Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are transforming the way students approach academic writing. With just a few prompts, students can generate entire essays in minutes. But this convenience raises a critical question for faculty members and educators: If AI is doing the writing, what is the student really learning? Think about this: When students delegate the heavy lifting to AI, are they missing out on the very skills education is meant to develop?
A research article from a Chinese university found that many students turn to AI primarily to save time and effort. But in doing so, they may bypass key cognitive processes and critical thinking. Over time, this can erode the very foundation of meaningful learning.
Furthermore, as Harvard’s Inspiring Minds notes, “AI may help with structure, but it can never replace the struggle that leads to genuine insight.” In higher education, that’s not a small issue. When AI writes for students, it robs them of the chance to practice essential skills, core to critical thinking.
Why Critical Thinking Still Matters
Critical thinking is the bedrock of higher education. It enables students to:
- Evaluate sources and arguments
- Identify biases and logical fallacies
- Construct evidence-based conclusions
- Reflect on their own perspectives and assumptions
When students bypass this process using AI tools, their ability to engage deeply with content weakens. They may get good grades, but with shallow understanding.
Challenges Educators Face
If you’re an educator, you’ve probably already felt this shift. While AI content detectors had emerged as a first line of defense, they pose serious limitations like:
- They often produce incorrect output, wrongly flagging well-written student work.
- They can be easily manipulated as slight edits can trick the detector.
- They don’t provide evidence; just a probability score or suspicion.
- They fail to support faculty in understanding how and when AI was used in their students’ writing process.
- Over-reliance on detectors can damage trust between educators and students, potentially creating a culture of suspicion rather than trust.
- Detectors do not offer constructive feedback to help students improve their writing skills or ethical AI use.
So how can faculty ensure that student work reflects genuine learning—not just clever prompting?
Tools for Transparency and Trust
That’s where reliable tools like Trinka DocuMark (by Enago) come in. DocuMark isn’t just another AI content detector. Developed by Enago and powered by Trinka AI, it’s a platform designed to foster transparency and responsibility in AI-assisted student work. Instead of simply detecting AI-generated content, DocuMark empowers students to take ownership of their work by guiding them to review and verify AI contributions before submission.
This level of transparency gives both faculty and students a fair, factual way to engage with AI in academic work.
Why Faculty Love It
- Shows the full picture: Provides understanding of how a document came together—not just the final result
- Grades with confidence: Make informed decisions with clear evidence
- Reduces conflicts: Minimize disputes over originality or misconduct and build student trust through transparency, not suspicion
- Preserves standards: Maintain academic integrity without added admin load
- Highlights critical thinking moments: Classifies the content as typed, AI generated, or pasted, to help assess the critical thinking and reasoning efforts of the student
Why Would Students Benefit
- Takes ownership: Guides them to reflect on their own writing habits and use of AI
- Avoiding unfair penalties: Reduces the risk of false flags from imperfect AI detectors
- Encourages Responsible Learning: Builds ethical practices around disclosure and AI tools use
- Fosters growth as a writer: Keeps students engaged with their ideas instead of blindly outsourcing them
- Improves critical thinking: Encourages them to stay involved in the thinking and writing process
So, who learns the lesson?
With DocuMark, it’s the student who learns the lesson, not AI.
Yes, AI can write an essay—but it can’t reflect, reason, or learn on a student’s behalf. When academic writing becomes a shortcut rather than a learning process, we risk eroding the core purpose of education: developing critical thinking, constructing arguments, and generating original ideas.
AI tools like DocuMark represent the future of responsible education, blending technology with genuine learning. They don’t just detect content—they document the writing process, offering a fair and transparent way to ensure students remain engaged and accountable. They ensure that when the essay is done, it’s not just a grade on paper but a lesson truly learned.
Want to see how it works?
Book a demo of Trinka DocuMark to explore how you can uphold academic integrity—without compromising innovation.