“Every time you engage with these systems, you gain something—but you also lose something.”“Human agency is your capability to make informed decisions, to act with intention, and to exercise judgment.”What happens when the red lines we draw around generative AI start to blur? In this 46th episode of The Opposite of Cheating, Dr. Soroush Sabbaghan reflects on how he’s crossed the lines he once swore he wouldn’t—assigning AI-generated readings and using AI in student feedback—not out of compromise, but in service of integrity, transparency, and pedagogy.As the first GenAI Educational Leader-in-Residence at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Calgary, Soroush has developed tools and frameworks to support educators and students navigating GenAI with nuance. He argues for assignment-level AI policies, aligned with specific learning outcomes and ethical goals—not blanket rules—and introduces his system that distinguishes between AI-free, AI-scaffolded, and AI-integrated tasks.Soroush shares his deep concern for student agency, the asymmetry between human and machine learning, and the risks of a purely transactional approach to education. He invites us to live, teach, and design with a mindset of intellectual humility and epistemic integrity—recognizing that every AI interaction has tradeoffs.You can follow Soroush and his work on LInkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/soroush-sabbaghan/) and at https://soroushsabbaghan.com/Episode Resources:

Communicating Generative AI Use: https://teaching-learning.ucalgary.ca/resources-educators/course-outlines/communicating-generative-ai-use-your-students

AI Bot for Designing Courses: https://www.smartie.dev/

AI Bot for making AI Policy: https://ai-policy-mumf.onrender.com(Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).e the responsibility of the human).

“We missed the mark with social media. We can’t miss it with AI.”

“College has to reach down and figure out what students are actually learning instead of just existing in this gap space and resenting K–12.”

In this episode, Nick Potkalitsky offers a K–12 lens on AI Literacy, reflecting on how schools, students, and parents are navigating this moment of rapid change—without repeating the mistakes made with social media.

Drawing from over 20 years in education, Nick shares how his work with school districts across Ohio is building more intentional, discipline-specific, and developmental approaches to GenAI in education.Nick outlines a framework that includes policy development, infrastructure security, teacher capacity-building, and student-centered instructional redesign. At the core is the belief that AI Literacy must be more than prompt engineering—it must foster agency, ethical reasoning, critical thinking, and metacognitive awareness.

Nick also warns of the dangerous asymmetry between how fast tech companies are moving and how fractured K–12 systems are. He calls for AI-free zones, authentic process-based writing, and more parent-facing AI education, especially to combat risks of AI misuse and companionship tools that are quietly shaping student behavior.

You can follow Nick on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-potkalitsky-phd-0313ba126/) and at Substack (https://nickpotkalitsky.substack.com/).

(Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).

“I have many conflicted feelings about AI, but talking to kind, curious people seems to help.”

“What does academic integrity mean when there are multi-billion dollar companies with armies of people whose job it is to make cheating irresistible?”

In this deeply personal and reflective episode of The Opposite of Cheating Podcast (44), Karen Costa shares what it means to teach for integrity in asynchronous, online learning environments in the age of GenAI.

With nearly two decades of experience across multiple institutions, Karen highlights the role of relationships, care, and relevance in shaping learning spaces that foster integrity—not through surveillance, but through trust. She opens up about the tension between access and academic integrity, especially for adult learners, neurodivergent students, and working parents—populations whose educational opportunities often depend on online formats.

Karen also discusses how the rise of agentic AI has forced educators to confront not just cheating, but the erosion of attention, motivation, and self-belief. She explores her shifting role as an instructor, her experiments with Google Docs version history, and her creative coping strategies—from AI command centers to faculty self-care. Most importantly, she challenges institutions and edtech companies to do more than outsource ethical decision-making to underpaid adjuncts.

You can follow Karen on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-costa-380280a7/ and you can learn more about her book at https://www.amazon.com/Educators-Guide-ADHD-Designing-Teaching/dp/1421453509

(Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).

“We need to be a little bit careful—if we put all our eggs in the assurance and academic integrity basket, then we’re at risk of forgetting some of the other really important parts of education.”

“Some of the ways in which we deal with academic integrity actually do the opposite of cultivating integrity.”

What is academic integrity in 2025—and how do we build learning environments that support it? In this 43rd episode of The Opposite of Cheating Podcast, Australian educator and researcher Tim Fawns shares his expertise at the intersection of digital education, assessment design, and values-based teaching.

Together, Tricia and Tim challenge simple binaries like online vs. in-person or authentic vs. secure. They explore how assessment security and human development can coexist, and why truly authentic assessment isn’t a panacea—it’s a complex design challenge requiring intentional trade-offs.

