As I'm sure you know, there are of course faculty who find AI bewildering and difficult to grapple with, who would rather it just didn't exist. I can imagine them using detection to sort of bypass the issue, while putting something into place that they can point to and say they are dealing with AI. (At the same time, I would rather they had some recourse other than forcing students to hand-write assignments on paper!)
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I do understand that concern, and we hear from educators around the world how overwhelming this can all be. That's part of why our team has created so many resources these last few years; we want to provide as much support as possible to head off that temptation.
Another way to approach this is with a tool like https://www.turnitin.com/products/feedback-studio/clarity. Turnitin Clarity offers the insights that come with our AI and similarity detection, but it adds so much more. When students draft in Turnitin Clarity, educators can see the writing process happening with visibility into their drafting, revision, and even their use of AI tools (within the bounds of what the educator sets as acceptable). It brings all of those pieces of the puzzle I mentioned in my earlier post together. In my own classroom practice, I was always trying to tease out how the writing came together by looking at artifacts along the way and asking questions in writing conferences, but with a tool like this, it would have made all of that transparent for me. -
Thank you, Patti. We are asking for budget for Clarity. I appreciate that the TurnItIn team is working hard to make all of this work well for both educators and students.
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Look forward to more questions and the sharing of ideas over the next two weeks!
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-- I'm really excited to see your question because I think it's one that applies to so many educators and institutions! Thanks for tagging me in,
The first thing I want to say is this: The AI detection score has never been intended to be the first and only thing someone does; it is only the starting point! While it might be reassuring if AI detection was that mythical "easy button, it is not, and should be used as the start of a conversation, the nuanced one that mentioned.
I'm going to share two different approaches: the first reflects the conversations that need to happen. The other is a more comprehensive look at what integrating these tools might look like.- Conversations
- What AI integration might look like for educators
There are other resources like the ones in #2 for administrators as well that follow a similar structure, should you be interested.
Hope these help! -
We received a thoughtful question from TEN member who shares:
“I am an associate professor in learning and teaching at the University of Hertfordshire. My interests are AI and pedagogy particularly the scholarship of teaching and learning. I am interested in working with educators to discuss strategies for curriculum design to support effective use of AI in learning. At my university, conversations are underway to consider a symposium to support staff in developing effective teaching practices whilst supporting student learning responsibly. With this contextual backdrop, I would like to kick start the discussion by asking:
What strategies/interventions are you developing to support/educate staff and students in effective use of AI as a pedagogic tool?
Based on point 1 above, what policies or regulations have you developed in light of AI’s rapid advance in HE? Is this part of a Turnitin policy or a broader academic misconduct framework?
I see this space as a network for sharing ideas and collaborating on best practice. I would love to use the expertise of this group to support a common framework for developing AI pedagogies in HE.”
and fellow educators — do you have any insights, examples, or resources you might share in response to Earle’s questions?
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Here's insights into this question:
These are excellent questions, and I am glad to hear that your university is taking proactive steps to support faculty with their teaching practices, while also helping students learn to use AI responsibly, which is critical. Below are a few suggestions I would offer:
One of the most effective strategies for educating both staff and students is the intentional modeling of AI use in real time, which shifts the focus from the final product to the critical thinking required to get there. By performing a live interaction with an AI tool in front of the class, you can verbalize your metacognitive thoughts. Students are to hear the internal dialogue as if it were from you as they navigate the tool's limitations and strengths. (Students learn so much from this vulnerable and powerful example of self-talk in making decisions.) In the teacher world, we use the term “call your shots”. For instance, as you prompt the AI, you might narrate why you are choosing a particular tool or how you are fact-checking its output for accuracy. This approach creates a productive learning environment where showing your work and thinking through your choices becomes the standard, helping students develop their own analytical skills and find their unique voice. By making our thought process visible, we transition the AI from a shortcut to a powerful pedagogic tool that requires human oversight and purposeful, deliberate choices.
From my experience as a professor and supporting faculty with their digital pedagogy, I recommend avoiding banning AI; instead, we can help faculty redesign assignments so that the process is just as important as the product. This aligns strongly with focusing on authentic assessment design, which research has shown to be more effective and impactful for student learning and the ability to transfer learning to a new context or situation.
One of my go-to terms, which I started using during COVID and is even more relevant as I teach students how to use AI effectively and safely, is “Compassionate Accountability”. I have found it is best to move away from punitive language and focus on transparency. For example, during the first week of class, we co-create a Norms/Expectations document… and it is the conversation that takes place that is most important… as faculty and students, we discuss when and how AI can be used for assignments and when it will hinder their (our) learning. And, when students are involved in co-creating the class norms, they are more likely to “follow their own rules”; buy-in is heightened.
One other strategy would be to create a Teaching and Learning with AI Community of Practice among faculty. To embed this strategy into the campus culture, you can utilize the ACUE Quick Studies on AI as the foundational content. Faculty can move through the Quick Studies at their own pace, but join collaboratively to discuss their key takeaways and learnings. This structure provides a dedicated space where faculty can troubleshoot real-time challenges, while sharing successful AI-infused or redesigned assignments. Within this CoP, the focus remains on building student efficacy and confidence through relationships and authentic assessment, and that faculty grow their own AI expertise alongside their students.
To those reading this, what are your thoughts? Are you also developing strategies to support the effective use of AI in learning and teaching?
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Stay tuned for a brand new resource being published this week that may help educators begin using AI in assignments ... or at least start that discussion! -
Yes, yes, yes to all of 's wonderful suggestions! I am also a passionate believer in modeling and "think aloud" strategies to help make the thinking visible for students. I have said many times that if we leave a gap in thinking for students, what they fill it with will NOT be the same as what we assume.
In addition to those great techniques, I think there is a very, very simple one for helping educators meet the moment: read. Now, I know there is a lot out there, and it is very challenging to find the time to sort through it all, but the Turnitin team has been hard at work so you don't have to. This is the 4th edition of our Annotated Hot List of key thinking around AI, and reading this collection will help to build the foundational understanding that helps with everything already mentioned.
The other thing that I think is essential is building a safe space for students to practice using AI, with guardrails so that they can understand what it does and doesn't do well and how using it affects their own learning process. If educators don't provide that safe space, where else will students practice WITH guidance? For example, how do they learn about what works best with AI prompting? Just running wild with it won't be the learning environment we'd want for our students, and it certainly won't be equitable across all groups of students. A space like Turnitin Clarity, where students can practice using an AI assistant and educators can have visibility into how they're using AI is a practical place for that kind of guided practice to occur. AND we just happen to have a fantastic student video to help!