{"id":672063,"date":"2026-05-15T22:06:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672063\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T22:06:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:06:20","slug":"ai-causing-moral-injury-to-lecturers-trying-to-police-its-use-trent-university-research-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672063\/","title":{"rendered":"AI causing \u2018moral injury\u2019 to lecturers trying to police its use, Trent University research shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Amanda Paxton, co-ordinator of the journalism and creative writing program at Trent\u2019s Durham campus, on Tuesday.Fred Lum\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The ubiquitous use of artificial intelligence<\/a> by university and college students is forcing academics to rapidly adapt, with some making students use pen and paper instead of laptops with access to AI tools. <\/p>\n

Mac Fenwick, an English literature instructor at Trent University, said a forthcoming federal AI strategy, being prepared by Minister Evan Solomon, should focus on how AI use has changed the classroom.<\/p>\n

Mr. Fenwick believes that fighting the use of AI by students is a losing battle, warning that it\u2019s an arms race they can\u2019t win.<\/p>\n

Yet, because of widespread AI use, he has adjusted the way he assesses students: \u201cWe have stepped back in time 30 years.\u201d <\/p>\n

This academic year, Mr. Fenwick jettisoned essays as a way of assessing final grades, after three quarters of his first-year class last year used AI to help them write their term papers.<\/p>\n

He reintroduced exams, taken with pen and paper, for his first-year online students. Those that couldn\u2019t physically make it to the classroom also took their exams the old-fashioned way \u2013 but in front of a camera, with software that blocked them from accessing generative AI.<\/p>\n

How has AI affected students and classrooms? Our experts answered your questions<\/a><\/p>\n

It became glaringly clear which of his students had been relying on AI for assignments when he graded their final exam: A handful of students with straight As in their coursework failed it.<\/p>\n

Mr. Fenwick said they had seen their grades plummet because they had \u201cnot done any of the cognitive work\u201d but had relied on machines to do their thinking for them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen ChatGPT erupted three years ago it was a seismic moment,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to be teaching students how to use this responsibly, how to use it productively and about the dangers of using it irresponsibly.\u201d He worries that misuse of AI is \u201cdegrading thinking abilities.\u201d <\/p>\n

The rapid march of artificial intelligence on campus is not just changing the academic lives of students. <\/p>\n

Recent research has illustrated the ways generative AI has affected university writing instructors. It found that it has led to marked increases in \u201ccognitive and emotional labour\u201d as they navigate how to deal with its increasing use by students. <\/p>\n

Opinion: AI is winning hearts and minds in the classroom \u2013 but at what cost to our cognitive future?<\/a><\/p>\n

Led by Amanda Paxton, co-ordinator of the journalism and creative writing program at Trent\u2019s Durham campus, the paper published in the journal Teaching & Learning Inquiry concluded that writing instructors in Ontario struggle with the burden of spotting AI-generated work and confronting students about its use. The paper said they\u2019re suffering from \u201cmoral injury\u201d as well as doubts about whether their role as teachers is still meaningful. Others said they do not have sufficient guidance on how to tackle its use, including how to accurately assess assignments that may have been aided in part by AI tools. <\/p>\n

The research paper said some faculty felt overwhelmed, and shame if they failed to identify computer-generated work. <\/p>\n

It found that the emergence of generative AI has led to significant levels of frustration and confusion among an overburdened faculty. <\/p>\n

Ms. Paxton said that the federal AI strategy should offer solutions to support and educate academics about how to cope with its use by students. <\/p>\n

The delayed strategy is expected to look at offering financial support to boost sovereign Canadian AI.<\/p>\n

Ms. Paxton insists that major assignments in her first-year academic writing course are written by hand in class. She said the far-reaching impact of AI on education cannot be ignored. <\/p>\n

\u201cUniversity teaching and learning centres are often working on threadbare budgets … so a commitment from the federal government to support them would be an important service,\u201d she said in an email. <\/p>\n

The Decibel: Is AI making us dumb?<\/a><\/p>\n

Making available to colleges and universities a vetted and reliable form of AI detection would be valuable, she added. <\/p>\n

Sofia Ouslis, spokesperson for Mr. Solomon, said the Minister\u2019s office is aware of how AI \u201cis changing how students, educators and institutions think about learning, assessment and academic integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are important conversations, and we are listening closely to educators, researchers and institutions as they work through them,\u201d she said in an email. \u201cEducation falls primarily under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, but the government of Canada does have a role to play in supporting trusted AI adoption, advancing research, strengthening digital literacy and helping ensure Canadians can adapt and thrive in an AI-powered economy.\u201d <\/p>\n

She noted that the goal \u201cis not simply to police AI use.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to help Canadians use these technologies in ways that strengthen learning, creativity, productivity and opportunity while maintaining trust and academic integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinion: Cultivating intelligence: Why Canada must grow, not just import, AI<\/a><\/p>\n

Aimi Hamraie, York University\u2019s Canada Research Chair in Technology, Society, and Disability, said the federal AI strategy \u201cshould set limits on the entry of gen AI tools into university campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is separate from the surveillance issue because the problem is not just students using ChatGPT to write papers. Corporations are giving universities free or reduced cost use of gen AI tools (for now), which is widening adoption and normalizing use,\u201d they said in an email.<\/p>\n

At the University of Waterloo, English literature professor Fraser Easton now sets hand-written assignments in class. This not only helps student cognition and knowledge, he said, but reduces \u201cthe temptation of short cuts that AI offers.\u201c<\/p>\n

Andrew Monti teaches a third-year AI in communication course at Trent and said generative AI is \u201can incredible technology that offers clear advantages, especially for big data analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he said it is \u201cimportant to distinguish between using gen AI for learning versus for work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dAsking gen AI to produce a course assignment, like writing an analytical reflection on a topic of interest, is like going to the gym and asking somebody else to lift the weights for you,” he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Amanda Paxton, co-ordinator of the journalism and creative writing program at Trent\u2019s Durham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,714,61],"class_list":["post-672063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-politics","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}