Tim also reflects on the unintended effects of AI Detectors, which may shift the locus of trust away from students and instructors, and on how educational design can better engage the “whole person.”

Drawing on research from the AI in Higher Education project (https://aiinhe.org/), he explains how student integrity decisions are shaped by intersecting identities, pressures, and realities—not just individual morals.

You can follow Tim and/or learn more about him and his work on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-fawns-4aba225/) and on his website (https://timfawns.com/).

(Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).

“It was the first time I was introduced to the idea of academic integrity—because I had done something.”“Assessment is broken now that AI’s here. It probably wasn’t in great shape beforehand.”In this 42nd episode of The Opposite of Cheating Podcast, Tricia speaks with Marc Watkins, Assistant Director of Academic Innovation and Lecturer of Writing & Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi, and author of the popular Substack - Rhetorica. After revealing that he learned about academic integrity from his fourth grade teacher, Marc and Tricia explore the challenging and nuanced middle ground between AI hype and AI resistance. How we both teach students (and faculty) about the harms and downsides of AI relianceharms of the AI hype, the moral compromises baked into edtech, and the challenges . Watkins calls for nuanced discernment rather than blind resistance or enthusiastic adoption and advocates for teaching critical AI literacy and AI fluency as essential durable human skills.From handwritten journals in hybrid courses to AI-fueled loneliness and student mental health, this episode ranges widely—and offers practical strategies to bring students back into relationship with learning, and each other.You can follow Marc on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-watkins-7a760356/) and keep up with his writing, thinking and teaching at https://marcwatkins.substack.com/ and https://marcwatkins.org/. (Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).e the responsibility of the human).

“I started out as an academic integrity prescriptivist. I was the hard-nosed.”“There’s really only three main ways that we can ask students to demonstrate academic integrity: Trust, Verification, Observation.”In this 41st episode of The Opposite of Cheating Podcast, David talks with Thomas J. Tobin, an educational developer and consultant with decades of experience, to challenge the punitive paradigms that dominate academic integrity conversations. Sharing his personal transformation from “academic integrity prescriptivist” to UDL champion, Tom walks listeners through a powerful framework for promoting honesty in learning environments: Trust, Verification, and Observation.He emphasizes how lowering barriers—around time, grades, due dates, and communication—can dramatically reduce student pressure and cheating behavior. Rather than defaulting to surveillance and restriction, Tom calls on instructors to make design choices that respect learner variability and build integrity by default.Listeners will learn how Universal Design for Learning intersects with academic integrity, and how reframing our goals around student agency and flexibility not only preserves rigor, but reduces workload for faculty and increases authentic learning for students.You can follow Tom's work at https://thomasjtobin.com/ and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/drtomtobin/, and find his writings about UDL at https://www.ahead.ie/udlforfet-guidance and http://wvupressonline.com/node/757(Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).

“It’s not: do you have integrity or do you not. It’s: are there conditions in place that allow people to act with integrity?”

“One of the things that alternative grading can do is to help shift students’ focus from getting grades and generating products to learning and engaging in a learning process.”

In this episode, educational developer and writing instructor Emily Pitts Donahoe of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) of the University of Mississippi, shares how collaborative grading and inclusive pedagogy can transform how we think about academic integrity in the age of AI.

Drawing from her work with graduate instructors and first-year writing students, Emily discusses how alternative grading shifts the focus from polished products to meaningful engagement and growth. She reflects on formative moments in her own educational journey, including a high school ethical dilemma, and examines how systemic inequities shape integrity choices.

This episode invites listeners to rethink what learning looks like—and how we might redesign our courses to better support integrity, equity, and motivation in a rapidly changing world.

You can follow Emily's work on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-pitts-donahoe-54093a242/, on her Unmaking the Grade Substack at https://emilypittsdonahoe.substack.com/, and on the CETL website at https://olemiss.edu/profiles/ejdonaho.php. For specific links to the Progress Tracker Emily gives to students, a sample rubric, and her current AI Policy document, see this blog post - https://emilypittsdonahoe.substack.com/p/sharing-my-course-documents.

Episode Resources

Leonard Cassuto's The New PhD (https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12093/new-phd?srsltid=AfmBOorgiP2uw_IKt47yzNA5sX1-dIHQyZ8YKS4aWg0-hbTKFT_7g5R5) and his appearance on Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-is-there-no-training-on-how-to-teach-graduate-students/id1535499508?i=1000646374045&l=es-MX)

(Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).

