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Welcome to the Friday edition of our newsletter. We spend Fridays going deeper into tools and trends related to generative AI (and Tuesdays sharing news updates). This week, professor Snider discusses how college students can use AI.
How college students can use AI without cheating
AI is a polarizing topic around college campuses these days. Some students adamantly oppose the use of AI. Others have no problem passing off AI-generated content as their own work.
But what if a student wants to learn how to use AI tools ethically to aid in their learning process? What are some ways students can use AI that doesn't feel like cheating?
Below I propose ways that I think students can benefit from AI, learn more about how the tools work, and still feel like they are the ones in control of their education.
I believe the important distinction here is that AI can be used to support your thinking. It shouldn’t do your thinking.
If an assignment exists to teach you something, and you let AI do the part where you were supposed to be doing that thinking, you cheated yourself. But there is a lot of room on the good side of that line. Most students never explore it because nobody showed them how.
Read below for my recommendations on how students can use AI. And if you are a college student reading this, you should know that Google is once again giving Gemini to college students for free.
Sign up for our fall AI Lunch Club
We are offering four one-hour virtual events this fall. These events are free thanks to a sponsorship from Drake University’s Bucksbaum Lectureship in Business.
Sept. 30: Get More Value from Microsoft Copilot
Oct. 7: How to use AI as a Design Tool
Oct. 14: Skills, Plugins and Connectors
Oct. 21: AI’s Rapid Ascent: Do we Need to be Worried
Want to dive deeper into Microsoft Copilot? Sign up for our Sept. 16 three-hour virtual workshop.
Get yourself organized
Use AI to turn your syllabi, assignment deadlines, to-do lists and work schedule into a weekly plan. Ask it to help prioritize tasks and balance studying with other commitments. Most students struggle with being organized. AI can help.
Use it as a tutor
Paste in the dense reading or simply share the subject you are learning about. Ask for an explanation at a beginner level and an analogy that will help you understand the subject better. Then ask for it again at the level the exam will test. Ask follow-up questions until it clicks. Most AI tools have some sort of "study and learn" mode that teach you instead of just giving the answer. I highly recommend students take advantage of those.
Ask it to grade your draft
The most valuable prompt a student can learn is not “improve this.” It's “where is my argument weakest?” Then: “what would someone who disagrees with me say?” Before you turn in an assignment, upload the instructions and your draft and ask it what you are missing. The writing remains your own. You are simply getting feedback before you turn it in.
Quiz yourself before your professor does
Turn your own notes into flashcards, practice quizzes, or a study guide. Ask for 15 practice questions. Answer them without looking, then have AI grade the answers and point out what you clearly don't understand yet. AI is not a personalized tutor.
Practice the conversations that make you nervous
Mock interviews. Presentations. Cold emails about an internship. The awkward ask for a recommendation letter. Have AI play the role of the other person, then ask for honest feedback on how you came across.
Build things you couldn't build before
Study trackers. Budget tools. Working prototypes for a class project. Students with zero coding background can now make something real in minutes with vibe coding tools like Gemini Canvas, Lovable, Claude Artifacts and more.
Brainstorm possibilities
Generate potential research questions or project ideas, then evaluate and develop your own direction. Most brainstorms fall way short, but a 10-minute back-and-forth with AI can bring out more ideas than an hour of brainstorming on your own.
Use AI in “The Club”
The work you do in student clubs and organizations (planning events, recruiting members, writing budgets, running meetings) looks a lot more like your first job than many of your classes do. That makes it the best place on campus to figure out where AI helps and where it gets in the way.
Use AI to build meeting agendas, create content calendars, write drafts of budget requests and constitution updates, recruit and onboard new members, document materials for future students, etc., in the clubs you are a member of.
Some warnings before you start
AI makes things up, confidently. Check facts, quotations, calculations, and citations.
Don’t upload classmates’ work, personal information, or confidential research without permission.
Policies vary by professor, by course and often by assignment. Read the syllabus.
The takeaway for the rest of us
If you manage people, train people, or raise people, this applies to you too. The question is never “did you use AI.” It's “did you skip the part that makes you better at your job?”
That's a much more useful conversation than a ban, and my hope is that students are ready to have the conversation and start using AI to help with their education.
