Students are becoming increasingly adept at trying not actually to study, but to receive the best grades with minimum effort. The teacher can use special tools to find out whether the student did the homework themselves or used AI-writing models, such as ChatGPT. In particular, TraceGPT by PlagiarismCheck.org can be integrated into your LMS systems, such as Moodle or Google Classroom. Therefore, a teacher can immediately learn about the percentage of AI in each written work submitted for evaluation, just as they learn about plagiarism using a plagiarism detector.

Can you tell if someone used ChatGPT?

You can also use unique platforms and separate tools to identify AI writing. Their models analyze stylometry and many parameters at the level of sentences and the text in general. You can get a clear percentage result to understand not only if AI was used, but how much AI is in the student’s paper compared to the entire text. Also, you will know exactly which sentences were most likely created by AI, not by a person, because the tool will highlight them with color.

How can I tell if a student used ChatGPT?

However, AI text detector cannot give a 100% result because human and AI writing characteristics can be similar. It also makes it harder to detect the use of additional tools to manipulate artificially generated text to pass it off as humans. So remember the minimum percentage of positive-negative results. The use of AI and plagiarism should be subject to the Integrity Policy and communicated to students, as accusations can have serious consequences. To notify the student, additional verification and a personal conversation are required.

Tools like PlagiarismCheck’s Trace GPT are a solid first step to initiating a trusting conversation with a student. With a report from machine algorithms in hand, you can ask the student about the course of their thoughts and the conclusions expressed in the work, paying particular attention to statements labeled AI.

Use these starters for tough AI conversations:

  • Highlight strengths and weaknesses in the assignment.
  • Address students’ struggles, intentional or unintentional AI misuse.

Topics for discussion:

  • Time management to avoid AI misuse.
  • Remediating skill deficiencies.
  • Provide suggestions for review, revisions, and periodic check-ins.

Conversation jump starters:

  1. Let’s work together to improve areas where we see errors or AI misuse in your assignment.
  2. Explain your process of creating this assignment and identify areas for improvement.
  3. Review the AI writing and share your thoughts on why it was flagged as AI and what could be improved in those sentences.