Students are suspected of using artificial intelligence to write their term papers. Sometimes even without the knowledge of their teammates. Due to a lack of tools to detect cheating, teachers are returning to the good old in-class exams… with paper and pencil.
What there is to know
Students copy and paste texts produced by artificial intelligence into their term papers.
Faced with the risk of plagiarism, teachers are reviewing their evaluation methods, bringing exams back to class.
Some are concerned about the long-term consequences of artificial intelligence in education.
In nearly 20 years of teaching, Marianne Di Croce has never seen this.
“Normally, I have maybe one case of plagiarism per year. There, I see it every session,” says the philosophy teacher at the Saint-Jérôme CEGEP.
Over the past year, cases of cheating have increased in these groups. The culprit: generative artificial intelligence.
Last fall, I gave a small assignment and out of 120 students, I am convinced that there were almost 40 who used an artificial intelligence tool.
Marianne Di Croce, philosophy teacher at CEGEP de Saint-Jérôme
Mme Di Croce is not the only one. David Joly has seen work that seems entirely created by a conversational robot more than once in the last year.
The physics teacher remembers a particular case where a student handed in work on a planet that doesn’t exist… in a solar system that doesn’t exist.
” It did not make sense. I asked him where he got that from and he wasn’t able to tell me,” says the man who teaches at the Joliette CEGEP.
Difficult to prove plagiarism
Detecting plagiarism is not the difficult part, say teachers.
It is sometimes even obvious: work generated by artificial intelligence rarely responds to instructions, invents or distorts certain facts, and uses a level of language higher than that of the average student.
What is difficult is to prove the wrongdoing beyond any doubt. “With traditional plagiarism, we were able to find the source,” explains Marianne Di Croce.
There are many online tools for detecting artificial intelligence like Copyleaks, but none are 100% reliable.
“The error rate still remains quite high,” notes Nabil Tayeb, co-founder of the Montreal firm Draft & Goal, which developed software of this type.
Every week, he estimates he receives “one, or often two emails” from teachers seeking to confirm their suspicions. “During exam periods, it’s even more,” he says.
The return of in-class exams
Without a tool to detect cheating, teachers are completely reviewing their evaluation methods.
“We are doing more exams in class, more oral exams,” says Marie-Hélène Parizeau, president of the Union of Professors of Laval University.
A solution far from ideal, she assures.
In-class exams eat up valuable teaching time. And they do not replace long works, common in several subjects, which can be written over several weeks.
“Are we eliminating this type of exercise? », asks Mme Parizeau.
Special education teacher, Ismaël Seck has also reduced the number of work to be done at home.
“Otherwise, how can we know that it was the students who did it? », he raises.
He gives the example of Photomath, a free application used by his students that can solve a mathematical equation from a photo.
“I think we have a responsibility to show students how to be critical of these tools,” he says.
A “stressful” situation
Teachers are not the only ones overwhelmed by the situation. “I find it extremely stressful,” says Alice*.
In the last year alone, the Laval University student suspected two classmates of copying a response generated by a chatbot in a team effort.
The first time, the part of the work produced by the student at fault did not meet the instructions.
“We had the idea of asking ChatGPT the same question and it was the same answer, except for a few verbs,” she says.
The student, who denied cheating, was kicked off the team with the professor’s permission.
Alice is not against the responsible use of artificial intelligence. The problem, she says, comes when students use it out of laziness. Or worse, when they use it without the knowledge of their teammates.
Teaching student, Daphnée* says she also doubted the authenticity of a teammate’s work.
What tipped him off? “They were complicated sentences with lots of works cited, and I said to myself that it was impossible that he had read all that,” she remembers.
Confronted by his teammates, the student confessed everything. “He didn’t even try to hide it!” He thought it was okay! “, she laments.
I think we don’t measure the civilizational change that artificial intelligence could bring about.
Marianne Di Croce, philosophy teacher at CEGEP de Saint-Jérôme
“In education, we are told a lot that we must integrate technologies, that we must learn to live with them. But this ability to articulate ideas, to think, to compare concepts, if students use these tools, they will not acquire it,” continues Marianne Di Croce.
An opinion shared by Marie-Hélène Parizeau.
“What kind of training do we give to students if they get into the habit of using a chatbot to write part of their text? »
* Fictitious name to protect the identity of students, who fear reprisals from their university.
How are establishments adapting to the arrival of artificial intelligence?
McGill University does not prohibit the use of artificial intelligence, provided that it respects the standards of academic integrity and is stated as such. Like students, faculty must be educated on “the opportunities and challenges these tools present.” At the University of Quebec in Montreal, unauthorized use of artificial intelligence is considered plagiarism. Seven students committed such an offense between September 2022 and August 2023. For its part, Laval University says it has not observed an increase in plagiarism linked to AI. “We want the student community to learn to use these new tools, which are now part of our reality, while maintaining their critical thinking and analytical skills,” she writes.