AI course design must keep students doing the work
The point is not to ban AI. It is that courses can be designed. If students can hand off the exact tasks meant to build skill, teachers need early tasks that make effort worth it and later tasks that use the skill.
What the source reports
Davies builds a theory model of learning by doing. A short-sighted student faces tasks and chooses either to work or to delegate to AI. Working takes effort but builds skill. Delegation takes no effort and builds no skill. Without AI, the teacher can move from effort-heavy early tasks to more skill-heavy later tasks. With AI, the teacher must redesign early tasks to induce effort, and the model predicts less skill growth than the best possible course. In an extension where AI complements effort, better AI helps high-skill students learn faster. It can make low-skill students learn slower because they are more tempted to delegate. This is theory, not a classroom trial.
Original source
- Title
- Course Design in the Age of AI
- Author
- Davies
- Publication
- arXiv
- Date
- Tuesday, July 21, 2026