(How) Should Students Use AI?

It’s tempting to come up with one policy that will work for every scenario, the way we have a single policy for other aspects of academic integrity such as plagiarism. For example, maybe it’s okay to use AI for idea generation, but not for writing an essay. But what if the teacher wanted to teach students how to generate ideas? 

Students learn when they practice the target skills, and when that practice is not too hard or too easy. They also learn better when they get immediate feedback and reflect on their learning. AI can help them with all of this. It’s up to the teacher and then potentially up to each student to decide for themselves whether a given use of AI is helping their learning, or doing their work for them in a way that harms their learning. 

AI could be used to break down a complex task and scaffold it the same way a teacher would, for example coming up with sentence starters or an outline for note-taking. AI could also be used to complete tasks that are not relevant to the learning goals at hand. For example, students in a science class making a brochure about a genetic disease that they researched are likely practicing research skills and the content of genetics, so they could use AI to help design the brochure. Whereas students in a graphic design class could get the same project, and use AI for the science and research needs, but do the design themselves. 

But just because it’s a complex problem does not mean there needs to be a complex solution.

This AI tool creates an AI policy for a given assignment, given the assignment, the grade, and the class, by taking a guess at the learning goals and then aligning acceptable and unacceptable AI uses with those goals. 

In the example above, the AI came up with this policy:

Step 1: Identify Potential Requirements and Goals

Potential Requirements:

• • Select and research a genetic disease.
  • Explain the genetic basis of the disease (inheritance patterns, mutations, chromosomes, genes involved).
  • Connect the disease clearly to concepts learned in class (e.g., dominant/recessive traits, Punnett squares, DNA structure, mutations).
  • Present findings clearly and creatively in a chosen format (video, poster, brochure, etc.).
  • Cite sources and references accurately.

Content Goals:

• • Understand genetic concepts (genes, chromosomes, inheritance patterns, mutations).
  • Understand how genetic diseases occur and their implications.
  • Connect classroom genetics concepts to real-world examples.

Skills Goals:

• • Conduct independent research using credible sources.
  • Clearly communicate scientific information.
  • Organize and present information effectively in a chosen format.
  • Apply classroom knowledge to real-world scenarios.

Soft Skills Goals:

• • Creativity and originality in presentation.
  • Time management and planning.
  • Critical thinking and synthesis of information.
  • Collaboration and communication (if working in groups).
  • Ethical research practices (citing sources, avoiding plagiarism).

Step 2: Concrete Ways Students Could Scaffold Their Learning with AI (Acceptable Uses):

Content Goals:

• • Use AI chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT) to clarify difficult genetic concepts (e.g., "Explain autosomal recessive inheritance in simple terms").
  • Use AI to generate guiding questions for research (e.g., "What are important questions to ask when researching cystic fibrosis?").
  • Use AI to summarize complex scientific articles or websites into simpler language to help comprehension.

Skills Goals:

• • Use AI to help outline the structure of their presentation (e.g., "Give me an outline for a poster about sickle cell anemia").
  • Use AI to suggest credible sources or databases for research (e.g., "What are reliable websites or databases for researching genetic diseases?").
  • Use AI to check grammar, spelling, and clarity of their written explanations or scripts for videos.

Soft Skills Goals:

• • Use AI to brainstorm creative presentation ideas (e.g., "Suggest creative ways I could present information about Huntington’s disease to my classmates").
  • Use AI to help plan a timeline or checklist for completing the assignment (e.g., "Create a timeline for completing a research project on genetic diseases in one week").

Step 3: Concrete Ways Students Could Use AI That Should Count as Cheating (Unacceptable Uses):

Content Goals:

• • Asking AI to write the entire explanation of the genetic disease without student input or understanding (e.g., "Write a complete explanation of hemophilia for my poster").
  • Copying AI-generated text directly into their project without paraphrasing, citing, or demonstrating understanding.

Skills Goals:

• • Using AI to automatically create the entire final product (e.g., "Create a complete brochure about Tay-Sachs disease including all required information").
  • Using AI to generate citations without verifying or reading the original sources themselves.

Soft Skills Goals:

• • Relying entirely on AI to generate creative ideas without any student input or reflection.
  • Using AI to fabricate or invent research data or sources instead of conducting actual research.

Try it for your own assignment. Do you agree with the goals and suggested AI uses? Would you use this in your classroom?