Posted on by Kate Cammack

Summer AI Resources

by Kate Cammack, CfT Co-Director

Now that my final grades are in, I’m starting to sift through all of the AI articles and links that I’ve been saving “for summer” in my inbox. I thought it might be worth sharing this list, in case anyone else has been putting off any AI-thinking for the past few months, like I have.

My disclaimer is that this list does not imply endorsement or opinion-sharing – just sources that I hope to use as a launch-point this summer.

First, if you’re not already signed up for Beth McMurtrie’s free Teaching newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher Education, it’s one of my favorites. She’s been producing a lot of relevant AI content, and I’ve been inspired to track down some research/studies mentioned in her newsletters (see below). (You can also share your perspectives on AI & teaching with her)

The Chronicle also now has a new free e-newsletter, Jagged Intelligence, focused on the impact of AI on higher ed; I’ve just signed up.

ICYMI / good to be aware of

  • How accurate are Google’s AI overviews? (here)
  • Students are developing AI tools to do their homework for them
    • One tool, called Einstein, retrieved assignments from the LMS and completed them well (here)
    • A different AI tool was promoted as “giv[ing] you a precise roadmap to get an A with the least amount of work possible.” (here)
  • Your course materials could end up chopped up and inserted into AI-generated courses…without your permission (here)
  • Is AI contributing to “cognitive surrender”? (here)
  • The founder of Khan Academy is developing a new online college with a degree in applied AI (here)
  • Princeton has moved back to proctored, in-person exams (here)
  • Recent college graduates think their degree was worth it, despite AI concerns (here)
  • How AI is encouraging us to rethink our purpose in higher ed (here)
  • AI killed the take-home essay. Covid killed attendance. Now what? (here; thanks, Karen!)
  • How college faculty are using AI (here)
  • When AI cheating becomes a legal risk (here; thanks, Clint!)

A few articles/reports that you might consider spending time with

Schitt's Creek gif. Dan Levy as David wearing white-rimmed sunglasses with a fuzzy black sweater is overwhelmed with excitement as he stoops to speak us through the car window. Text, Can't wait.

HEPI Report of Undergraduate AI Use

  • Lots of rich data (from 1000 UK university students) to consider, including:
    • In 2026, 95% of students reported using AI in at least one way.
    • Most students reported using AI to generate text (e.g., ChatGPT) and enhance/edit their writing.
    • ~40% of all students reported that AI-generated content would receive a good grade, though more students agreed that this was the case in STEM fields than arts and humanities
    • The most common reasons that students use AI are to “improve the quality of my work” and “to save me time”

How instructors regulate AI in college: Evidence from 31,000 course syllabi

  • Again, valuable data to consider; some of my take-aways:
    • Course AI policies are becoming more common in syllabi, though this varies across discipline. Business, humanities, and social science courses are more likely to include AI policies in their syllabi; physical sciences are less likely. Notably, across disciplines in this study, ~40% of syllabi still didn’t contain AI policies
    • The permissiveness of course AI policies varies across disciplines. In this study, humanities, life sciences & social sciences were least permissive; business, arts, and math/CS were more permissive.
    • The framing of course AI policies has evolved relatively quickly. In this study, syllabi policies were less likely to mention academic integrity and increasingly likely to mention AI’s impact on learning; these changes were seen over six semesters, or three academic years.
    • Permitted uses of AI depends heavily on the task/purpose. Nearly 80% of instructors restricted AI use for drafting/revising work, but a similar percentage permitted AI for editing/proofreading. Interestingly, instructors were almost evenly split about whether they permitted or restricted AI use in ideation/planning work.
  • Here’s Beth McMurtrie’s summary.

Artificial intelligence, cognitive offloading, and implications for education

  • “There is a growing body of evidence that using AI can short-circuit the cognitive effort required for sustainable, deep learning, thus creating “false mastery” with potentially long-term consequences (OECD 2026). This cognitive offloading from human to AI is especially risky for school students (‘novice’ learners who are building foundational knowledge and skills) when they turn to AI as a tempting substitute, not an amplifier, increase their dependency on the tool and lose access to deeper learning.”
  • “Cognitive outsourcing also introduces extra equity risks. Research suggests that students who possess high levels of content knowledge and strong metacognitive skills are better able to leverage AI to accelerate and deepen their learning and critical thinking (Hong et al. 2025). Conversely, students lacking such skills, often those already experiencing disadvantage, are potentially more susceptible to harmful offloading and missing the learning they need. The unstructured use of AI risks even wider equity divides (Loble & Stephens 2024).”
  • Here’s Beth McMurtrie’s summary
  • Here’s a watch-on-demand video of a virtual forum on teaching critical thinking skills in the age of AI, hosted by the Chronicle
  • Here’s an article on the concept of “cognitive surrender” in the context of GenAI.
  • Here’s a 2025 Science article on how an AI tutor designed to minimize cognitive offloading was linked to more self-reported engagement and motivation than in-class active learning (specific AI prompts/constraints found in their supplementary materials)

AI detection pushed my students to use AI

  • “In 2023, researchers at Stanford University warned that detection tools were biased against nonnative English writers. Their study…found that detectors misclassified more than half of TOEFL essays written by nonnative speakers as AI-generated, while nearly all essays by native speakers passed. The authors anticipated that such bias could encourage defensive or evasive behavior.”
  • “Detection tools communicate, even when instructors do not, that writing is a performance to be managed rather than a practice to be developed. Students learn that style can count against them, and that fluency invites suspicion. In that environment, AI becomes a way to smooth uncertainty. It offers reassurance that language will appear ordinary enough to pass.”
  • Here’s another article on cultural biases in AI tools

Artificial intelligence & grade inflation

  • “This paper provides novel evidence that generative AI has become a new mechanism of grade inflation in higher education. [C]ourses with higher shares of writing and coding tasks saw substantial grade increases after ChatGPT’s release, accompanied by compression of the grade distribution. These effects are concentrated in courses where homework carries greater assessment weight, consistent with AI substituting for student effort on unsupervised take-home work rather than improving underlying skills.”
  • Here’s Beth McMurtrie’s summary

A few videos/podcasts, for those who need a break from reading

Schitts Creek Yes GIF by CBC

Student guides & self-assessments

Just Saying Schitts Creek GIF by CBC

What are you reading, thinking about, or engaging with, AI-wise?

This post is not a curated collection, but rather my personal inbox detritus.

We at the CfT are interested in how all of us are thinking about and/or using AI tools to support our students’ learning.

As these tools continue to evolve, so will our thinking about them. It’s valuable for us all — as a community of educators — to share our evolving ideas, thinking, questions, and approaches, so that we can learn from and support each other as we navigate this new landscape. No question or approach is too basic — there’s value in simply exploring, and in trying things out to see what works.

You can give us a sense of what you’re thinking about, reading or trying, at any time and as your thinking/work evolves — this form is set to continuously accept responses, so please help us build this new community of practice!

AI was not used for any aspect of this blog post.

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