Paging the plagiarism police — AI is getting better at writing students’ essays
Reports of cheating at universities have gone up rapidly since the beginning of the pandemic
AI & academic writing
The use of technology in academic writing is already widespread. For example, manyuniversities already use text-based plagiarism detectors like Turnitin, while students might useGrammarly, a cloud-based writing assistant. Examples of writing support include automatic text generation, extraction, prediction, mining, form-filling,paraphrasing, translation, and transcription.
Advancements in AI technology have led to new tools, products and servicesbeing offered to writersto improvecontent and efficiency. As these improve, soonentire articlesoressays might begenerated andwritten entirely by artificial intelligence. In schools, the implications of such developments will undoubtedly shape the future of learning, writing, and teaching. Misconduct concerns are already widespread
Research has revealed thatconcerns over academic misconduct are already widespread across institutions of higher education in Canadaand internationally.
In Canada, there is little data regarding the rates of misconduct. Research published in 2006 based ondata from mostly undergraduate students at 11 higher education institutionsfound 53 percent reported having engaged in one or more instances of serious cheating on written work, which was defined as copying material without footnoting, copying material almost word for word, submitting work done by someone else, fabricating or falsifying a bibliography, submitting a paper they either bought or got from someone else for free.
Academic misconduct is in all likelihoodunder-reported across Canadian higher education institutions.
There are different types of violations of academic integrity, includingplagiarism,contract cheating(where students hire other people to write their papers), and exam cheating,among others.
Unfortunately, with technology, students can use their ingenuity and entrepreneurialism to cheat. These concerns are also applicable to faculty members, academics, and writers in other fields, bringing new concerns surrounding academic integrity and AI such as:
We are asking these questions inour own research, and we know that in the face of all this, educators will be required to consider how writing can be effectively assessed or evaluated as these technologies improve.
Augmenting or diminishing integrity?
At the moment, little guidance, policy, or oversight is available regarding technology, AI, and academic integrity for teachers and educational leaders.
Over the past year, COVID-19 has pushed more students towards online learning — a sphere where teachers may become less familiar with their own students and thus, potentially, their writing.
While it remains impossible to predict the future of these technologies and their implications in education, we can attempt to discern some of the larger trends and trajectories that will impact teaching, learning, and research.
Technology & automation in education
A key concern moving forward is the apparent movement towards the increasedautomation of educationwhere educational technology companies offer commodities such as writing tools as proposed solutions for the various “problems” within education.
An example of this is automated assessment of student work, such asautomated grading of student writing. Numerous commercial products already exist for automated grading, though the ethics of these technologies are yet to be fully explored by scholars and educators.
Overall, the traditional landscape surrounding academic integrity and authorship is being rapidly reshaped by technological developments. Such technological developments also spark concerns about a shift ofprofessional control away from educatorsand ever-increasingnew expectationsof digital literacy inprecarious working environments.
These complexities, concerns, and questions will require further thought and discussion. Educational stakeholders at all levels will be required to respond and rethink definitions as well as values surrounding plagiarism, originality, academic ethics, and academic labour in the very near future.
The authors would like to sincerely thank Ryan Morrison, from George Brown College, who provided significant expertise, advice, and assistance with the development of this article.
Article byMichael Mindzak, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education,Brock UniversityandSarah Elaine Eaton, Educational Leader in Residence, Academic Integrity and Assistant Professor,University of Calgary
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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