The IB Extended Essay, AI Tools and Academic Integrity

It has been fascinating watching the speed at which AI has developed and, quite understandably, the speed with which it has been eagerly adopted by students. The Extended Essay is particularly vulnerable to the abuse of these AI tools, but the very same tools are also offering exciting new opportunities in developing EEs.  

It became apparent very early on that an adversarial relationship with AI was never going to be a realistic option, and the IB’s embrace of AI has seemed the most pragmatic choice for students and staff. It is, after all, a tool: one that will be an increasingly important part of our students’ futures and one we would be remiss in fighting.

This means that an understanding of academic integrity is important now more than ever, and it needs to be a philosophy and mindset towards academic work that underpins how our students engage with the EE. A school culture of being a principled and ethical learner will help bring clarity to any potential grey areas of misuse as these tools continue to develop. For example with my students, I put a particular focus on integrity meaning doing the right thing even when no-one is looking. This is particularly important when dealing with a project that takes place over such an extended period of time and with such a high degree of independence. 

Below are some further ideas on how to help your students maintain a healthy relationship with AI tools:

• Academic Integrity Permeating the School: academic integrity should be explicitly engaged with throughout the school and be a clear and normalised expectation. There needs to be time given to a conceptual and ethical understanding of academic integrity alongside the more technical and practical understanding of how to apply it
• ‘Breadcrumbs’: students should document and reflect on the process of developing their EE in their RRS (Researcher’s Reflection Space) in order to show clear progression of their thinking and research
• Cite AI: students should be explicitly taught that any work produced by AI needs to be credited in the body of the essay and referenced in the bibliography (including the prompt given to the AI tool and the date the AI generated the text)
• Oral Discussion: regular check-ins with students where they discuss their learning journey, their findings and their arguments can help ensure that work produced is their own and they are not offloading the process to AI
• Model Academic Integrity: teachers should provide sources and bibliographies on their own resources when appropriate, and cite their own use of AI
• Clear Policies and Consequences: the IB has some ‘red-lines’ included in the IB Academic Integrity policy, but much of the application and internal policies are left to the schools. Your school should have a clear set of expectations and consequences on the use of AI rooted in the IB’s Academic Integrity Policy.

More on this can be found in the Academic Integrity chapter of Hachette Learning's Extended Essay textbook, and I also expect the guidance from the IB to continue to evolve as time goes on. For direct updates from the IB, the below sources are a great place to start:

• The IB Academic Integrity Homepage contains information and updates regarding academic integrity and AI
• On the homepage, you can find the IB Academic Integrity Policy itself - pay particular attention to appendix 6 where they outline their stance on AI tools.
• The ‘Why ChatGPT is an opportunity for schools’ article by Dr Matthew Glanville, Head of Assessment and Principles and Practice at the IB, provides insight into the direction the IB are heading with AI tools
• ‘The IB and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools’ document contains a neat FAQ in a single PDF poster
• The ‘Evaluating 13 scenarios of artificial intelligence (AI) in student coursework’ document goes into more depth in what is and is not appropriate usage of AI in scenarios you are likely to encounter as a teacher.
  
  For more information about the new textbook for the IB Extended Essay, click here. 

Other blogs in this series: 
 

• New Guide for the IB Diploma

• Interdisciplinary Extended Essays

• Mastering the Extended Essay

• Structuring your IB Extended Essay