How should I respond to students using GenAI for schoolwork?

It’s a situation many teachers recognise: you’re marking a set of assignments and one stands out. The work is flawless, polished, even elegant, with extended, complex sentences. There's some referencing, but not sources you know. Something doesn't ring true; t doesn’t sound like the student who submitted it. With the rapid spread of generative AI tools, students have unprecedented access to technology that can produce entire essays in seconds. The challenge for educators is not only to discourage misuse but also to guide students towards ethical, constructive engagement with these tools.

If you're wondering how should I respond to students using GenAI for schoolwork, here's some handy tips to consider:

Why students turn to GenAI

For most students, the decision to outsource their work to AI is less about laziness and more about pressure. High-stakes assessment, time constraints, and a lack of confidence in their own ability all play a role. Others may simply be unsure where the boundary lies between legitimate support, such as checking grammar or brainstorming ideas, and academic dishonesty.

Spotting the signs of GenAI in student schoolwork

Over time, patterns begin to emerge. A student’s submission may appear unusually polished: grammatically flawless, yet lacking the individuality and nuance you’ve come to expect from their voice. Other clues can be more subtle. You might notice the sudden use of emojis in what should be formal work, or an over-reliance on em dashes that feels out of step with their usual style. Detection tools such as Turnitin and newer AI-specific checkers can sometimes corroborate these suspicions, but they are not infallible. More often, it is the teacher’s professional judgment, grounded in close familiarity with a student’s capabilities, that provides the most reliable indicator of GenAI involvement.

AI checkers such as Turnitin aren't always accurate in identifying AI generated text

Building prevention into practice

The most effective way to reduce the risk of AI misuse is to be proactive. Establish clear guidelines with students about what constitutes acceptable use. For instance, grammar support, drafts, scaffolds and idea generation may be appropriate, but writing entire essays may lie beyond what's acceptable. These boundaries are most powerful when paired with explicit teaching around academic integrity and why authentic work matters for long-term learning.

Assessment design also plays a significant role. Tasks that require personal reflection, connections to local context, or multimodal evidence are far less amenable to AI generation. Writing drafts in class, participating in ideas and problem solving sessions, and using process-based assessment — such as submitting dated and authenticated outlines and drafts — create additional layers of accountability and provide richer evidence of a student’s learning journey.

Guiding students towards ethical use

Simply banning GenAI is obviously one option, but it can prove unrealistic and, in some cases, counterproductive. Another approach is to model how these tools can be used responsibly and ethically. Demonstrate how AI can support brainstorming, suggest alternative phrasings, or clarify ideas. At the same time, emphasise the importance of attribution when such tools are used, as well as when they are not. Encouraging transparency not only reduces the temptation to misuse AI but also equips students with digital literacy skills that will serve them beyond school.

Learning to attribute AI generated text is one helpful answer to how to respond to students using GenAI in their schoolwork

Support for teachers

Teachers are not without support in this space. While AI-detection software can play a role, its limitations must be acknowledged. More reliable are assessment rubrics that reward originality, authentic voice, and critical engagement. Professional learning communities also provide valuable opportunities to exchange strategies, compare experiences, and develop shared approaches to teaching in an AI-enabled world.

How should I respond to students using GenAI for schoolwork?

Generative AI is like the proverbial genie that has been let out of the bottle. There is little doubt it would be a tricky genie to push back inside, even if we wanted to. As a teacher, how should I respond to students using GenAI for schoolwork? As teachers, our role is not solely to prevent cheating but to prepare students to navigate this new technology format ethically and intelligently. In essence, we need to reposition the guard rails and make GenAI a work tool, rather than a tool of big business that is redefining what it means to work and study. Learning to use GenAI ethically, responsibly and effectively is a fundamental employability skill for future work.

By setting clear boundaries, designing thoughtful assessments, and modelling responsible use, we can shift the conversation from “How do I catch it?” to “How do I teach it?” This approach better reflects the realities of both the classroom and the world beyond it.