This page is based on Chatbots & Critical Pedagogy from AI in the Classroom.
On this page, find ideas for class assignments that effectively incorporate the use of AI, information about AI detection tools, and more.
AI Detection Tools are in development; however, results must be interpreted cautiously because the tools can be unreliable. Due to false positives, JMU does not currently endorse or recommend a detection tool.
The general practice of citation is that you cite anything that comes from somewhere else; anything that isn't your original thought, isn't common knowledge, and/or is a place where you pulled information from.
Where an assignment requires an AI source to be cited, you must reference all the content from tool that you include in your assignment. Failure to reference externally sourced, non-original work can result in scholastic dishonesty. References should provide clear and accurate information for each source and should identify where they have been used in your work.
Chatbots can follow this format easily. Encourage your students' originality by moving away from this formulaic format.
In the short-term, you can have your students write essays in class and on paper.
Use collaborative activities and discussions to mitigate the use of chatbot responses in your class.
While students may generate ideas from a chatbot, they will need to discuss with one another whether they want to use the chatbot responses, if they fit the prompt, and if they are factually accurate.
Engage your students in meaning-making activities to demonstrate their learning.
This could include: Skits*, Drawings and Sketches, Concept Mapping, Infographics*, Digital Storytelling*, or Write* or revise Wikipedia articles (Wiki Education). Other ideas from:
* Note that a chatbot can provide an outline for these activities.
Brain dumps are an ungraded recall strategy.
The practice involves pausing a lecture and asking students to write everything they can recall about a specific topic. Read more at:
During or after writing, students explain their process or thinking.
Students could:
Consider using planned or impromptu oral exams.
You may consider including phrasing in your syllabus about conducting oral exams if you suspect plagiarism through the use of a chatbot.
When selecting readings, consider sourcing more obscure texts for your students to read.
Chatbots may have less information in their training data on obscure texts. As an example, the New York Times reports that, "Frederick Luis Aldama, the humanities chair at the University of Texas at Austin, said he planned to teach newer or more niche texts that ChatGPT might have less information about, such as William Shakespeare’s early sonnets instead of 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream'" (Huang, 2023).
(Note that ChatGPT is currently trained on data through 2021. Some educators suggest using newer writings and research, but this strategy isn't foolproof since the training models for chatbots are updated frequently.)
Coordinate times to take your class to conduct field observations; students can note their observations and write a reflection about their experience.
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