Suggestions for Dealing with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Produced Assignments

The following suggestions are designed to help faculty deal with the issue of students submitting essays (and other assignments) that are produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

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 12-11-2023 Provost Update: AI Detection Feature within Turnitin.com

After consultation with the Faculty Senate, the Teaching and Learning with Technology Committee, and the Honor Council, the University has decided to allow the AI detection feature within Turnitin.com to expire at the end of December 2023. Too much uncertainty exists, much of it related to accuracy, for the University to retain the feature at this time. This decision is consistent with determinations made at many of the University's comparator institutions. Questions? Please contact Dr. J. Wesley (Wes) Null, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Academic Affairs.

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Faculty who require essays may want to use these proactive strategies:

• Utilize the University's recommended syllabus statements for undergraduate student classes found at this link: Syllabus Statement. 
• Discuss this issue with students on the first day of class, communicate your expectations to them, and make clear to students that submitting work produced by an AI system as their own is not acceptable and is a violation of Baylor’s Honor Code.
• Familiarize yourself with AI systems. Try some of the essay prompts or assignments you have used in the past to see how these systems work and to see what they produce.  The better you know, for example, what ChatGPT will produce, the better you can design your assignments to address potential issues.
• Require writing to be done in class (by hand if possible).
• Write essay prompts that are specific enough to other class assignments such that vague essays produced by AI systems won’t be possible.
• Consider incorporating personal reflections from students into essays where possible.
• AI systems appear not to be very good when addressing topics after 2021.  Where possible, consider incorporating something about very recent events into essays.
• AI bots appear to struggle with accuracy with regard to in-text citations and reference lists.  Require both in your essays, where possible, and then look for errors.
• Consider requiring students to submit multiple drafts of an essay (using what is often referred to as a “scaffolding” approach to writing instruction) that students then revise based upon your feedback. 
• Require a combination of in-person and outside-of-class writing assignments so that a student’s outside-of-class writing can be compared to his/her writing that is produced in class.
• Incorporate a verbal exam requirement tied to an essay so that students are required to discuss what they are turning in.
• Look for vague general comparisons that tend to “beg the question” as opposed to getting at the heart of an essay topic.
• Look for factual claims that are asserted confidently but turn out to be false on closer inspection.
• Look for claims that are backed up with citations of “evidence” but evidence that doesn’t support the claims made.

Additional resources to consider:

AI Detection Added to Turnitin  https://honorcode.web.baylor.edu/sites/g/files/ecbvkj911/files/2023-04/AI_Detection_Added_to_Turnitin_Notice_to_Faculty--April_3_2023.pdf 

AI and the Future of Undergraduate Writing  https://www.chronicle.com/article/ai-and-the-future-of-undergraduate-writing

What is ChatGPT And How Can You Use It?  https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-chatgpt/473664/#close

Five Ideas for How Professors Can Deal with GPT-3…For Now  https://christianscholars.com/four-ideas-for-how-professors-can-deal-with-gpt-3for-now/

ChatGPT and Education  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Vo9w4ftPx-rizdWyaYoB-pQ3DzK1n325OgDgXsnt0X0/mobilepresent?slide=id.p

Teaching: Will ChatGPT Change the Way You Teach?  https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/teaching/2023-01-05?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_5873610_nl_Academe-Today_date_20230106&cid=at&source=ams&sourceid=

Does artificial intelligence help students cheat?  https://www.cbsnews.com/video/does-artificial-intelligence-help-students-cheat/

What Will ChatGPT Mean for Teaching?  https://soundcloud.com/edsurge/what-will-chatgpt-mean-for-teaching

New York Times - Alarmed by Chatbots  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/technology/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-universities.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20230117&instance_id=82886&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=20969761&segment_id=122722&te=1&user_id=5dc532986c8dd716f32cb63d8859ccf6

ChatGPT and the Rise of AI  https://christianscholars.com/chatgpt-and-the-rise-of-ai/

ChatGPT Can't Kill Anything Worth Preserving  https://biblioracle.substack.com/p/chatgpt-cant-kill-anything-worth

Teaching: Rethinking Research Papers, and Other Responses to ChatGPT  https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/teaching/2023-02-02?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_6088609_nl_Academe-Today_date_20230203&cid=at&source=ams&sourceid=

Classroom Policies for AI Generative Tools  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RMVwzjc1o0Mi8Blw_-JUTcXv02b2WRH86vw7mi16W3U/edit

4 Steps to Help You Plan for ChatGPT in Your Classroom  https://www.chronicle.com/article/4-steps-to-help-you-plan-for-chatgpt-in-your-classroom?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_7196248_nl_Academe-Today_date_20230706&cid=at&source=ams&sourceid=&sra=true

Provided by the Provost's Office --Revised December 11, 2023, Modified 1-5-24