November 10, 2023
Since the release of ChatGPT just under a year ago, educators everywhere have been in a state of panic. This has primarily been because of concerns over how easy it makes it for students to cheat or plagiarize. However, regardless of the tools at their disposal, we know that students cheat when they are under stress, do not have the support needed to do their best work, or feel the assignments are irrelevant. Thus, while Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) certainly makes cheating easier to do and harder to detect and prove, the same solutions still apply.
Writing can be done in class, and it is not the only thing we can assign. Students can complete projects, design experiments, engage in debates or dialogue, produce artifacts, and give speeches or performances. All of these often require the same thinking skills we are assessing when we assign an extended essay. In short, we can ask students to demonstrate evidence of their learning in ways that are directly observable. And when we do ask students to write outside of class, we should assign them topics that matter to them and that they have some expertise in and knowledge…
