Adapting to AI: Schools look to enact new policy as essay-writing tech grows in popularity
LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — The introduction of Artificial Intelligence into our culture this year has brought a new evolution in how we access information.
The ever-evolving technology is forcing schools into a dilemma asking, "How do we handle this new frontier?"
AI is growing in everyday use, especially with the introduction of products like ChatGPT. It's a way to write something like an essay in seconds with the work being done for you.
Now, schools are scrambling to adapt.
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Dr. Leslie Layne is an expert in college writing for the University of Lynchburg who's been studying AI's impact on writing since its rise late last year.
She said the problem with AI is how easy it makes it for students to cheat.
"It’s an academic integrity violation if you put your name on something as though you wrote it and it’s actually somebody else’s writing which is plagiarizing," Layne explained. "Students know, if you use it that’s cheating."
The University doesn’t have an official policy on the use of AI yet, but it's something they’re working on this summer.
The problem is that they want students to be able to use it as a resource, but they don't want it to do the work for them.
"It’s good at giving you an outline; giving you something to work with so you don’t start from a blank page, which is really nice," Dr. Layne explained. "And I think that’s a benefit for the future too."
Amherst County Public Schools are also working on an official policy this summer.
Superintendent Dr. William Wells said there's a fine line they're trying to walk.
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"I don't think we need to bar it," Dr. Wells said. "I don't think we can. I think in society right now, even if we say, 'Don't use it at school,' when they go home, they're gonna use it."
Q) Where do you draw that line and how do you draw that line?
"Again, that's going to be as we develop our processes with this," Dr. Wells answered. "The line that has to be that when you turn in your final product, things need to be cited. And so we need to know where your information came from."
Wells explained that it's not whether a student uses it, but rather how, and how much.
"Your work needs to be your work," Dr. Wells said. "You can't go to that site and put in three or four things and have it write the paper for you."
Wells said they have a team working on a policy with the hopes of having it done before school begins in the fall. The specifics are still unclear.
Nelson County Public Schools are facing the same problems.
Superintendent Dr. Amanda Hester said it's the unknown that makes it difficult to create a specific policy.
"How it can impact is still so new," Hester said. "And anything that's new can be very scary cause we don't know. We don't know how to harness it, we don't know how to monitor it."
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She agreed that an all-out ban is probably not the answer.
"I'm always a little bit nervous to say, 'Don't touch the hot stove' because what's the first thing -- as a kid, I know I did it," Dr. Hester said. "'Don't tell me not to do something.' That could be the first thing I'm going to try to do."
She said that communicating the limits with students will be imperative to ensuring they don't use it more than they should.
"It's really a very grey area," Dr. Hester said. "In terms of you didn't actually put the work in to develop this. And this is why that's not okay because it's minimizing your ability to develop."
Several big questions remain.
- Even if there was a policy in place, how would schools enforce it?
- How could teachers tell the difference between a student's real writing and AI?
There are already programs schools can use to detect when AI is used on papers.
Sites like TurnItIn will analyze a file you submit and then tell you what percentage is AI created.
The problem is that it's not always accurate.
Q) How do we prevent students from cheating; utilizing it in the wrong ways when there's no way to know if they're doing that in the first place?
"It's moving fast," Dr. Layne responded. "It's getting better. The detectors are getting better. But it's always going to be a game of catch-up."
Q) How do we catch up?
"That's a very good question," Dr. Layne answered. "It's going to be a very complicated answer. And I'm sure that we're going to always be trying to catch up."
It's something schools have been trying to do for decades as technology advances.
"Who would've thought that this right here would have as much information as it does, you know 10 years ago, or 15 years ago," Dr. Wells said, speaking of his smartphone on his desk. "So, we kind of have to react to it. It's very difficult to be proactive, we have to be kind of reactive as it comes out."
It's a technology that's here to stay and progress that can't be ignored.
"I think it would be foolish not to teach students how to use it," Dr. Wells said. "But also need to make sure to use it in the right way."
"We need to come around to using it as an advancement," Dr. Layne said. "This is technology we can use to make our lives easier. Calculators do the drudge work of math; AI does the drudge work of writing."
On a collegiate level, Liberty University has now banned students from using AI for their assignments.
On their website, the policy has been added to The Liberty Way Honor Code under academic dishonesty.
We reached out to LU to talk about their policy but they declined to be interviewed.