Higher Marks, Lower Learning? AI's Favourite Magic Trick
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About this episode
Higher Marks, Lower Learning? AI's Favourite Magic Trick
This week, Ray and Dan unpack a bumper collection of AI in education news and research, all pointing to one critical question: Is AI helping students learn…or just helping them score higher?
The episode begins with a striking case from Brown University, where a take-home exam averaged 96%, only for the same cohort to average 48% in a supervised final. From there, Ray and Dan explore what the latest research says about AI-assisted assessment, automated marking, AI tutors, critical thinking, and the growing importance of student agency.
They also discuss:
- New evidence on AI marking compared with human examiners
- Research showing how guided AI tutoring can improve maths learning
- Why critical thinking is the biggest predictor of successful AI use
- The risks of "never-skilling" when students rely too heavily on AI
- AI detectors: what they can (and can't) reliably tell us
- New Australian data on AI's impact on employment
- The latest Digital Education Council survey of university students
- Online safety and the growing challenge of AI-assisted image abuse
As always, the episode is packed with practical insights, research summaries, and plenty of discussion about what all this means for educators, schools and universities.
Links - News
- Voice got an upgrade https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-live/
- Inside Higher Ed article: Brown Professor Suspects Majority of His Class Used AI to Cheat https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty/learning-assessment/2026/07/08/brown-professor-suspects-most-his-class-used-ai-cheat
- Digital Education Council AI in Higher Education Global Survey https://www.digitaleducationcouncil.com/resource-library-items/ai-in-higher-education-global-survey-2026
- One in 25 teens affected by AI-assisted online abuse, study finds. Read Lee Barrett's opinion: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lee-barrett-a7624923b_boys-major-victims-of-ai-assisted-online-share-7480417534723244033-OjWU/
- AI and employment in Australia - report from Department of Education and Workplace Relations https://www.dewr.gov.au/download/17666/ai-and-employment-australia/43205/ai-and-employment-australia/pdf
Links - Research
- AI in Univers
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