AI Case Study: Winstanley College

Phil Duckworth is a sixth form teacher at Winstanley College in Wigan.

How much you think ChatGPT is being used by your students to complete homework tasks, and if it is easy to tell where it been used inappropriately in assignment responses?

It's easy to tell when they've used apps like GIZMO or Poe as they have to register and then you can see who is using them, however, it's less easy to see if they're using it to generate essay answers. We've gone through how to use it appropriately using the JCQ guidelines with our EPQ students so they know how to reference it properly and they've done this as part of a class activity. Like any other way of detecting plagiarism though, it's really important to know your students so you can pick up on any change of tone or ability that might be an indicator that they have used AI to write something rather than write it themselves. 

As far you know, does your school yet have a clear policy on AI usage for A) teachers B) students 

Yes, we have an AI policy for both staff and students. The one for staff encourages them to use it to save time and that it should be something that students are shown how to use properly as it will be an important skill in the future when they are part of the workforce, this is also part of our wider skills agenda strategy. The policy for students covers and gives examples of how they should use it and reference its use in order to avoid plagiarism. Both the staff and student AI policy is in line with JCQ guidelines.