Many schools and districts are trying to figure out how to ensure academic integrity as new technologies continue to emerge, like generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications such as ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, and more.

I’ve put together four takeaways to ensure school and district leaders implement effective strategies to address the impact of emerging technologies on student learning.

1) Provide AI Training and Resources

A survey by Common Sense found that 58% of students ages 12 to 18 have used ChatGPT and 77% of parents are excited about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. Knowing there is excitement about these tools, how can you use them to your advantage? My first recommendation is to provide your teachers, support staff, students, and parents with training and resources related to new technology like AI.

Here is a list of resources I highly recommend:

• A toolkit by Teach AI that’s designed to help schools and districts create guidelines to help their teachers, students, and parents realize the potential benefits of incorporating AI in education while mitigating potential risks.
• A webinar by EducationWeek that includes academic integrity experts and school leaders. In the session, they discuss ways teachers can adjust instructional and assessment practices to use AI, how models like ChatGPT work, and resources to encourage open dialogue about AI and its impact on students.
• A 15-hour, self-paced course by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) teaches educators about the various types of AI and how to make these technologies accessible to staff and students.

2) Use Academic Integrity Tools

The great news is that there are tools you, your teachers, and your staff can use to detect if students use AI. One tool I recommend is Turnitin, which has been around for more than 20 years to promote academic integrity, streamline grading, deter plagiarism, and improve student outcomes. Recently, they launched an AI writing detection tool to help educators identify text that may have been prepared by an app like ChatGPT.

3) Know Your Students

While there are tools to help detect if new technology was used on a student’s assignment, they may not always be accurate. This is why human judgment is critical when determining if academic misconduct has occurred. If there is one takeaway I hope you walk away with, it’s to encourage your teachers to have more one-to-one conversations with their students so they can better understand their needs and build rapport.

4) Encourage Innovation

Encourage your teachers and staff to brainstorm ways they can leverage ChatGPT to benefit students. For example, while students could use ChatGPT to write an entire essay, there are ways to use the tool to deepen students’ understanding of grammar and essay structures. Have students create an AI-generated essay and have them deconstruct and evaluate it. Can they find the thesis statement, is there a hook, a central idea, evidence to back up the argument, etc.?

You could even use ChatGPT to develop games and quizzes based on the curriculum, which will allow students to engage with their learning in a new way. See if they can beat the AI knowing additional details or answering questions quicker.

I hope these four takeaways help you refine and enhance your academic integrity guidelines as emerging technology continues to change the way we teach and learn. If you’re interested in learning more about this topic or how to implement academic integrity guidelines in the online learning environment, please connect with our team.