"We've been loathed to change and evaluate ourselves, make sure that we're addressing these fundamental issues and we need to own it."

"These are wicked problems and we have the knowledge and the ability, but we are headbutting not willing to come together and come up with a path forward."

In this 39th episode of The Opposite of Cheating Podcast, Tricia speaks with Sonny Ramaswamy, former President of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), about the intersections of accreditation, academic integrity, and systemic reform in higher education. Drawing from his expansive career in science, public service, and accreditation, Sonny reflects on the evolution—and shortcomings—of U.S. quality assurance models, especially in light of new challenges posed by AI and persistent pressures around access, funding, and equity.

Together, they tackle the validity of the credit hour, the need to move toward competency-based education, and how accreditors like NWCCU must move to centering learning outcomes, professional ethics, and durable human skills in their evaluation processes.

You can learn more about Sonny on his Wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Ramaswamy - and by following him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonnyramaswamy/

(Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).Episode ResourcesBeing There (Movie): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078841/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_accord_1_cdt_t_2Carnegie Credit Hour: https://nwccu.org/news/v6i4-letter-from-the-president/Math Education in Crisis: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/wa-math-education-is-in-crisis-heres-what-could-help/

WASC's KIDS (Key Indicator Dashboard) - https://www.wscuc.org/resources/kid/

"The issue I have is honestly that AI itself is a thief of ideas and doesn't really attribute where it got it from."

"When you disclose, you're unpacking your thinking and you're making your thinking visible."

In this 38th episode, Dr. Tricia Bertram Gallant is joined by Hoda Mostafa and Maha Bali from the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo (AUC). They explore how academic integrity is shaped by culture, language, and historical context, like how ideas of "helping" can blur lines in collectivist cultures and why Western-centric frameworks for integrity can create pitfalls. Hoda and Maha explain how AUC co-created guidelines for generative AI use with faculty and students to reframe originality, attribution, and collaboration in empowering ways. They also critique AI tools' biases, the dangers of outsourcing feedback to machines, and the need to preserve students' voices and relationships in learning.

You can follow Hoda and Maha on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/hodamostafa/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/maha-bali-3b51615/ respectfully.

And for more on the Center for Learning and Teaching at The American University in Cairo go to https://www.aucegypt.edu/academics/center-learning-and-teaching

(Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).

Episode Resources

"AI shaming":

https://blog.mahabali.me/educational-technology-2/against-ai-shaming/

https://blog.mahabali.me/uncategorized/an-invitation-to-extend-grace-and-openness-instead-of-no-ai-shaming/

Peter Feltern's work: Connections Are Everything https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12845/connections-are-everything?srsltid=AfmBOooLKOLIxxe13qUi1ZXM88EQYMBltzX6SRbQ54sk1MzTd6T6HfTI

Compassionate Learning Design

Gachago, D., Bali, M., & Pallitt, N. (2022). Compassionate learning design as a critical approach to instructional design. In J. Quinn, M Burtis, & S. Jhangiani (eds). Critical Instructional Design. Hybrid Pedagogy publishing. https://criticalinstructionaldesign.pressbooks.com/chapter/compassionate-learning-design-as-a-critical-approach-to-instructional-design/

Bali, M. & Tamer Atef, Y. (2024). https://blog.mahabali.me/pedagogy/cultivating-compassionate-community-to-foster-academic-integrity-with-yasser_tammer/

“Nobody’s brain wants to work overtime on something that seems pointless.”“Transparency full stop… you really you you cannot be too clear and transparent.”In this 37th episode of The Opposite of Cheating Podcast, David speaks with Syracuse University's Jessamyn Neuhaus (Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence) and Kate Marzen (Director of Academic Integrity) about using joy, trust, and proactive communication to reshape how academic integrity is approached.Jessamine shares her journey from content-focused historian to pedagogy-centered faculty leader, reframing academic integrity as a teachable skill embedded within good teaching. Kate, drawing on her background in K–12 and student conduct, emphasizes developmental approaches to misconduct and shares Syracuse’s standout initiative: a low-tech academic integrity escape room designed for first-year students.The episode dives into the power of transparency, the importance of giving students voice and agency, and how faculty can create learning environments that reduce misconduct by design—not policing.Listeners will come away with actionable strategies for humanizing integrity conversations, making teaching joyful again, and building campus cultures where students are seen as partners—not problems.You can follow Jessamyn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessamyn-neuhaus-975b00168/ and Kate at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-bussell/. You can learn more about Syracuse University's Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence (CTLE) at https://teachingexcellence.syr.edu/ (Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).