What I Would Do if I Were a Student Today

It’s been a long time since I’ve been a student in a classroom. The last time that happened was in the spring of 2002. At that point, the internet was still very young and plagiarism detection technology was extremely new.

Needless to say that a lot has changed in the 20+ years since I was last a student. The internet became much larger and more ubiquitous. Online learning has grown in both popularity and acceptance. Finally, AI technology is poised to change content creation both in and out of the classroom, for better or worse.

When it comes to plagiarism, there are three major trends that students need to be aware of as they help define the current climate.

1. The marked increase in the use of plagiarism detection tools and their improvements over the past two decades.
2. The sudden rise and use of AI, in particular text-generating AI systems, both in and out of the classroom.
3. The continuing trend toward online education/distance learning, complete with the academic integrity challenges that come with it.

With that in mind, I asked myself a simple question: If I were heading back to the classroom today, what would I do differently to avoid plagiarism and other academic integrity issues?

To that end, I landed on three important, but simple, steps.

1: Avoid AI Completely

AI is in a strange place right now when it comes to academic work. The technology is still incredibly new, only being broadly publicly available for approximately 18 months. Schools, in general, haven’t figured out what the boundaries are or should be when it comes to using AI.

Personally, I feel strongly that using an AI system to generate an essay or the answers to a test is cheating. However, I also don’t think it’s right to begrudge students the use of AI in an editing capacity to spot errors, clarify writing, etc. If an instructor is fine with a student using a human editor, an AI editor should be acceptable too.

But the rules on AI are simply not that consistent yet. Different schools, different instructors and even different classes by the same instructor, have different rules. Couple that with the fact that AI detection is fraught right now and using AI in any capacity is risky.

Obviously, exceptions are made when assignments specifically permit or require the usage of AI, but this is not the case for most assignments. Simply put, in the current climate, it’s much safer to avoid AI than to try and test the boundaries.

2: Keep Complete Records

During my time in school, notes for a particular assignment would often be a combination of physical and virtual. Either way, they would rarely be preserved for very long after a grade was awarded.

That is a practice I would completely change. Because of the current climate, I want to make sure I have a detailed record of how an assignment was finished. That record would be preserved at least until the end of the semester, likely until graduation.

On the simplest level, this means ensuring that my word processor had versioning. Google Docs, Microsoft Word and most other common word processors do this. This makes it easy to show how a document evolved over time.

This rule would also apply to my notes and research, preserving my research digitally. The reason is simple. Proving that you performed the work is the strongest defense against being accused of plagiarism, collusion, or any other violation of academic integrity.

While this issue has grown with the rise of AI, it has always been a danger. However, it’s one that students can avoid by creating and preserving good records.

3: Communicating with Instructors More

Looking back on my educational career with the knowledge I’ve gained since, one fact strikes me: I never had a single one-on-one or small group discussion with an instructor about citation, academic integrity or expectations of my work.

Looking back on my educational career, I can think of many times when I should have asked more questions, especially when working in groups. However, those conversations didn’t happen and I doubt that my experience is unique.

One thing I’ve heard over and over again from instructors is that they wish more students would engage with them on these issues. They don’t see such questions as an attempt to cheat, and it doesn’t make them more suspicious of students.

Most instructors agree that they would show more understanding and leniency towards a student who seeks their help before a problem occurs. Showing good faith and good intentions can both prevent and mitigate problems.

Not approaching my instructors didn’t hurt me. However, I can easily see the ways it could have and that is an error I would not repeat.

Bottom Line

Right now is a challenging time to be a student. Education, as a whole, is at something of a crossroads when it comes to assessment and technology. There are many variables that a student simply cannot control.

So my simplest advice to a student would be to control what you can.

You can’t control how attitudes and rules about using AI in education change, but you can control how you use it. The rules for attribution and citation may be unclear in some situations, but you can clarify them by talking to your instructor.

But for me, the biggest “If I knew then what I know now” moment is this: Simply doing what you think is right, ethical and honest may not be enough.

First off, mistakes happen. Being prepared to defend your work is important. But it’s also possible to have a misunderstanding about what is expected of you and accidentally violate the boundaries of academic integrity.

As such, it’s important for students to be proactive. They need to think about academic integrity issues as they are completing their assignments, asking questions that they do have and mitigating risks and potential misunderstandings.

It’s an area where a little forethought can save a lot of heartbreak. That’s something every student should be eager to do.