As the college session draws to a close, CEGEP professors and lecturers are sounding the alarm: with the appearance of ChatGPT, many are reporting an “explosion” of cases of cheating, so much so that the federation which represents them calls “urgently” for a moratorium in order to curb the development of artificial intelligence.
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The National Federation of Teachers of Quebec (FNEEQ-CSN), which represents the majority of CEGEP teachers and university lecturers in the province, is issuing a “cry of alarm”.
Teachers reported during the winter session “an incredible number of cases of plagiarism which are becoming increasingly difficult to detect”, affirms its president, Caroline Quesnel.
“It was like an explosion,” she says.
Difficult to prove
But because of the rules in force in the establishments, it is difficult to prove beyond any doubt that there has been cheating since the effectiveness of detection software is limited.
These software are based on probabilities and do not constitute “solid proof”, indicates Marianne Di Croce, philosophy teacher at the Cégep de Saint-Jérôme, who used these tools to put together a disciplinary file of plagiarism, since she suspected strongly the use of artificial intelligence by one of his students during a mid-term work.
- Listen to the interview with Caroline Quesnel, President of the National Federation of Quebec Teachers on QUB radio:
“It’s a very cumbersome process. And when you know that there are capsules circulating on Tik Tok that show how to get around [les logiciels de détection]it is very worrying,” she said.
The teacher is particularly concerned about the risks surrounding the ability to think and master the language if students make massive use of conversational robots.
The value of degrees at stake
Mme Quesnel also fears that artificial intelligence “favors shortcuts in learning” and worries about the “value of the diplomas” that will be awarded.
As a day of reflection on artificial intelligence in higher education takes place in Montreal on Monday, bringing together several hundred participants, the FNEEQ-CSN is calling for a moratorium on the development of artificial intelligence.
The objective: to send a “strong message to students” to remind them that cheating is not tolerated, and to arouse “collective awareness” explains its president, who wishes to hold a larger forum on the question.
Claimed common tags
Mme Quesnel is also calling for the establishment of common guidelines in the college and university network. “We need cohesion,” she said. Currently, each teacher is taken to manage this and we are in a gray area, ”she laments.
The Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, affirms that it is however too early to say if she will embark on this path. “We will position ourselves when we have the current portrait,” she said in an interview with The newspaper.
The day of reflection which takes place on Monday is “a first step” which will lead to a broader project on the question, she says.
The minister believes that imposing a moratorium “would be practically impossible”, since “the technologies are already there”.
It is rather necessary to take “the time to think about how we can frame artificial intelligence in a responsible way”, so that these tools “do not replace the quality of training”, but can rather “enrich the practices of teaching,” she says.