Banning AI won’t make students care about learning

The adoption of artificial intelligence in higher education has created concerns about its impact on traditional teaching and learning practices. One is the idea that students use AI to produce work without understanding what they are submitting, leading many educators to seek ways to “AI-proof” their assessments. For some, the answer is to simply prevent students using AI.

But what if such AI over-reliance is a symptom of student disinterest? If a task seems lengthy or irrelevant, students will naturally seek the shortest path to completion. By banning AI, we risk overlooking the root cause. A better response would be to pivot from policing technology to designing for relevance. We have found that making learning personal and practical significantly improves learning and engagement.

The following activities work in a range of disciplinary contexts because they share three key design elements: 

• They connect concepts to real-world contexts
• They spark curiosity and exploration 
• They require structured student reflection.

Bringing biology into everyday decisions

Our institution runs a general education online biology course with students from diverse academic backgrounds. An activity called “food inspectors” has proven particularly effective for improving engagement.

It requires students to investigate the ingredients of two of their favourite snacks. They must document their research with photos of the ingredient labels and choose one ingredient with a complex or unfamiliar name. They must then analyse how that ingredient affects their gut microbiota and share a surprising fact they learned during the process.

Teachers use the following questions to prompt reflection:

• Key discovery: what did you learn from analysing these ingredients?
• Personal connection: how does this relate to your eating habits?
• Changed perspective: what will you do differently now?

These move the activity beyond a simple research task, often prompting personal responses. One student reflected that the activity improved her understanding of how nutrition impacted her central hypothyroidism. She said that paying attention to ingredients helped her manage her health. Not only did the activity connect theory to practice but she learned an important life skill in the process.

• Spotlight guide: Bringing GenAI into the university classroom
• Spotlight guide: AI and assessment in higher education
• Designing assessments with generative AI in mind

Big ideas for the boardroom

During an online session for a business course, students must design a marketing campaign in just 40 minutes.

In teams, they define a “big idea”, identify a target audience and select marketing channels. Crucially, they must use professional-grade AI tools such as Leonardo, MidJourney, DALL-E and Canva to bring their ideas to life. By using a prompt to generate billboard concepts, they can focus their attention on strategy rather than on designing and drawing marketing materials.

Feedback shows that students do not just value the efficiency of the AI tools; they feel better prepared to use them in the workplace after the activity. 

Also, by requiring students to use the tools they might have used to “cheat” in the context of a live, dynamic workshop, instructors ensure that the AI tools complement students’ creativity rather than substitute thought processes.

Tips for creating meaningful learning activities that prevent over-reliance on AI

• Start with the familiar. Use everyday tools and objects such as apps, news headlines or grocery items as your case studies to ground theory in reality.
• Incorporate digital tools that mirror those students will use in the workplace to improve employability.
• You do not have to design every case from scratch. High-quality databases, such as the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, offer more than a thousand peer-reviewed scenarios that can be adapted for your course.
• Partner with AI for case design. You can use generative AI to brainstorm scenarios or adapt existing ones based on your students’ needs. By asking an AI to act as a professor and generate three brief, real-world scenarios for a specific topic, you can save hours of design time and provide fresh material that prompts class discussion.
• Design for reflection. Always include an activity that encourages students to ask themselves: “Why does this matter to you?” to consolidate learning. 

When designing your course, think about how you can demonstrate the real-world relevance of your learning material. Whether that is by showing students how the food they consume can affect their gut health or equipping them with the skills to use the tools on which they might later rely in the workplace. By keeping relevance front and centre and incorporating AI mindfully, you open up opportunities for personal and professional development, and make learning much more enjoyable in the process. 

Nelly Ramírez Vásquez is a tutor professor and Mariana Estefanía Elizondo García is a tutor, both at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

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