How common is it for students to use AI to complete their assignments?

[Darkling1]

Either at school, college and university.

I’m asking as a friend of mine is having her university assignment investigated for potential AI use. Friend swears that she didn’t use AI to complete this work.

Is it commonplace now?

to be honest I don’t think it’s admirable to “know nothing about AI.”

It’s like tech-illiterate people who may say “I know nothing about computers” or “I don’t know how to use the internet/printers/smartphones” etc.

it’s good to have a baseline understanding of AI as it is so widely used in society and isn’t going to go away. This doesn’t mean you have to use AI, but actively having zero knowledge isn’t great.

Did I ask for admiration? No. I did not say it was a good thing that I know nothing about AI. It's a fact. If I get interested in it I may find out more about it. I may soak up knowledge through going about my normal life. I know quite a lot about computers etc. I no longer work and at the moment have no need to know about AI. If you want to tell us all about it please feel free. Will that make you less judgy?

Extremely common I would say.

However, I've just done a professional course and my work was scanned for AI and it would come back saying X% is AI generated - when I hadn't been near an AI tool. I've just been in work a long time, and my writing tends to be quite formal. The threshold was 20% - if it was below that it was accepted.

Also - tools like Grammarly etc flag up and count as AI as well.

Anyone who has used a spell checker has been using an early form of pattern recognition AI

the approach that I support is to allow use of AI so long as the questions put and answers provided are included as an appendix.

I'm doing a degree and I never use it.

I'm there to learn - to read, to extrapolate, to critically analyse.

Tons of posts on reddit about people being investigated.

They’re just going to have to move to a system of 100% exam assessment. Which is pretty shit because some people just don’t perform well
in exam conditions. All because of a load of lazy cheats.

Those claiming it's always very obvious when students have used it... I disagree. It's obvious if they've asked AI and simply submitted the outcome, or made very minimal changes. But most students are smarter than that and know to substantially reword or restructure the content so it isn't detectable.

Very very common at my college only this afternoon I took my students through the use of AI. I believe turnitin is only 67% accurate at detecting it which may lead to litigation. Lecturers who are up to date on the use of AI can spot it easily but we are in the minority most of our lecturers haven’t got a clue which is to their detriment given it very easily does half my job for me.

I love AI.

I use it reasonably though, I hope. So on a recent course I would capture as many ideas as I could and then verify I was on the right track using AI. So no copy & paste at all.

At work I write reports and run any clunky paras through in-house AI to make them more concise or clear.
I'll also ask AI to summarise the salient points.

It's a brilliant tool as an enhancement to your own work. But the temptation to just ask it to write an essay in XYZ, copy & paste must be so strong for students.

My son is in year 7 and they just had to do a hand in assessment for history. They were subsequently told that at least 50% had used AI, it was obvious and if they did it again they would receive 0. It’s wildly obvious at age 12, especially when classwork is fundamentally different to the handed in work.

My older son finds it difficult because he made the decision not to use AI apart from reviewing his work once he had received it back, but he said in a recent assessment kids who he knew had used AI (they openly brag about it) got higher marks than he did. He’s now saying he’ll run his work through it before he hands it in “for feedback” but you can totally understand why kids use it when it’s getting them better marks.

Using AI is the default. Universities have started to make their essay questions in a way that AI can be used minimally. Like perosnal reflection on the lecture discussion, diaries, perosnal experiences etc. So rhey at least have to read the AI answer and do some changes.

I’ve told my kids to use it like an extra pair of eyes before they turn in work. So do the work, then run their work through it for feedback on style and content and use it in the same way as they would use teacher feedback, or asking me to run my eye over a piece of work. But the temptation for the less able kids to get it to do the work for them, I can imagine is huge.

My fave has been when a student returned an essay for her law school course. The AI had made up laws that didn't exist. It might is some country, but not here.

It depends on n the subject in our university but Ai use will be commonplace if it is not already., on most courses v soon. We do not use ai detection software as it isn't reliable. We do spot Ai use but sometimes it is fair use such as grammerly for students with dyslexia.

Using Genai without acknowledgement is the issue. There must be transparency into the same way that students must learn academic referencing. Students are allowed to use it. It's how they use it which is the challenge for all of us.

At work I have to source a lot of information and it irritates me that the first return on a search is always AI. I tend to use manufacturer's websites rather than AI as most of the information I am after is inaccurate or incorrect.

I'm not a fan.

Google AI talks a load of bollocks. I googled my name once and it told me I was an up and coming musician (I’m tone deaf and the only person with my name!)

If I ask chat gpt anything I make it cite its sources. It has been known to make them up.

DC2 used jt all the time at university and does well in exams and coursework. They are dyslexic and have language processing issues so this technology is a boon for them to improve their written English.I see no harm in it and they will be able to use it in the workplace in the same way.

That sounds great. Sadly, I think a number of students will use it as the easy option rather than as a useful aid.

I know teachers who use AI to complete their entire school reports too btw.

? I seem to have hit a nerve for whatever reason.

my point was simply that it’s good to have awareness of AI, even if you don’t work. Eg if you are going to search for work in the future, it would be useful to know how AI is being adopted in recruitment. it’s fine not to engage with AI but it is changing society in ways, so awareness helps you evolve.

Yes you did touch a nerve. I did not like the judgy and preachy tone of your message.

University humanities department. We've switched back to traditional exams largely because of it.

I was very surprised by the lack of essays and coursework in ds GCSEs, really nothing that wasn't done in school. I must have written at least 10 papers for English, history, geography, politics.

Assume this is the reason. Its sad because ds does not perform in exams and exams don't replicate real world situations.

I use ai all the time in my work, as soon as I'm asked to do anything I ask copilot to write key points or I stick a paper in to check spelling and grammar or get it to turn a, paper into a PowerPoint.

Its very useful but is often way off the mark so can't replace knowledge. This is how we should be teaching kids to work not testing memory.

For many universities that will be logistically impossible. Numbers of students have increased massively and many unis just don't have the space for everyone to do face to face exams anymore, particularly with the increase of those requiring additional support - private rooms, scribes etc. Our uni would buckle under the pressure. There's also resistance as many international students would not be able to pass an exam, and we are financially reliant on them. I have no idea what will happen - there seems to be increasing acceptance of AI within particular parameters, and about the need to "teach students to use it appropriately". I find it really depressing.

It’s commonplace and it’s super obvious

DH - uni- says this but he's used to to be aware of what it looks like and it's in his fields boarder range.

He says if it's used as a starting point so it's not obvious ie for a structure or formating he doesn't care and actually thinks it fine at least in his field - but he does have high expectations.

All the uni have plagiarism software - so assume detection been added to that.

He tends to be less enamoured about it than many posters on here - it's a tool regurgitating what out there and he tells his student you can't trust the references it generates.

I was very surprised by the lack of essays and coursework in ds GCSEs, really nothing that wasn't done in school. I must have written at least 10 papers for English, history, geography, politics.

We've said similar and DH says some older colleges say they could see when they started to be phased out in schools as the students started to struggle with it much more.