We’ve been writing a lot recently about how AI tools hold huge promise for a range of use cases within schools, namely in streamlining school processes or helping students learn. But just as they can help students with their work, it can also do it for them.
Cheating with AI has been seen at most education phases, from teenagers at school to young adults at university who usually use chatbots like ChatGPT to quickly complete essays and other writing assignments. However, with many schools and education leaders encouraging the use of AI in the classroom, with homework, and for revision, it can be hard to know where to draw the line.
In this blog we’ll explore how school children are using AI, what constitutes cheating or plagiarism with AI and isn’t allowed, and how to prevent cheating with AI.
How are students using AI for learning?
As learning tools
There are countless AI tools designed to help students understand and learn course material and test their knowledge, from tutor chatbots that offer a personalised learning experience to assistive technology that supports students with learning difficulties (e.g. tools that transcribe voice to text). Many popular learning tools developed before the advent of AI, like Quizlet, now also offer AI capabilities that have enhanced their offering, such as tailoring study tools to individual learning systems.
For homework help
There is still some debate over whether students should use AI to help with homework, but many establishments agree that it can be used to support the information gathering process and to help them come up with ideas, so chatbots are a popular option. Some writing tools, like grammar and spelling checkers, also now use AI to help students rephrase wording and improve their writing.
At what point does using AI become cheating?
Each establishment will have its own rules on the use of AI for assignments and what counts as cheating or plagiarism. Usually these rules include the following, but please check your establishment’s own rules and make sure your students fully understand them:
- Submitting AI-generated work as their own
- Submitting work that contains any part which has been generated by AI
- Using AI during a remote test or assignment without permission
- Not mentioning they’ve used AI when required
Cheating or plagiarism usually falls under using AI to generate an assignment without the student declaring that they’ve used AI or using it when they’ve been instructed not to. Typically, explicit permission is required to use it and to only use it in specific ways. If allowed to use it, students may also need to cite their AI sources, and if trained on a particular source, it needs to be credited.
How to prevent cheating with AI
Make the rules for using AI clear
To ensure students don’t accidentally use AI when they’re not supposed to, make sure the establishment’s rules and the contexts in which they apply are very clear. Ensure students know what the consequences of cheating with AI are, too. For assignments where any AI use is forbidden, explicitly state this.
Educate your students on AI and how to use it effectively
If students aren’t fully aware of how AI works, they might not understand how using it could count as cheating or plagiarism. They may also not know about the downsides of using AI, either, such as how it can produce misinformation or that it can put personal data at risk.
Make sure they understand how cheating and plagiarism affects them
It’s easy to understand why so many students opt to use ChatGPT: it’s a quick way to do a task they might not be interested in doing. But writing an essay, for instance, is an effective learning technique and helps prep them for coursework and exams, as well as for future learning. Help them understand that skipping out on doing the work now could cost them later.
Encourage the appropriate use of AI
Give assignments and tasks that explicitly call for the use of AI tools at specific stages to help them improve their AI proficiency and understand why AI works best in some contexts and not in others.
Learn more about AI in schools in our webinar series
Over the past few months we’ve hosted three webinars for school staff, teachers, and leaders on AI in education: so far we’ve covered the AI basics, the most practical use cases of AI in schools, and how AI will shape education in the future. You can catch the recordings of all three webinars here – over 600 people attended the webinars, so come see what all the fuss it about!
We’ll be hosting more AI webinars in the autumn, so keep an eye on our events page for information about our next one.
