How should I handle an AI-writing flag when a student can explain the essay but has no earlier drafts?
Education"There aren't earlier versions. I wrote it in one file, offline." The student turned his laptop towards me. I had asked him to bring his notes after Turnitin flagged 68% of his history essay as potentially AI-written.
I teach a first-year college class. The essay is more polished than his short classroom responses, and that difference worried me before I saw the report. In our meeting he explained why he had compared two newspaper accounts, found the passages he cited, and admitted that one paragraph overstated what a source said. None of that establishes how every sentence was written. It did make my planned 'explain the flag' conversation feel too simple.
The assignment allowed ordinary spelling corrections but required students to disclose any generated text. He says he used no text generator. Another staff member suggested making him rewrite the essay by hand. Our course coordinator has asked me to send the concern through the college's review process before changing his mark.
Grades are due Friday. I haven't imposed a penalty, but the student left asking whether he should now write less well so this doesn't happen again. What should I put in the account for the coordinator, and how do I explain the unresolved concern to him without turning the software percentage into a verdict?