How to prevent students cheating with AI

"How do I prevent my students from using AI to cheat?"  It’s a great question that many educators are asking.  So, our team of educators and AI experts have come together to help guide you to a definitive answer.

Most AI models are smart and only getting smarter. While many online tools advertise that they can detect if a submission has been generated by AI, students often outsmart them with a little help from Google. 

They’re also known to produce false positives, creating uncomfortable conversations if students are unfairly accused of plagiarism or cheating.

During internal testing, the Atomi team bypassed AI detection tools through simple prompt engineering, for example, by telling the AI to write more consistently with real student submissions. Although our team is made up of experts, this isn't a bespoke skill—simply searching "how to avoid AI detection" will yield workable solutions.

So, if you can't overcome it, what can you do about it?

Firstly, take a step back and reflect on why you're asking students to do the work in the first place. The vast majority of the time, educators are asking students to complete a task, answer a question or solve a problem as an assessment for learning, not just an assessment of learning.

The important part is not that every submission reflects the student's true ability, but that the act of doing the problem, putting knowledge into practice, and then getting corrective feedback builds their understanding. 

As students make genuine attempts at these problems in new contexts, applications, scenarios and difficulty levels, they go on their own journey towards mastery.

Secondly, we have to look at why students cheat. In short, it’s likely that either: 

• They're in an environment that rewards outcomes over effort. Ideally, educators should promote a growth mindset, where students are praised for turning weakness into strength, not just for hitting standards. 
• What they're doing is boring to them, or too difficult. It's natural to look for easier solutions when faced with challenging tasks. So when the satisfaction of that 'aha' moment doesn’t seem worth the effort, we'll seek the easy way out.

So how can educators tackle these problems?

Have honest conversations with your students 

Cheating ultimately hinders students from gaining the valuable skills they need.

Encourage your students to understand that saying "I don't know" is absolutely okay and that, in fact, recognising when to say it can be the most critical step in learning. 

Humanity's body of knowledge is unimaginably huge and even the most brilliant people don't know much about most things. New ideas stick at different times for everyone, so by promoting a growth mindset with your students, they’ll begin to understand that feedback in areas they are struggling is a stepping stone to progression.

Invest in learning and assessment experiences that students enjoy

Building lessons that meaningfully engage students in the curriculum and offer immediate and personalised feedback is an art and a science, and it's an immense challenge to do so within this generation's ever-shrinking attention spans.

By providing teachers with curriculum-specific lessons and assessments that are designed to engage students and boost motivation; Atomi can help carry some of that load.

Ultimately, the best strategy to prevent students from cheating with AI is to avoid the battle altogether. Educators need to help students understand that making genuine attempts is in their best interest and ward off boredom with interactive, compelling, and engaging lessons.