With the rise of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), plagiarism has become an increasing concern in educational settings. Students now have access to powerful tools that can generate content, making it easier for them to not just use AI for initial searches but to fully generate their academic works. This raises a question of how to ensure that students achieve the intended learning outcomes while maintaining their academic integrity. For educators, it is crucial to stay proactive and implement strategies to ensure that students do not solely rely on AI in their studies.
In the realm of education, business simulations have emerged as valuable tools for fostering student learning and maintaining academic integrity. Unlike traditional assignments, business simulations incorporate unique gaming data, making them less susceptible to AI-driven plagiarism. In this blog post, we will explore how business simulations can be utilised by teachers to create courses that foster students’ learning while ensuring the academic integrity of their work.
Explain the Importance of Academic Integrity and Avoidance of AI-driven plagiarism
Firstly, it is important to begin with explaining the significance of academic integrity to students. Academic integrity serves as the foundation of honest and ethical academic practices. Maintaining honesty in their academic pursuits not only demonstrates their personal integrity but also builds trust and credibility among peers, professors, and future employers. It is educational institutions’ responsibility to explain the ethical implications of plagiarism and to emphasise the value of originality in academic work. By setting clear expectations and standards, students will understand the methods of upholding integrity throughout the course.
Adapt Business Simulations to Your Teaching
Why not include business simulations into your courses if you aim to make your teaching not only more engaging but also to ensure academic integrity? Business simulations engage students in realistic, immersive collaborative learning experiences. They typically require active decision-making, problem-solving, and strategic thinking in teams.
Some business simulation games include not only gaming itself, but assignments that are based on unique gaming data, students' performance and progress. Therefore, students actively engage with the learning environment and rely on their own knowledge, generated through interaction and joint collaboration with their peers. In addition, assignments that are linked to the business simulation bring the education close to real life. If the assignments require evaluating the results the student teams have generated while gaming, they will have to think critically, analyse, and apply course concepts in these assignments. Consequently, the assignments replicate similar processes that take place in a real business environment.
Read how to choose an ideal business simulation for your course in our guide.
Provide Guidance and Support
Instruction, guidance and support are needed throughout the simulation-based assignments. Teacher can do this by:
Providing clear instructions,
Explaining the learning objectives, and
Ensuring the students understand the assessment criteria.
Look for business simulation games that provide comprehensive materials and teacher training to support the teaching process and pedagogy. By providing robust support, a positive learning experience among students can be fostered.
Encourage Reflection and Analysis
Reflective activities are one of the most crucial parts of achieving best learning outcomes with business simulations. For example, you can include debriefing sessions or written reflections into the course. This way students are encouraged to critically analyse their decision-making processes, outcomes, and lessons learned throughout the entire gaming experience. Reflection and comprehensive feedback promotes a deeper understanding of the subject matter and reinforces the importance of personal growth, further deterring reliance on AI tools.
Foster Collaboration and Peer Learning
Some business simulations are built to foster collaboration by being played synchronously in teams. Collaborative aspects in business simulations inspire students to work together and learn from one another. Teachers can encourage peer feedback and discussion to promote knowledge sharing and enhanced understanding. Collaboration not only cultivates a sense of community but also reduces the likelihood of AI-driven plagiarism, as students rely on their collective expertise.
Business simulations offer an effective means for promoting student learning while mitigating the risk of AI-driven plagiarism. Teachers can harness the power of business simulations to create courses that prioritise both academic integrity and student growth by:
emphasising academic integrity,
using authentic assignments that are based on gaming experience and data,
providing guidance and constructive feedback,
encouraging reflection and analysis,
fostering collaboration.
This text was created by the RealGame Business Simulation team.
RealGame is a Finnish business simulation provider. RealGame creates simulations based on decades of experience and latest academic research. Business simulations by RealGame are created by educators for educators with a purpose of providing hands-on experiences and an understanding of how supply chain operations evolve continuously, hour by hour. RealGame is unique in that it has a clock-driven operational mode, which allows for generating transaction-specific data for business analysis and strategic planning.
Please cite this as:
RealGame (2023). Preventing AI Plagiarism in Student Assignments: Effective Strategy for Teachers. Realgame.fi. Retrieved [Date], from https://www.realgame.fi/