How to AI-Proof Assignments

In today’s digital age, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT have become increasingly accessible to students. While these technologies offer valuable learning assistance, when using these tools, students often skip the critical thinking and learning components, which are the basic purposes of assignments. 

The key isn’t to ban AI altogether, but to use AI to design such assignments that make cheating irrelevant and promote meaningful learning among students. 

Practical Strategies to AI-Proof Assignments

The following are the most effective techniques that will help students focus more on critical thinking and reduce their reliance on AI tools for assignments.

1. Implement Process-Based Assessment

Traditional assessment systems primarily focus on producing an extended essay, which tends to prioritize final products over the writing process. This approach makes it easier for students to rely on AI for completion. 

However, process-based assessments actually evaluate the learning journey of students as they write, rather than just the final product or destination.

You can follow the following strategies to keep an eye on the assignment writing process:

• Requiring document revision through Google Docs or Microsoft Word history can provide insight into how assignments are written.

• Asking students to break down assignments into multiple drafts also keeps intermediate checkpoints.

• Make it necessary for students to annotate bibliography submissions to show research progression.

• Adding peer review and feedback loops

All of these strategies make it more difficult for students to copy and paste, as they must demonstrate authentic engagement throughout the writing process.

2. Design Authentic, Real-World Assessments

Authentic, research-based assessments reflect the real-world tasks and challenges that students may face in their professional lives.

So, these types of assignments aren’t generic and they require practical application, real-world example, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills that, of course, AI, which relies on your prompt, can’t generate. 

The following are examples of how an  authentic assessment design looks:

• Engineering students: 

Teachers can ask engineering students to create sustainable energy solutions, along with presenting their physical prototypes and designing implementation plans. 

• Business students: 

Asking business students to develop startup business plans in any field, and also to add a section of local market research to their assignment, along with financial forecasting.

• History students

For history students, the assignment involves interviewing community members about historical events and asking them to compare their findings with official records to draw a conclusion.

3. Specific Structural Requirements

Another way to address the issue of making your assignments AI-resistant is to incorporate specific structural requirements.

Actually, AI tools struggle with specific formatting or structural requirements as they are only designed for content generation. 

Adding detailed structural element requirements can make assignments more challenging for AI to complete.

The following are the structural requirements that, as a teacher, you must include:

• Asking for specific sentence structures  or counterparts within paragraphs (e.g., add counterargument in 2nd sentence)

• Add a requirement to add specific course materials or readings.

• Make it mandatory to add citations of particular types of sources, especially for dissertation writing.

• Add word count limitations to ensure that only precise content is written, rather than excessive elaboration.

4. Design Context-Specific and Timely Assignments

Generic assignments can be easily copied and pasted, but those assignments that require research about specific, current, or local knowledge make it difficult to copy/paste. 

So, asking students to add recent events and local case studies makes it more difficult for AI to complete such tasks.

Example

For instance, asking students to analyze current political conditions in the country and compare them to recent films or classic literature.

Such types of time-sensitive elements are very effective, as AI doesn’t have fresh data; it requires students to research breaking news or evolving situations to create assignments that necessitate real-time analysis.

Building Institutional Support and Policies to Avoid AI Usages 

The following steps outline what educational institutions must do to clarify their policies regarding the use of AI.

Developing Clear AI Guidelines

First and foremost, institutions must develop clear policies that address the use of AI.

This policy should include all the following aspects. 

• ethical considerations
• legal compliance measures
• clear punishments for violations

These guidelines should be developed through collaboration among faculty, students, and administrators to ensure that policies are accepted and understood by both teachers and students.

For Example

Policies might permit the use of AI for brainstorming ideas or grammar checking; however, they do not permit its use for content generation or essay writing.

Faculty Development and Training

The faculty and teachers must be trained not only in recognizing AI-generated content but also in developing strategies for redesigning assessments that are resistant to AI. 

This includes understanding the following aspects. 

• Must know AI capabilities and limitations 
• Learn assessment strategies to create AI-resistant assignments

Student Education and Support

Educating students on ethical AI use is very important to maintain academic integrity in this era of artificial intelligence. 

Therefore, it’s the responsibility of teachers to educate students about the capabilities and limitations of AI tools, including appropriate use cases when needed, utilizing AI for citations, and, last but not least, to inform them about the long-term side effects of over-reliance on AI in education. 

So that students, instead of searching for ways to detect plagiarism and hide AI-generated content, use AI ethically to improve their critical thinking skills. 

Top Tools that Detect AI-written Content

‍ There are many practical AI detection tools available online, which makes it hard to choose one. Here are some of the best detection tools, which achieve a 99% accuracy rate.

‍1. GPTZero

GPTZero is a freely available AI detection tool renowned for its streamlined user interface, efficiency, and ability to recognize patterns and digits in AI-generated assignments. 

This tool has been updated with numerous new and unique features, further enhancing its detection capabilities.

2. Originality.ai

Originality.ai is one of the best AI plagiarism check tools, primarily used in academic institutions to detect plagiarism in assignments written using OpenAI. 

This tool utilizes Machine Learning (ML) technology, which scans and detects plagiarized and AI-generated content.

It features advanced linguistic analysis capabilities, which are among the most potent AI-generated tools for content detection.

3. GLTR.io

GLTR (Giant Language Model Test Room) is another  AI detection option that is unmatched for its accuracy and efficiency.

It gives in-depth reports on whether the content is AI-generated or written by a human.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: Is it Cheating to Use AI-Generated Content for Assignments?

Using AI is acceptable if you consider it a helper for brainstorming or finding more ideas; however, you must entirely rewrite and add additional information to personalize the content.

Q2: Are AI Detection Tools Reliable for Identifying Cheating?

No, most free AI tools available on the internet are unreliable and produce high false-positive results. That is the reason most institutions are not relying on AI detection tools.

Q3: What are the Most Effective AI-resistant Assessment Methods?

The most effective way is to incorporate oral presentations of assignments and collaborative projects, and create personalized assignments tailored to each student’s experiences. All of it requires brainstorming, which is not possible with AI usage.