ACU Student Success emailed the student body on behalf of the Compass team on Monday, regarding an uptick in AI-generated responses to exercises. 

The university’s required Chapel credits for undergraduate students are a long-standing tradition that has recently been altered to coincide with classification. The ACU Compass team offers online questionnaires and personal essays for Chapel credit, readily available on the Compass app, powered by Suitable. 

“We encourage you to go a little deeper,” said Brittany Deeg, Compass’ executive director of experimental learning. “We see it as an opportunity to open that conversation and help students holistically grow.” 

According to the email, the team noticed more submissions appeared to be generated by AI, rather than reflecting personal thought.  

Suitable was brought to campus in 2021 to track and manage spiritual formation credit. Deeg said it has grown to help students process and collect memories as well. 

Experiential learning is a hands-on application of what is learned in the classroom, Deeg said. Suitable is a tool to support students in that process. 

“That’s what college is – you’re learning how to make sense of it before you sort a launch into the next step of your life,” she said. “We feel really passionately about supporting students through that journey.” 

Along with Chapel credit, there are many other badges available for completion; a few examples are fine arts appreciation, career readiness and vocation in the workplace. 

Each submission is hand-reviewed by employees. Deeg said the submissions on Suitable are opportunities to grow holistically. 

“That’s always been a value of our office,” she said. “Every single thing that someone submits, a real person is going to lay eyes on.” 

Detecting AI-generated material at 100% accuracy is not feasible, according to the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science. Deeg said the team will deny submissions that lack personal connection and reflection and encourage students to retry. 

“We always open that up – that invitation to resubmit because we don’t want to shut you down,” Deeg said. “That doesn’t do anyone any good.” 

The email also explained that denied activities are not assumptions of guilt, rather an opening for students to meaningfully reengage with the material. 

Before coming to ACU, Deeg worked at a higher education consulting company for six years and at Purdue University for four years. Deeg said ACU is special in its effort to help students grow in different ways.  

“In all of my other previous roles working with college students, never have I seen something so intentionally built to help students be holistically formed,” Deeg said. “That’s just a really incredible thing.”