As we learned the 10 ways to adopt AI in education, it is undeniable that artificial intelligence (AI) is a remarkable technology that supports us very well in our prep work and improving our overall productivity effectively. In fact, AI can play an important role in helping our students in their study journey as well. Nevertheless, the accelerated development of AI technologies might lead to improper usage of students if us, as educators, don’t take any actions to manage. In this article, we’re going to dive in the rising issues around AI usage of students and several solutions to help us on how to manage students using AI.
The Rising Issues of Students Using AI
As AI-powered solutions are increasing significantly day by day, our students are also the audience that get impacted by this technology. However, along with the benefits that AI can bring, there are three crucial rising issues that might be out of hand if we don’t take it seriously.
1. Plagiarism and Misconduct
Since ChatGPT’s inception, one of the most pressing issues has been the use of AI technology by some students to generate free assignment work.
When used correctly, AI can help student’s efficiency in completing assignments, potentially offer an idea or perspective that might not have thought of, and reduce tedious tasks of research opening up for time for critical thinking. But on the other hand, if students attempt to let AI “do all the work,” it can put the academic system at risk by increasing problems related to plagiarism and misconduct. This attempt has had a negative impact on written assignment types such as essays, reports, theses, and so on.
Moreover, this situation can have a negative impact on students’ knowledge and learning journey. Using AI-powered tools for assignments and work practices can lead to brain laziness, which reduces students’ critical thinking abilities and increases their lack of understanding of the course material.
2. Ethics & Cheating
While AI can help students in collaboration when they are learning or researching, using AI during summative assessments is considered cheating. Academic dishonesty when it comes to exams and assessments is a major concern for educators, and the accessible opportunity for students to improperly use AI can negatively impact a student’s character development.
And the problem is, AI detection tools for teachers are not reliable. Tools like Turnitin have launched an AI detection model with classifiers trained to distinguish text written by human vs text written by AIs, but these models prioritize precision to reduce false positives and miss a lot of AI-generated content. As teachers, it is not only our responsibility to provide students with knowledge, but also to teach them valuable ethics and how to become good people. Which is why, teachers and educators also need to pay attention on this specific AI issue.
3. Misinformation
Lastly, AI is not a validated source. Although artificial intelligence can deliver information quickly that some even said using AI was better than search engines like Google, or Bing, the information retrieved using AI tools isn’t confirmed as a validated and credible source. In education, this means that the information that students found using AI won’t be approved as academic reference. Furthermore, the information that AI tools delivers can be biased info that found on the internet. As a result, it can mislead students to the rightful and justified academic knowledge.
How Teachers Can Manage Students Using AI? — A Student Guidance
1. Don’t ban it — Recommend AI Tools for Students
One effective way to prevent students from using misleading AI tools is to provide recommendations for them. Psychologists have found that the human brain tends to find forbidden things attractive, which can increase curiosity and lead to prohibited behavior. Rather than banning students from using AI tools, we should recommend specific tools they can use. This helps to encourage students to follow the recommendations made by their teachers.
One great example of this being done is the University of Sydney recently had its medical science students ask ChatGPT to write an essay for them, then they had to revise it, track their changes, and submit a final draft. Instead of simply compiling information, this tested their ability to exercise judgement too.
Mark Tech Post recently published an article listing the best AI tools for students in 2023. In their list, there are more than 10 tools are mentioned. Nevertheless, in this article, only 5 tools are picked based on their reputation, rating and function.
- Duolingo: The language-learning app Duolingo offers classes in over 30 languages. The software utilizes a combination of AI and linguistics to customize lessons to each individual’s skill level and learning speed.
- Pearson: A worldwide educational services provider with headquarters in the UK. Their digital learning resources are massive, and they also adopt latest technology, including AI, to aid online learning process.
- Century Tech: This platform provides an AI-based solution that integrates student data with cognitive neuroscience to create individualized lesson plans.
- Querium: An online education platform that offers personalized study plans in science and math subjects.
- Edmentum: This company is the go-to provider of online education for kids in grades K-12. Its products and services are designed to improve educational standards, boost student achievement, and increase educator efficiency.
2. Teach Ethical Usage
First of all, in order to help student on approaching AI tools properly and ethically, we should inform students to understand that AI tools are only supporting tools for their study. Moreover, plagiarism and misconduct should be well instructed to students as what kind of consequences and the uinethical factor of using AI for their submitted work. So that as a tool, AI shouldn’t be the key contributor to their work and their study, that their knowledge and work should come from themselves, nonetheless they can seek support from these tools.
3. Prioritize Fact Check
Resembling to a reporter doing fact check before airing the news, studying also needs fact check to assure the knowledge that we learn is justified and approved academically. For students, it could be difficult for them to do fact check themselves without instruction. Thus, as teachers, we need to teach our students how to check the knowledge that they found on random internet website is true and demonstrated.
The best way to do fact check is checking if the information was reported in any scholar articles, or statistic reports published by trustworthy data enterprise. In case students can’t find related academic articles, teachers can also suggest them to verify the information by looking through similar information on online publishers, or newspapers as well. If the density of the information that students found is recognized and published by various online publishers and newspapers, there’s a high chance that the information is well verified.
4. Consider adjusting exams & assignments
Although I said it’s better to work with AI then to ban it, you might want to consider adjusting your exams or structure of assignments to try and inhibit improper usage & academic dishonesty. Such as:
- Going back to traditional pen and paper to write essays or complete tests
- Increasing in-person assessments and essays rather then take-home
- Include the writing steps as part of the final submission to ensure that students show their work and avoid relying solely on AI writing assistants
- Using audio responses questions opposed to written
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing, particularly in the field of education. As this technology continues to grow, more software providers will likely develop technical solutions to address potential issues that may arise. However, as educators, we must also prepare ourselves and our students for the future by teaching them how to use this technology ethically and effectively.
While we wait for these solutions to become available, let’s take the initiative to prepare our students to adopt and adapt to AI — the technology of the future.
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