VisibleAI empowers educators to bring transparency, accountability, and ethical AI use into the classroom. As generative AI tools like ChatGPT reshape student writing, instructors need more than just detection—they need insight. VisibleAI tracks the entire writing process, helping institutions promote AI literacy, uphold academic integrity, and model responsible technology use at scale.
With AI policy guidelines still in the works at an institutional level, many schools are encouraging instructors to take the lead on defining AI use that fits their coursework and teaching pedagogy. Since there is uncertainty with the pace at which AI technologies are evolving, this case study focused on a bottom-up approach where instructors at Point Loma Nazarene University took the lead on experimenting with third party AI solutions that enabled them to get the transparency that they wanted on how students were using AI in their learning.
About Point Loma Nazarene University
Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) is a Christian Liberal Arts university in San Diego, California, committed to shaping students’ academic excellence, personal character, and spiritual growth. With a focus on holistic education, PLNU prepares graduates to think critically, act ethically, and serve compassionately in their communities. The university’s dedication to academic integrity and lifelong learning extends into how it approaches emerging technologies like AI—ensuring students are equipped to engage with innovation responsibly and thoughtfully.
The Challenge: Navigating AI with Integrity and Clarity
As generative AI tools rapidly entered the classroom, faculty at PLNU faced a growing concern: how to ensure student work reflected authentic learning while acknowledging the realities of AI use.
As an institution rooted in ethical scholarship and student formation, PLNU’s mission emphasizes cultivating wisdom, integrity, and responsible citizenship. Faculty sought to uphold these values by guiding students toward thoughtful, transparent use of AI—rather than banning or policing its presence. However, traditional AI detection tools offered little clarity and often instilled fear rather than understanding.
Why VisibleAI Worked: Transparency Over Suspicion
Among the many AI tools out there, VisibleAI stood out to PLNU faculty for its focus on AI transparency rather than policing and penalizing students on their use of AI. Unlike detection tools that issue vague percentages or likelihood scores, VisibleAI empowers both students and faculty with clear, contextual authorship insights. It opened the door to meaningful conversations around process and responsibility, rather than raising alarms. Prof. Christine Tokunaga, Prof. Lori Kall, Prof. Catherine Walters, and Prof. Ross Brunett were among the first few faculty members who saw how VisibleAI supports pedagogy, not surveillance—giving them a platform to teach responsible AI use, not just monitor it.
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Key Outcomes of Implementing VisibleAI
- Improved Student Accountability: Students became more intentional in how they used AI and how they documented it.
- Faculty Confidence: Instructors gained a reliable way to assess authorship without relying on flawed detection models.
- AI Literacy Development: Students began seeing AI as a co-thinker, not a shortcut—developing essential skills for future classrooms.
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Getting Started: Challenges and Goals
As faculty training future educators to create lesson plans, building AI literacy skills was topmost priority while upholding academic integrity and modeling how educators should approach AI in their own future classrooms.
Students initially struggled with the shift in mindset. Many had previously viewed AI use as “cheating” or were unsure how much AI use was allowed. The faculty used VisibleAI as a teaching tool, showing students how to iterate responsibly with AI, reflect on their process, and document their input transparently. Over time, students began using AI more intentionally—for brainstorming, revising, or rephrasing—while taking ownership of the final product. This co-pilot approach helped normalize ethical AI use and develop long-term digital literacy.
Once the focus shifted from product to process, faculty could evaluate not just what students submitted, but how they arrived at those ideas with the help of VisibleAI. This reinforced the role of the teacher as both creator and critical thinker.
Download our free guide on how to teach students to cite AI properly
Student Impact on using VisibleAI
VisibleAI didn’t just help faculty—it transformed the student experience. Here’s what it looked like:
- Students gained confidence in articulating their process and better understood what ethical AI use looks like in practice.
- Students began voluntarily disclosing how and where they used AI in their assignments, mirroring the habits they’ll one day expect from their own students. This shift from fear to fluency was critical: students were no longer hiding AI use but learning to use it well.
- As a result of using AI as a co-thinker, PLNU faculty saw a spark in conversation revolving around equity, bias and critical thinking. This saw higher engagement among students, lower anxiety around using AI and student work reflecting more thoughtful, original thinking.
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VisibleAI: The Way Forward to For Institutions Towards AI Literacy
Point Loma Nazarene University’s faculty-led approach to AI demonstrates how ethical technology use can be embedded in course design—not just enforced through policy. VisibleAI enabled faculty to align with the university’s mission of integrity and wisdom, while preparing students to navigate an AI-powered future with discernment and transparency.
Onboarding Support from VisibleAI
The success of this integration wasn’t solely due to the tool itself. The support from the VisibleAI team played an instrumental role.
Our team provides a 1:1 walkthrough for your faculty to get set up with their assignment and LMS integration. We have a comprehensive Student and Instructor Onboarding Guide that contains FAQs and a step-by-step manual of how to navigate VisibleAI. In addition to this, we also offer 24X7 Customer Support available through our website for students and instructors using VisibleAI.
Want to model ethical AI use at your institution? Schedule a call with VisibleAI for a 30 minute product demonstration.
Still not ready to commit? Join us for an upcoming webinar.
