How we’ve adapted coursework and essays to guard against AI


In a modern meeting room with large windows overlooking university buildings, a male and female academic are engaged in a discussion across a table. Between them, a glowing holographic shield icon labeled 'AI' is surrounded by other icons representing 'ADAPTED ASSESSMENTS: HUMAN PROOFED', 'ORAL DEFENSE', and 'HANDWRITTEN ASSFSSMENTS'. Other students are seen working on laptops in the background. The scene illustrates strategies for guarding against AI misuse in coursework. Generated by Nano Banana.
As AI tools become commonplace, educational institutions are proactively adapting their coursework and essay assignments to uphold academic integrity. This image visualizes educators implementing new assessment strategies, from human-proofed assignments to oral defenses, designed to ensure students are building their own knowledge and skills, rather than solely relying on AI. Image (and typos) generated by Nano Banana.

Source

Tes

Summary

An international school led by a history teacher rethinks assessment to preserve cognitive engagement in the age of AI. They’ve moved most research and drafting of A-level coursework into lessons (reducing home drafting), track each student’s writing path via Google Docs, require handwritten work at various key stages to discourage copy/paste, and engage students in dialogue about the pitfalls (“hallucinations”) of AI content. The strategy aims not just to prevent cheating, but to reinforce critical thinking, reduce procrastination, and make students more accountable for their own ideas.

Key Points

  • Coursework work (research + drafting) must be done partly in class, enabling oversight and reducing offsite AI use.
  • Monitoring via Google Docs helps detect inconsistencies in tone or sophistication that suggest AI assistance.
  • Handwritten assignments are reintroduced to reduce reliance on AI and minimise temptations to copy-paste.
  • Students are taught about AI’s unreliability (e.g. “hallucinations”) using historical examples of absurd errors (e.g. mixing battles, animals in wrong eras).
  • The reforms have modest benefits: less procrastination, more transparency, though challenges remain when students determined to cheat try to circumvent controls.

Keywords

URL

https://www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/specialist-sector/stopping-ai-cheating-how-our-school-has-adapted-coursework-essay-writing

Summary generated by ChatGPT 5


2025 Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition


Source

EDUCAUSE

Summary

The 2025 Horizon Report highlights generative AI (GenAI) as one of the most disruptive forces shaping higher education teaching and learning. It frames GenAI not merely as a technological trend but as a catalyst for rethinking pedagogy, assessment, ethics, and institutional strategy. GenAI tools are now widely available, reshaping how students learn, produce work, and engage with knowledge. The report emphasises both opportunities—personalisation, creativity, and efficiency—and risks, including misinformation, bias, overreliance, and threats to academic integrity.

Institutions are urged to move beyond reactive bans or detection measures and instead adopt values-led, strategic approaches to GenAI integration. This involves embedding AI literacy across curricula, supporting staff development, and redesigning assessments to focus on authentic, process-based demonstrations of learning. Ethical considerations are central: ensuring equity of access, safeguarding privacy, addressing sustainability, and clarifying boundaries of responsible use. GenAI is framed as a general-purpose technology—akin to the internet or electricity—that will transform higher education in profound and ongoing ways.

Key Points

  • GenAI is a general-purpose technology reshaping teaching and learning.
  • Opportunities include personalised learning, enhanced creativity, and staff efficiency.
  • Risks involve misinformation, bias, overreliance, and compromised academic integrity.
  • Detection tools are unreliable; focus should shift to assessment redesign.
  • AI literacy is essential for both staff and students across disciplines.
  • Equity and access must be prioritised to avoid deepening divides.
  • Ethical frameworks should guide responsible, transparent use of GenAI.
  • Sustainability concerns highlight the energy and resource costs of AI.
  • Institutional strategy must integrate GenAI into digital transformation plans.
  • Faculty development and sector-wide collaboration are critical for adaptation.

Conclusion

The report concludes that generative AI is no passing trend but a structural shift in higher education. Its potential to augment teaching and learning is significant, but only if institutions adopt proactive, ethical, and pedagogically grounded approaches. Success lies not in resisting GenAI, but in reimagining educational practices so that students and staff can use it critically, creatively, and responsibly.

Keywords

URL

https://library.educause.edu/resources/2025/5/2025-educause-horizon-report-teaching-and-learning-edition

Summary generated by ChatGPT 5