Cheating in the Age of AI

Kristi Kraychy, BMus, BEd, MEd

March 3, 2026

I am going to begin bravely, as I hope our students learn to do: I used an AI tool to help shape this post.

Writing has always been one of my passions. I completed all of my schooling, including graduate work, before AI existed. Being concise, and resisting the urge to turn every email or blog post into a dissertation that no one asked for, remains one of my greatest writing challenges.

Now, I draft my writing and research, sometimes more sloppily than I would like to admit, and AI tools help me organize and tighten before my final edit. It saves hours of time and precious mental energy for both myself and the eventual reader.

At the same time, I can feel myself retreating from my growth-edge by outsourcing the hard work of making ideas concise and compelling on my own. If I am honest, AI has made me worse, not better, at that particular skill.

However, the difference is this:

My foundational thinking, research, and writing skills were built long before these tools existed. I still draft everything myself first, I use detailed prompts intentionally, I revise more than once and I edit carefully before sharing publicly. I value my own voice and I still believe my standards for strong writing exceed any computer generated response… at least for now.

My worry is this:

Students are still building those foundations. They are learning how to structure arguments, synthesize research, evaluate sources, develop opinions, and find their own voice. They are still learning the process of mathematical reasoning, scientific analysis, and disciplined problem-solving.

My concern is not really that students are cheating. My concern is that students may become so reliant on these efficiency tools that they forget the brain works like a muscle, growing stronger through effort, practice, and productive struggle. While you can ask AI to design a personalized fitness plan, you still have to go to the gym and do the hard work yourself to see progress. What students don’t realize is that it’s the same for learning: you can’t outsource the mental work that real learning requires. Most concerning, I've seen students who don't even realize when relying too heavily on AI is quietly limiting their own growth, understanding, confidence or even success.

The Pace of Change

As a principal working in an online and hybrid school, I am not watching this shift from a distance. I am living it in real time.

Tools that were limited even six months ago now generate assignments, essays, slide decks, infographics, reflections, and creative projects in seconds. Students can even ask the tool to “sound like a teen.” The speed of change is difficult to overstate.

This fall, I read The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI by Gallant and Rettinger. It is thoughtful and grounded in research, but it was published in 2024 and already some of the proposed solutions are outdated.

At our PD session last month, I brought forward an article for discussion titled Beyond the Take-Home Essay: How AI Is Reshaping Assessment in Digital Learning, written in July 2025. Even then, several teachers still noted that some of the solutions were no longer useful.

We are no longer navigating familiar educational trends that shift every few years. We are facing philosophical and practical questions that evolve week by week.

The Real Issue Beneath “Cheating”

The issue is often framed as cheating. I understand why. Teachers everywhere are seeing students copy and paste AI generated work and submit it as their own. They are frustrated and there are few clear answers or solutions.

Many in-person schools are returning to supervised paper and pencil work to buy time to figure out a plan. In an online and hybrid environment, we do not have that option. We must solve this within the digital space itself.

In online learning, we sometimes see excellent quiz and course marks followed by significant struggles on in-person final exams. Test anxiety is real and some students naturally perform better on projects than on high-stakes assessments. However, when the gap is too wide, it signals that something else is not aligned.

We also navigate blurred lines during remote assessments, such as inconsistent camera positioning or students looking off screen. Sometimes these are simply misunderstandings or adolescent forgetfulness. Sometimes it's intentional. It's hard to tell which is which.

But this is not simply about preventing “cheating”. The real question is whether meaningful learning is happening. How do we support students in doing the hard work that growth requires?

The students in our context are busy and bright teens navigating not only rigorous academics and competitive post-secondary applications, but elite athletics, performance, travel, part time work, leadership roles, and the very real social and emotional pressures of adolescence. Many chose online learning because their lives are exceptionally full, not because they are looking for an easier path.

At the last PD day, I posed a simple question to my teaching team: What if I added daily academic expectations on top of your already busy work and family responsibilities? What if some of the learning tasks I gave you did not feel relevant to your future beyond being told “you have to do this to graduate”. Would you ever consider using AI, even if you had been told not to?

That is why the conversation is more complex than writing more rules and enforcing consequences. I want to find a way to help students build the intrinsic motivation, discipline, and confidence that comes from doing the work themselves. I want to protect the integrity of deep learning while acknowledging we all now live in an over-scheduled, over-connected, over-available world where information and shortcuts are at our fingertips.

What Research and Experience Suggest

Recent research confirms what many of us feel instinctively: when AI can generate polished work quickly, we have to look beyond finished products and focus on real thinking.

If an essay can be written in seconds, the essay alone cannot be the only evidence of learning. If a tool can solve equations step by step and generate thoughtful lab analysis, then even “showing your work” is no longer automatic proof of understanding.

That means we must go deeper into what makes learning human.

Students need opportunities to demonstrate understanding in ways that are relationship-based, purpose driven, and meaningful to them. Learning should not feel like producing something for a grade. It should involve dialogue, application, reflection, and growth.

That might mean:

• Exploring the “why” behind what they are learning and its real-world applications.

• Explaining their thinking out loud, not just submitting answers.

• Solving problems and defending why one method is better than another.

• Encouraging students to connect their ideas to current events and personal meaning.

• Engaging in back and forth debate and discussion with collaborative problem-solving.

• With online discussion boards, modelling a conversational tone as if comfortably speaking to one another in a classroom rather than stiff academic language that’s easily copied and pasted.

• Asking students to share reflections on how their thinking has changed over time.

• Demonstration of understanding in many different modes: written, visual, oral, and applied.

• Building strong relationships. Students are more likely to choose integrity when they feel seen, known and connected to their teachers.

This is easier said than done, especially in online contexts. But this is the work we need to do.

Looking Ahead

There are short term needs in school that we must address now, even if the process feels imperfect and messy. The pace of change is too fast for us to bury our heads in the sand. That means clearer expectations and policies, stronger assessment design, better conversations, and direct teaching about ethical and appropriate AI use.

We also need to listen carefully. Young people are living in this rapidly changing reality in ways many adults are not. They bring modern realities and a vision for the future that we need to hear. Their insights matter. At the same time, adults bring the wisdom that comes from experience and carry the responsibility of guiding young people to make choices that will support their long-term growth, character, and independence. We need both perspectives at the table.

As we step back and look at the bigger picture, the questions grow even more complex. I find myself wondering whether this moment is about more than AI. It may also be an invitation to reconsider what we value most in education and how well our current systems support deep learning, creativity, and genuine intellectual growth.

Is the prescribed curriculum too dense and focused on breadth rather than depth? Is it too focused on memorization? Is too much learning disconnected from students’ real lives and future aspirations? Have we left too little time for creativity and innovation?

If students feel constant pressure to perform, cover content, and check boxes, we should not be surprised when efficiency tools become appealing. When the system emphasizes output over understanding, shortcuts will always look attractive.

Perhaps these challenges are inviting us to re-examine what we value most in education. Not simply covering content, not simply grades, but deep understanding, transferable thinking, creativity, resilience, and character.

We may not be able to overhaul every system overnight. However, we can begin by asking better questions, designing more meaningful learning experiences, and ensuring that integrity and innovation grow side by side.