We recently shared three ways faculty are using generative AI (GenAI) to help them handle the more administrative aspects of their roles — gleaned from ongoing research that culminates in our annual Faces of Faculty report. This comprehensive report explores the professional landscape, challenges, and opportunities facing today’s higher education faculty. Over the past few years, we’ve learned that GenAI has enjoyed popularity among early adopting educators as: a tool for jumpstarting ideas and conversations with students; to help with differentiation of instruction for different learning levels and styles; and a tool for automating feedback. We’ve also learned that around half of instructors now hold a positive view of GenAI, up from just 28% in 2023, and we expect that the number is continuing to rise as more educators experiment with the tech.
What are some other ways in which higher education faculty are using AI to lighten their professional loads? Here are two more use-cases we learned about:
GenAI to combat plagiarism and cheating
Since GenAI arrived on the higher education scene in a meaningful way, faculty have been understandably frustrated by the ways in which students can use it to cheat and plagiarize the work of others. In fact, 82% of faculty in a recent report expressed concern about academic integrity and AI. An adjunct in Washington told us, “When students rely on AI instead of learning to write and study, they learn less. This is like giving kids a calculator before they know what it even means to add and subtract…”
Yet, we’re hearing from educators that a “fight fire with fire” approach can be really effective at combating plagiarism and cheating. Importantly, this involves having honest conversations with students about academic integrity and the value of original work and critical thinking. Many faculty are spending time explaining to students that while GenAI tools are often appealing as a quick fix, using them to cheat and plagiarize will only harm their chances of academic success. Others are going beyond theory and integrating AI tools into their lessons; effectively asking students to use AI in an integral way, without sacrificing originality.
Some are taking it a step further, though, and are using AI to stay a step ahead of the cheaters by thinking as they do. Faculty are often cued into the possibility of plagiarism by virtue of essays and responses that contain verbatim key terms from prompt phrases, or by stilted and inauthentic word choice and syntax. Running a page of text through an AI detection tool can quickly flag which sentences, concepts or phrases have been “lifted” straight out of ChatGPT or other GenAI platforms. One article suggests that educators subtly obtain a baseline sample of each student’s authentic writing style and capabilities at the start of the term, so that any potential plagiarism becomes far more obvious.
A faculty member at Purdue summarized the nature of the plagiarism challenge in a blog post. “I realized that 80-90% of the assignment I had created for my courses could now be readily answered by AI…We are now thinking about how we can make our courses both AI-amplified and AI-resilient.”
AI for routine administrative tasks
“Judicious use of AI tools will make many tasks less burdensome. Good AI results depend on detailed and well-crafted prompts.” – Instructor, North Carolina
In 2023, over half (58%) of instructors reported wanting to use AI for administrative tasks. As the overall popularity of GenAI has risen among educators, we expect that more and more are also now using GenAI tools to lessen their admin burden. What does this look like, and how can faculty use AI to make professional life easier on the administrative side of things?
A few AI-powered tasks we heard about from survey respondents include:
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Scheduling office hours or emails
AI calendar features can help educators optimize their workday by scheduling time blocks that are based on patterns and urgency. It can also deploy automated responses to routine student queries based on certain words and phrases. This simple use-case allows educators to find better work-life balance, avoid scheduling conflicts, and divide their time and attention fairly among the students and situations that most require it.
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Reviewing and refining recommendations, resumes and cover letters
Asking AI to write a recommendation, resume or cover letter borders on the unethical, but using AI to review these documents and suggest enhancements seems like a smart use of time and technology, and one that can benefit students while saving educators time.
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Building reading lists or providing additional learning resources
While its results aren’t always perfect, GenAI pulls from a virtually infinite pool of resources to generate lists and recommendations for users. So, no matter how seasoned or well-read an educator may be, AI can offer a helpful starting point for suggesting comprehensive resources and reading material that can benefit students.
Wondering how else AI can support you?
Check out our part 1 article: “Three Ways Faculty Are Using AI to Lighten Their Professional Load.“ It highlights three practical ways instructors are putting AI to work — helping them save time, streamline tasks and refocus on what matters most.