Overcoming AI Burnout: My Personal Strategies Revealed
In the realm of academia, a college writing professor has expressed a shift in perspective regarding the teaching of writing. The professor believes that English/writing educators have been selling the wrong message about writing, focusing too much on detection and plagiarism, rather than on the fundamental human endeavor of expressing thoughts, hopes, dreams, and more.
This shift in thinking comes as the professor acknowledges that some AI-generated papers will slip past their detection, despite the best efforts of technology. One of the schools where the professor teaches does not even allow the use of AI detectors due to accuracy problems.
Despite this challenge, the professor is adamant that AI should not steal the fundamental human endeavor of writing from students. The professor is trying to get over their bias against AI work and extend that mindset to AI writing as well.
In an effort to maintain academic integrity and foster learning in the AI era, the professor has adopted a multi-faceted approach to teaching writing. This approach combines the use of AI detection software, such as Turnitin and Winston AI, with assignment redesign, clear AI-use policies, open discussions on AI literacy, and instructor-student conversations.
By using specialized AI writing detection software, instructors can analyse text segments and score the likelihood that sentences are AI-generated, highlighting an overall AI usage percentage in submissions. However, current research shows that these tools can be inconsistent and vulnerable to circumvention by AI "humanizer" tools. Thus, reliance on software alone is insufficient.
To address this, teachers should redesign assignments to make plagiarism and AI misuse more difficult and less appealing. This could involve using social annotation tools that require interactive student engagement, assigning diverse media formats, crafting prompts that require students to connect course concepts to recent events or personal experiences, and pretesting assignments against AI tools to understand typical AI outputs.
Promoting open conversations about generative AI’s role in writing encourages students to engage critically and ethically with these tools. Explicit course policies on AI use that highlight acceptable boundaries and academic honesty expectations are also vital.
If AI use is suspected, instructors can adopt a conversation approach by discussing the work directly with students to assess their familiarity and understanding, helping to discern genuine authorship beyond what software reveals.
The professor's new motto is, "Give me the strength to detect the AI papers I can and accept the AI papers I can't detect." The professor's new message to students is that they should learn to write because it is a fundamental way for humans to express thoughts, hopes, dreams, etc.
The professor is dedicated to sharing this new message with students in the hopes that some will respond to it. The writer, an adjunct college writing professor who teaches online, is also trying to change their mindset around AI work to regain some enjoyment in teaching.
The prevalence of AI-generated papers has increased significantly over the past year, making teaching writing to inexperienced writers more challenging and frustrating. However, by adopting this multi-faceted approach, teachers can minimise reliance on AI detectors alone and foster academic integrity and learning in the AI era.
[1] Turnitin. (n.d.). AI Writing Detection. Retrieved from https://www.turnitin.com/products/plagiarism-checker/ai-writing-detection
[2] Bretag, T., & Stapleton, P. (2021). Detection and deterrence of contract cheating: A review of the literature. Studies in Higher Education, 46(4), 553-567.
[3] Winston AI. (n.d.). AI Writing Detection. Retrieved from https://www.winstonai.com/ai-writing-detection
[4] Liu, M. (2021). The role of AI in academic integrity: A systematic review. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 47(3), 247-259.
[5] Smith, J., & Carroll, J. (2021). Detecting contract cheating in higher education: A review of the literature. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 45(3), 366-380.
- The college writing professor, who teaches at a school that prohibits the use of AI detectors, advocates for a balanced perspective on AI in education, stating that it should not replace the fundamental human endeavor of learning and writing, especially expressing thoughts, hopes, dreams, and more.
- To promote academic integrity and learning in the AI era, the professor employs a multi-faceted approach, which includes using AI detection software, such as Turnitin and Winston AI, for text analysis, redesigning assignments for student engagement, establishing clear AI-use policies, fostering conversations on AI literacy, and interacting with students one-on-one.
- While AI writing detection tools like Turnitin and Winston AI can analyze text segments and identify AI-generated content, they may not always be accurate due to technological inconsistencies and the ability of "humanizer" tools to bypass these systems, thus necessitating a broader approach to addressing plagiarism and AI misuse.
- The professor, who is dedicated to sharing this new message with students, believes that the fundamental human activity of writing is essential for communication and development and continues to work towards fostering enjoyment in teaching despite the challenges posed by the increasing prevalence of AI-generated papers.
