By: Audry Pallas

As a learning facilitator and career educator who works with leaders and teachers on AI integration, I’m often asked how to tell if students have used AI to complete an assignment. But what if that’s the wrong question entirely? It is well known that AI tools like ChatGPT and other generative platforms can easily complete assignments in seconds, and many educators feel an increased need to “catch” students using AI to bypass the learning process. I believe that instead of focusing on stopping students from using AI, we should be redesigning assessments to either integrate AI intentionally or to ensure that assessments are AI resistant by assessing that which AI can’t do. We know that AI is not a temporary disruption. AI is a permanent shift, and our students will live in a world where AI will be fully integrated. Just as computers and calculators changed the course of teaching and learning, our job isn’t to fight AI integration but to prepare students to navigate a world where AI will be omnipresent.

Traditional assessments were already due for a reimagining, and AI has simply accelerated that need. When schools and universities spend more time policing student work than rethinking teaching and learning, we miss a much larger opportunity. The core issue isn’t students “cheating” with AI, it’s that many assessments are no longer aligned with the world that our students will be living and working in. In professional environments, AI is used to boost efficiency and support creativity. Shouldn’t we model that in the classroom? I’ve observed that educators who initially panicked about AI cheating often experience a significant shift when they see how AI is transforming their own professional workflow. Their question usually changes from “How do I prevent students from using ChatGPT?” to “How do I prepare students to use these tools effectively and ethically?” Instead of trying to block AI, educators can create assessments that leverage AI as a learning partner or guide students into human-centered work that AI can’t authentically complete. As AI continues to become embedded in the workplace, schools should follow suit by encouraging students to use AI, while holding them accountable for how they use it.

Assessments should either integrate AI meaningfully or leverage uniquely human capabilities. Collaborative and human-centered tasks, such as debates, live presentations, or design-thinking challenges require skills like collaboration, critical thinking, and metacognition. These are skills that AI can’t replicate. English assessments could prompt students to connect literature to personal experiences or explore narrative alternatives by changing character backgrounds. Math assessments might challenge students to critique AI solution strategies or apply concepts to real-world scenarios. For science, inquiry-based projects could have students use AI for data modeling while independently designing and justifying experiments. In social studies, assessments could ask students to evaluate AI-generated historical analysis or engage in primary source debates. Teachers could use case studies to challenge learners to apply their learning to real-world situations while using AI for research support. Multi-stage presentation assessments could require students to document AI supported work and independent creative decisions. These approaches acknowledge AI’s role while ensuring students develop critical thinking, creativity, and authentic application of knowledge that extends beyond what AI alone can produce.

I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I do believe the shift we’re facing requires more than just rethinking how we assess students. We also need to reconsider what we are teaching in the age of AI. When we move from traditional learning assessments to designing learning experiences with AI in mind, we stop focusing on policing AI use and start focusing on purposeful AI integration. Students won’t be assessed just on what they produce, but on how they think, collaborate, and make decisions in an AI integrated world. By embracing this shift, we prepare students to be creators in the era of artificial intelligence. The question isn’t “How do we stop AI from helping students?” It’s “How do we help students work with AI to become more thoughtful, capable learners?” The educators leading this change aren’t just redesigning assessments, they’re reimagining what it means to teach and learn in a world where knowledge creation and information processing are being transformed. We can tire ourselves in the endless cycle of AI policing, or we can foster a generation whose collaborative critical thinking, creativity, and ethical reasoning extends far beyond what technology alone could ever achieve.