AI Cheating Is the New Plagiarism. Here's How Lecturers Can Stay One Step Ahead with Achieve
Sept 2025
Instructors around the world are facing a fast-evolving challenge: academic dishonesty powered by AI.
Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are now widely accessible, intuitive, and fast making them dangerously easy to misuse. From full essays to exam questions, students are increasingly submitting AI-generated work that’s nearly impossible to detect using traditional plagiarism tools.
And the data confirms it.
The Stats Say It All: AI Cheating Is Surging Globally
7,000 confirmed AI cheating cases in UK universities in 2023–24 — up from 1.6 to 5.1 per 1,000 students in just one year.
(Source: The Guardian, 2025)
65% of instructors say they’ve caught students using AI to cheat
(Source: Times of India, 2025)
Why It’s So Hard for Lecturers to Keep Up
AI doesn’t leave the same digital footprints as copy-paste plagiarism:
- It generates original responses
- It avoids triggering Google matches
- It can be customised instantlyto fit prompts or rubrics
For educators, this creates a dilemma: Spend more time investigating? Or let it slide and risk undermining learning outcomes?
There’s a better way and it doesn’t require becoming a digital detective.
Enter Achieve: Designed for Real-World Teaching Challenges
Achieve from Macmillan Learning offers evidence-based tools that help instructors teach effectively in an AI-saturated world while preserving academic integrity and student trust.
Here’s how:
1. Unique Questions = Fewer Shortcuts
One of the most powerful tools in Achieve is its algorithmically generated assignments. That means:
- Every student gets a slightly different version of the same question
- It’s especially useful in STEM, Psych, Econ, and other data-heavy courses
- AI can’t easily guess the “right” answer
- And it pushes students to actually think, not just submit
Bonus? It also cuts down on answer-sharing between students. Win-win.
2. Get the Full Picture Behind a Submission
Achieve doesn’t just show you the final grade- it shows you how students got there.
You can see:
- Time spent on each task
- Number of attempts
- Whether they viewed any learning materials
- How their answers evolved
So when a student submits a perfect quiz in two minutes (without looking at any resources)… that’s a red flag you can actually act on.
3. Make Integrity a Teachable Moment
Achieve encourages student reflection:
- Use built-in reflection prompts or create your own
- Ask students to explain their process in follow-up questions
- Use their activity logs to start supportive conversations, not just disciplinary ones
This empowers students to take responsibility and learn from missteps.
4. Secure Assessment with LMS Integration
Achieve integrates with most major LMSs (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, Brightspace), allowing:
- Embedded assessments in familiar environments
- Compatibility with lockdown browsers or online proctoring tools such as Respondus
- Scalable feedback workflows for large classes
All without adding tech headaches to your teaching load.
Real Support for all Lecturers
Lecturers around the world are already using Achieve to:
- Keep students genuinely engaged
- Spot integrity issues before they escalate
- Save time while staying true to their teaching values
See Achieve in Action
Watch the Product Tour– Take 3 minutes to explore Achieve’s tools
Get Free Trial Access to Achieve - Discover how Achieve can transform your teaching.
Talk to a Course Specialist – We’ll help map Achieve to your current teaching goals
TL;DR: So, How Does Achieve Help with AI Cheating?
Achieve helps instructors stay ahead by:
- Giving every student a unique version of each assignment
- Showing you real-time engagement and learning patterns
- Encouraging student reflection and ownership
- Integrating securely with your LMS and assessment tools
It’s about working smarter, not harder to protect academic integrity without sacrificing teaching time.
Learn more about Achieve from Macmillan Learning.
