AI, Cheating, and Trusting Students to be Human (Re-Release)

For better or worse, much of the talk about AI’s impact on the purposes and processes of an education continues to focus on cheating: Are students outsourcing their work, and their learning, to tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini? Some high-profile stories have gone so far as to suggest cheating is so rampant that the whole college system is basically collapsing around us. This month, we’re revisiting our most popular episode to date, a conversation with Tricia Bertram Gallant, coauthor of the 2025 book The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI. Tricia helps us put the cheating claims into context, providing insights into the deeper questions that we should be asking about academic dishonesty and integrity and sharing pedagogical strategies for adapting to AI’s widespread availability.  Key Topics Discussed: Why students cheat (spoiler: the reasons aren’t new) The role of “neutralizing,” or moral justifications, in allowing people to view cheating as bad in the abstract but not in their current situation Not putting the burden to intuit the purpose of an assignment on students How AI has changed cheating, but not why students do it Experimenting with AI tools so you can create guardrails for students—and why doing so doesn’t mean you think less of them as people Strategies for communicating effectively with students about generative AI Rethinking when, why, and how writing is assigned, including the benefits of having students complete some of that work in the classroom The potential of pairing written exams with oral assessments—which it turns out students often appreciate How Tricia suggests instructors react when suspecting a student has cheated Guest Bio: Tricia Bertram Gallant is the director of the Academic Integrity Office and Triton Testing Center at the University of California San Diego. President emeritus of the International Center for Academic Integrity, she has more than 20 years of experience as an academic integrity researcher, author, teacher, and practitioner. Her fifth book, The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI, which she co-authored with David Rettinger, was published in 2025. It is part of the Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed Series at the University of Oklahoma Press edited by Designed for Learning host Jim Lang and Michelle Miller. Resources Mentioned: Book: The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI (University of Oklahoma Press) Tricia’s Podcast and Contact Info: theoppositeofcheating.com Notre Dame Learning’s Lab for AI in Teaching and Learning (LAITL) Related Designed for Learning Episode: Navigating AI’s Evolving Role in Teaching and Learning Notre Dame’s Undergraduate Academic Code of Honor Episode Transcript *Note: This episode was originally released in July 2025. Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter.