Students' AI Usage in an Introductory Course: Reinforcing the Learning Experience

Case Study | MediaEd Insights | AI: Educator Perspectives Edition | June 2026

Written by Caleb Cameron

When students first arrive at college, they often face a variety of challenges adapting to the expectations of a college class environment. Unlike high school, there is much more relative freedom in how they approach their assignments, exams, and projects. Writing assignments are likely longer and cover topics that can sometimes be difficult to grapple with or explain, and it is normal for a student's first experience with this to be difficult. However, at Boston University in our Intro to Communications class, the faculty began to notice they were sometimes grading AI papers instead of the students'. Using this new technology as a cheating tool keeps students from experiencing the learning process. If they don’t make mistakes during this process it can hurt them in higher level classes where mistakes are often less forgiven.

I have had the incredible opportunity to serve as the Head TA for this intro course, which regularly enrolls between 200 and 300 freshmen every fall. The course is structured with two lectures a week and one discussion section led by a TA, where students discuss the course content in greater detail. With this position came lots of discussion among the course's leading instructor, Dr. Dana Janbek, about possible solutions to students using AI to do their assignments for them. The strategy Dr. Janbek came up with was to have the students write the assignments in the classroom during one of the discussion sections every other week, with TAs proctoring by walking around and looking at their computers. This worked rather well, as very few students attempted to try and use AI for the assignments. However, it took time away from the time when the students would usually be in the discussion section, talking about the course material with their peers. This format of assignment taking is also not very indicative of real life, or even higher-level college courses.

There are some new methods that universities are using to attempt to prevent AI usage among students for tests and assignments. One of these we explored is a “restricted browser.” This is a browser that the students would be required to use to complete the assignment that prevents their device from using the internet connection for any unapproved URLs or applications. Applications like Examplify or Instructors Lockdown Browser can be used for this, but we also know that students are smart and often spend a lot of time and energy finding ways around these technologies. Students can still just look up answers or ask AI questions on their mobile device, which would make this technology useless, and it is rather expensive for universities to buy the licenses for. It is possible to have autoproctoring utilizing the students' webcam, but there is an argument to be made that this is an invasion of students' privacy. There are also countless other security vulnerabilities with the software that can be easily taken advantage of by students driven to cheat (Solis et al., 2023). It seems there is no airtight method for combating students' AI usage for take-home assignments.

We have even considered switching to having students handwrite all of their assignments in bluebooks, as this is a method many other instructors at other universities have begun to utilize again. However, in this introductory course, we want to ease students into not only what college writing assignments are like, but how real life is. Typing your ideas into a word processor is a different experience than writing them on paper, and we want that course to be an introduction to that so they can have the opportunity to learn while the stakes are low. We are continuing with having students complete the assignments in person as we have had very few students attempt to use AI to cheat, but we are always thinking of new methods to keep the academic integrity of our assignments strong while also allowing students to utilize modern tools they will have access too outside of the classroom.

AI has proven to be an incredible tool. Tossell et al. has even found that using ChatGPT as a tutor or writing assistant can help students with their writing and develop stronger study habits. But this is where an important line must be drawn for this new technology. We stress to our students that AI is a tool and can be used in helpful ways, but it can also hurt. Utilizing a generative AI like ChatGPT to help work through gaps in knowledge or skill can be helpful, but using it to generate entire projects or assignments with no intellectual process can be damaging for the students' education. This is the boundary we are trying to stay behind, yet as the technology evolves students will continue to be resourceful and find ways to sidestep around the guidelines.

References
Solis, R. D., Shashidhar, N., & Varol, C. (2023). Automated Proctoring Solutions: Modern Techniques to Evade & Lure Computerized Proctoring Systems.

Tossell, C. C., Tenhundfeld, N. L., Momen, A., Cooley, K., & De Visser, E. J. (2024). Student Perceptions of ChatGPT Use in a College Essay Assignment: Implications for Learning, Grading, and Trust in Artificial Intelligence. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 17, 1069–1081. https://doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2024.3355015