In this resource, we outline some ways to address AI language models in your writing classes. The key takeaway here is that you do need to address them. Don't pretend AI large language models don't exist. They exist and your students know about them. You know about them, too. There are not good ways of detecting student use of language models (such as ChatGPT) in their writing because AI detectors are unreliable. But there are good ways to talk to your students about AI language models and to help them meet the learning goals of your class—despite and even maybe with AI language models.
Preparing your class
Before the semester begins, there are several steps you can take to set your students up for success:
- Be clear what students are allowed to do with AI and what they're not allowed to do in your class. Have an AI policy in your syllabus (see our suggested policies). Students overwhelmingly indicate that they would like clarity about AI use in the policies in their classes. To foster transparency, encourage students to come to you with clarifications about your AI policy in your class.
- Teach AI literacy. Introduce students to the basics of how these tools work — how they use algorithms and large datasets to produce output. They are not magic and they do not "know" anything. You may also want to share a reading that explains how AI language models work.
- Ask your students what questions they have about AI. This technology is new to all of us, and students may have ideas and questions that will help you navigate its use in your course.
- Consider alternative grading methods such as labor-based or completion-based grading to credit students for their writing process rather than their writing products alone.
Encourage Ethical and Critical Use of AI in Your Courses
Several assignment design strategies can help students engage with AI critically and honestly:
- Talk about the goals of your assignments and what students are learning by doing them. Academic dishonesty is less frequent when students find intrinsic value in their work.
- Design assignments with clear learning goals centered on the process of writing rather than the product alone. Process-centered assignments are both better pedagogy and less susceptible to AI substitution.
- Stage assignments through smaller, low-stakes formative exercises, drafts, and multiple rounds of feedback from you or peers.
- Tell students: Remember that you are responsible for your writing. You cannot give the AI your authority and having AI do the writing will not absolve you of your responsibility to learn the material from this class. See, for instance, Nature’s guidelines for AI: they note that authorship implies responsibility and so AI can't be an author.
Recognizing and Responding to AI Writing
Despite your best efforts, a student may use AI in a way that's inconsistent with your policy. Be aware that AI detectors produce both false positives and false negatives, so they provide no definitive answer about whether AI was used. You cannot “ask” a generative AI tool if it wrote a passage because it doesn’t “know” or retain any of that information.
Rather than relying on detectors, the following signs may indicate AI use in student writing:
- Writing that is inconsistent in quality or style with the student's previous work
- Perfect spelling, grammar, and formal structure
- Disembodied or overly formal tone
- Inaccurate quotes or information from course texts
- Stock sentences and transitions such as "Overall," "In conclusion," or "However"
- Phrases such as "As a language model…" or text ending with "regenerate response"
- Students can't respond with ideas beyond what's on the paper when you talk to them
If you think a student might be using AI in a way that's inconsistent with your policy, first, invite them to discuss the assignment. Responding to potential academic integrity concerns with AI is very similar to responding to academic integrity concerns with plagiarism and contract cheating.
When you meet with the student, you might do the following:
- Ask the student to expand on the ideas they wrote about: "tell me more about…" "what were you thinking when you wrote this?"
- Ask them directly: what technologies did you use in composing this? Did you use AI at any stage of your writing?
- Restate your policies and those of the university. Make sure they understand what's allowed in your course.
- Unless a student says that they have used AI in their writing, it's impossible to prove that they have. AI detectors aren't reliable, you can't ask a generative AI tool if it wrote a paragraph, and you can't recreate the original text as you can, say, if a student copies text from a website.
- If you think a student has used AI in a way that's inconsistent with your AI policy, consider letting the student retry the assignment, revise what they've turned in, or otherwise find a way for the student to learn from the assignment as well as get some credit for their work.
- Reach out to colleagues, department chairs, the Center for Teaching and Learning, or Academic Integrity officials.
Resource composed by Tim Laquintano, Lafayette College and Annette Vee, University of Pittsburgh. CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons By-Noncommercial license). Free to adapt and use for educational contexts with acknowledgement to the authors and the University of Pittsburgh Writing Institute. Special thanks and credit for some of these ideas to Pitt English Composition faculty who participated in discussions on ChatGPT and AI writing in Spring 2023.