26 Cognitive offloading, deskilling and neverskilling

Why Students use GenAI

Based on data from UMN’s Student Experience in the Research University survey (SERU) and student focus groups, common reasons students use GenAI include:

• Unclear or vague assignment instructions
• Feeling overwhelmed, behind, or disconnected
• Low motivation in courses that are outside of their major and/or areas of interest, such as general education or required courses
• Perception that an assignment or task is busywork
• Insecurity about their writing or communication skills

Some of these concerns can be assisted by the capabilities of GenAI, while others are better solved by communicating with instructors directly, speaking with an academic advisor or mental health specialist.

But even with all this new technology, being a college student still means taking the time to truly learn, think for yourself, and understand the world around you. It’s about developing your own brainpower but also having the motivation to learn about and apply new ideas.

Find a balance between GenAI use and your motivation to learn

There are two key factors when we talk about GenAI use and learning: cognitive offloading and motivation. These go hand in hand for responsible use.

An important factor to keep in mind with GenAI is how it actually impacts your thinking. We’ve all been there where sometimes your brain feels completely maxed out, like a browser with way too many tabs open, and you just can’t fit one more thing inside your head. That’s where cognitive offloading comes in (again).

Cognitive offloading includes a variety of strategies to reduce the demands on your brain. At best, a strategy like writing things down can relieve you of the effort of remembering things perfectly, or using a calculator to figure out a 20% tip at a restaurant. At the same time, turning over your thinking and memory to a tool that does more than just record your thoughts can lead to some serious consequences.

Your instructors get worried about GenAI for this exact reason. When you rely too much on technology, two main things can happen: deskilling and neverskilling.

• Deskilling is when a skill you worked hard to learn gets rusty from lack of use – like a second language you haven’t spoken in years.
• Neverskilling is when a tool does the work for you from day one, so you never actually build the skill in the first place.

Relying on automated alerts for meetings, birthdays, or assignment due dates so you don’t have to spend active mental energy keeping track of time is probably fine. But relying on it so much that you miss out on building the core critical thinking skills you’ll need as a future doctor, engineer, or leader? That’s a risk you definitely don’t want to take.

The other factor involves your motivation to learn the concepts and skills in your classes. GenAI can be the ultimate productivity booster;  it can churn out outline after outline in seconds. But speed isn’t the same as understanding. When faced with high-stakes assignments or when your brain is just tired, using GenAI as a tool can feel like a practical way to manage stress. However, relying on AI to complete the core intellectual tasks of an assignment alters the underlying motivation for learning. It shifts the goal from actually understanding and retaining the material to completion, like simply turning something in to check a box.

While GenAI can effectively assist with lower-level administrative tasks, such as formatting a reference list or brainstorming broad research topics, it is essential that critical thinking, original analysis, and creative synthesis remain with you to ensure that genuine capability accompanies academic achievement.

Navigating AI use at the University

At the University, there are appropriate ways and inappropriate ways to use GenAI, and it’s important to know how to make a judgement. This lesson will help you figure out when it’s smart to let AI lend a hand with a learning task and when it’s much, much better to rely on your own brilliant brain.

But even with all this new technology, being a college student still means taking the time to truly learn, think for yourself, and understand the world around you. It’s about developing your own brainpower.