Analysing Students’ Use of AI in Essay Outputs: A Case Study in Purposive Communication

The popularization of ChatGPT has transformed the way students approach their academic tasks, especially in writing essays and other related outputs. While the benefits of these tools are widely recognized such as idea generation and enhanced writing efficiency; they also raise concerns for academic integrity. This study aims to analyse the extent of AI use in student essays for the Purposive Communication course in tertiary level at a select private University in Bulacan, Philippines. The study categorized submissions based on the percentage of AI-generated, mixed human-AI, or human-based content using three AI detection tools. Through mixed-method approach, particularly, sequential-explanatory approach, the study revealed deeper understanding on the effectiveness of AI detection tools and the students’ perspective on AI usage in writing essay outputs. The results revealed that there are inconsistencies in the AI detection tools’ AI scoring of the two outputs analysed, with one tool consistently identifying more outputs as human-written while the others flagged notable presence of AI-generated content with the texts. This inconsistency along with the variation of AI scores between the first and second output of students highlights the complexity and potential unreliability of using single detection tool as measure of student-authorship. In line with this, qualitative findings reflected the students’ growing maturity towards the use of AI in their writing which is reflected on their emotional response to the results, their awareness of academic integrity and responsible use of AI, and to their desire for empathetic guidance from their teachers as well as a clear, explicit, standardized policies on the use of AI in academic writing. Taken together, these results suggest the imperative for educational institutions to establish a reliable detection method with transparent policies on the use of AI, as well as open conversations about students’ use of AI. Thus, the researcher recommends that educational institution take a multifaceted approach to adopting AI in education, starting with fostering ethical awareness on responsible use of AI and academic honesty. Educators may also support students by developing authentic writing skills while guiding them to responsibly engage with these emerging powerful tools.