"Easier Than Ever for Students to Cheat"
Plus, U.K. schools "turning a blind eye" to cheating. Plus, exam cheating in Ghana.
Issue 150
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AI is “Making It Easier Than Ever for Students to Cheat”
Slate ran a piece today on AI writing and cheating.
As academic integrity news, it’s not. AI has been capable of writing academic content for years. In fact, the AI has even learned how to cheat at academic writing (see Issue 32).
The article is nonetheless a good reminder that tools exist that can, rather easily, fool teachers and professors and basic plagiarism checkers. The article provides several examples of AI writing and shows how easy it is to use. It’s worth a scan.
It’s also good to remind that, in order to detect AI writing of the type presented in the article, the instructor needs more advanced technology tools - ones that can either compare many different written samples by the same “author” to detect differences or can spot AI writing on its own. Fortunately, as I understand it, computers are still rather good at spotting text written by other computers. Even more fortunately, both kinds of tools exist and schools would do well to have them installed and engaged.
Of course, the other foil to AI writing is for instructors to know their students well enough to spot sudden shifts in ability, style or subject mastery. But in classes with hundreds of students that’s an aspiration, not a solution.
Even so, if you’re interested in seeing what AI is up to these days, check the piece out.
UK Universities ‘are turning a blind eye to online exam cheats’
Reporting from The Daily Mail in the U.K. shows a pattern so worn that it’s become cliché: cheating is up and it feels as though no one cares.
The story is pegged to the survey data over the summer showing that one in six U.K. students has admitted to cheating (see Issue 135). It’s also reminiscent of related coverage in The Telegraph (see Issue 140).
The opening line is pretty direct:
Universities stand accused of ignoring mounting evidence that online exams lead to cheating.
The article is pretty blunt and includes:
Minutes of an education committee meeting at University College London (UCL) in October 2021 show the move to online assessment ‘appeared to have led to a large increase in academic misconduct cases’.
UCL uncovered 57 cases of collusion and 42 cases of ‘contract cheating’ where students used essay mills – businesses that allow customers to commission pieces of writing. The minutes lament ‘a significant and concerning expansion’ that resulted in 31 students being expelled.
It quotes the same minutes as acknowledging:
that the problem ‘may be widely underestimated by the sector’,
It continues:
At Durham University, most exams were online this summer and departments seeking in-person exams had to apply for permission. The maths department did so after finding 46 students had cheated the year before.
Authorities in Ghana Warn of Exam Cheating
According to news reporting, education authorities in West Africa have:
recorded cases of impersonation, smuggling of mobile phones into examination halls and syndicate cheating
On the syndicate cheating, the authorities said:
some school authorities “were collecting monies from candidates and organising syndicate cheating in their schools.
The schools would, the report continued, lock the gates and doors to bar government authorities from inspecting the exam centers and test sessions.
Class Notes:
“The Cheat Sheet” is short this time because I’m working on a few big stories and two Special Editions. Plus, I am aware that it can be, at times, quite long. So, I am trying to occasionally exercise brevity. It is a cheat sheet after all.
Thank you, as always, for reading.