Amanda Paxton, co-ordinator of the journalism and creative writing program at Trent’s Durham campus, on Tuesday.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The ubiquitous use of artificial intelligence by university and college students is forcing academics to rapidly adapt, with some making students use pen and paper instead of laptops with access to AI tools.
Mac Fenwick, an English literature instructor at Trent University, said a forthcoming federal AI strategy, being prepared by Minister Evan Solomon, should focus on how AI use has changed the classroom.
Mr. Fenwick believes that fighting the use of AI by students is a losing battle, warning that it’s an arms race they can’t win.
Yet, because of widespread AI use, he has adjusted the way he assesses students: “We have stepped back in time 30 years.”
This academic year, Mr. Fenwick jettisoned essays as a way of assessing final grades, after three quarters of his first-year class last year used AI to help them write their term papers.
He reintroduced exams, taken with pen and paper, for his first-year online students. Those that couldn’t physically make it to the classroom also took their exams the old-fashioned way – but in front of a camera, with software that blocked them from accessing generative AI.
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It became glaringly clear which of his students had been relying on AI for assignments when he graded their final exam: A handful of students with straight As in their coursework failed it.
Mr. Fenwick said they had seen their grades plummet because they had “not done any of the cognitive work” but had relied on machines to do their thinking for them.
“When ChatGPT erupted three years ago it was a seismic moment,” he said. “We need to be teaching students how to use this responsibly, how to use it productively and about the dangers of using it irresponsibly.” He worries that misuse of AI is “degrading thinking abilities.”
The rapid march of artificial intelligence on campus is not just changing the academic lives of students.
Recent research has illustrated the ways generative AI has affected university writing instructors. It found that it has led to marked increases in “cognitive and emotional labour” as they navigate how to deal with its increasing use by students.
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Led by Amanda Paxton, co-ordinator of the journalism and creative writing program at Trent’s Durham campus, the paper published in the journal Teaching & Learning Inquiry concluded that writing instructors in Ontario struggle with the burden of spotting AI-generated work and confronting students about its use. The paper said they’re suffering from “moral injury” as well as doubts about whether their role as teachers is still meaningful. Others said they do not have sufficient guidance on how to tackle its use, including how to accurately assess assignments that may have been aided in part by AI tools.
The research paper said some faculty felt overwhelmed, and shame if they failed to identify computer-generated work.
It found that the emergence of generative AI has led to significant levels of frustration and confusion among an overburdened faculty.
Ms. Paxton said that the federal AI strategy should offer solutions to support and educate academics about how to cope with its use by students.
The delayed strategy is expected to look at offering financial support to boost sovereign Canadian AI.
Ms. Paxton insists that major assignments in her first-year academic writing course are written by hand in class. She said the far-reaching impact of AI on education cannot be ignored.
“University teaching and learning centres are often working on threadbare budgets ... so a commitment from the federal government to support them would be an important service,” she said in an email.
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Making available to colleges and universities a vetted and reliable form of AI detection would be valuable, she added.
Sofia Ouslis, spokesperson for Mr. Solomon, said the Minister’s office is aware of how AI “is changing how students, educators and institutions think about learning, assessment and academic integrity.”
“These are important conversations, and we are listening closely to educators, researchers and institutions as they work through them,” she said in an email. “Education falls primarily under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, but the government of Canada does have a role to play in supporting trusted AI adoption, advancing research, strengthening digital literacy and helping ensure Canadians can adapt and thrive in an AI-powered economy.”
She noted that the goal “is not simply to police AI use.”
“The goal is to help Canadians use these technologies in ways that strengthen learning, creativity, productivity and opportunity while maintaining trust and academic integrity.”
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Aimi Hamraie, York University’s Canada Research Chair in Technology, Society, and Disability, said the federal AI strategy “should set limits on the entry of gen AI tools into university campuses.”
“This is separate from the surveillance issue because the problem is not just students using ChatGPT to write papers. Corporations are giving universities free or reduced cost use of gen AI tools (for now), which is widening adoption and normalizing use,” they said in an email.
At the University of Waterloo, English literature professor Fraser Easton now sets hand-written assignments in class. This not only helps student cognition and knowledge, he said, but reduces “the temptation of short cuts that AI offers.“
Andrew Monti teaches a third-year AI in communication course at Trent and said generative AI is “an incredible technology that offers clear advantages, especially for big data analysis.”
But he said it is “important to distinguish between using gen AI for learning versus for work.”
”Asking gen AI to produce a course assignment, like writing an analytical reflection on a topic of interest, is like going to the gym and asking somebody else to lift the weights for you," he said.