“Click to Comprehend?”: GenAI Summarisers, Student Learning, and the Quiet Crisis in Reading

HUMAN OVERSIGHT

How to cite this learning scenario

Arantes, J. (2025). “Click to Comprehend?”: GenAI Summarisers, Student Learning, and the Quiet Crisis in Reading. www.AI4education.org. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
abstract
This scenario-based activity explores the uncharted implications of GenAI-powered summarisation tools on student reading practices in higher education. Drawing on Corbin and Walton's (2025) critical research agenda, students are introduced to the epistemological, pedagogical, and ethical tensions surrounding AI summarisation. While promising efficiency and accessibility, these tools may also undermine the deep engagement and critical literacies that academic success relies upon. Through immersive role-play, guided inquiry, and structured debate, participants will grapple with the contested role of GenAI in shaping the future of learning, academic integrity, and digital equity. This activity supports critical digital literacy by encouraging educators and students to co-investigate how GenAI summarisation may scaffold or sideline the very act of learning itself.

“What counts as ‘time-saving’ is not always as simple as it seems.” — Corbin & Walton (2025)

GenAI Summarisers, Student Learning, and the Quiet Crisis in Reading

At Riverbanks University, a mid-sized institution with a large proportion of first-in-family and part-time students, academics across multiple disciplines have begun to observe a subtle but concerning trend. Weekly seminars once grounded in deep engagement with course readings have become flatter. When prompted to discuss key concepts from assigned texts, students often echo vague summaries, exhibit limited comprehension, or cite phrases that match popular GenAI summary platforms. In one humanities unit, "Ethics and Epistemology," tutors discover that students are using ChatPDF and NoteGPT to process dense philosophy readings. One student, Amal, explains that she simply doesn’t have the time to read full texts. Between caring responsibilities and part-time work, she’s turned to AI summarisation tools to “skim smart.” For her, the technology is not cheating — it’s survival. Rajiv, another student, shares in a peer feedback forum that he also uses AI summaries but finds them reductive and often misleading. “They miss the nuance,” he writes. “But it’s better than walking into a tute blank.” Lecturers are divided. Some argue that GenAI is just the new calculator — a tool to streamline cognitive effort and democratise access. Others worry that it outsources the very act of learning: reading. More troubling is the growing realisation that few educators actually know how these tools work. Are students uploading copyrighted material? Are the summaries accurate? Do students even know when a summary is biased or incomplete? The Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning convenes a task force to investigate. The team includes academic developers, tutors, policy officers, a student equity advocate, and a legal advisor. Their mandate is to propose a university-wide response to GenAI summarisation tools: one that doesn’t disproportionately punish students who rely on these tools due to structural disadvantage, but that also doesn’t compromise learning quality, critical engagement, or academic integrity. Complicating the issue is the invisible nature of reading. Unlike assignments submitted through Turnitin, no tool currently detects GenAI-assisted reading. Without a summary appearing in a student’s submitted work, how can educators differentiate between ‘learning with support’ and ‘surface skimming’? Is it fair to penalise students who never had time or neurotypical focus for long-form reading in the first place? Or are we complicit in enabling “AI-lite” education where students pass without ever learning to engage deeply? The team must weigh risks of over-regulation against risks of erosion in academic rigour. Should they embed AI literacy into reading-intensive subjects? Should they encourage transparent use and develop AI scaffolding guidelines? Should GenAI tools be banned for reading-intensive courses? As the task force drafts its recommendations, one thing becomes clear: this is no longer a conversation about cheating. It’s about epistemology, equity, and the future of reading itself.

Learning Outcomes

Discussion Questions

By the end of the session, learners will be able to: Critically evaluate the impact of GenAI summarisers on academic reading practices. Analyse ethical and pedagogical tensions involved in integrating AI tools into higher education. Formulate equitable, evidence-informed strategies for AI use in reading-heavy subjects. Apply concepts of scaffolding, academic integrity, and epistemic equity to real-world educational dilemmas.
What are the risks and benefits of treating AI-generated summaries as “good enough” replacements for academic reading? How might GenAI summarisers alter the invisible labor of learning, particularly for students from equity groups? Is there a point at which scaffolding becomes outsourcing? How can educators identify and respond to this shift? What does the rise of summarisation tools tell us about the structural conditions of higher education today? Should reading be assessed differently in the GenAI era—and if so, how?

Learning Activities

Critical Reflection (Individual): Students write a short personal reflection on how they currently approach academic reading and whether they’ve used GenAI tools for summarisation. Stakeholder Role-Play (Group): Groups are assigned roles (student, tutor, AI ethics advisor, learning designer, policy officer) to debate the scenario’s issues. Each role must produce a position statement based on the article and their ‘stakeholder’s’ concerns. Comparative Analysis (Pairs): Compare a GenAI-generated summary of a set text to a peer-produced summary. Discuss what’s missing, misleading, or helpful in each. Policy Pitch (Group): Using the debate outcomes, each group drafts a one-page policy proposal for their university’s teaching and learning board outlining how GenAI summarisers should be addressed in course design.
Suggested Reading: Corbin, T. A., & Walton, J. (2025). The missing story of GenAI summarisers: a critical research agenda. Higher Education Research & Development, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2486185

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Acknowledgement of Country We acknowledge the Ancestors, Elders and families of the Kulin Nation (who are the traditional owners of the land. where this work has bene predominantly completed. As we share our own knowledge practices, we pay respect to the deep knowledge embedded within the Aboriginal community and recognise their ownership of Country. We acknowledge that the land on which we meet, learn, and share knowledge is a place of age-old ceremonies of celebration, initiation and renewal, and that the Traditional Owners' living culture and practices have a unique role in the life of this region.