We had a bit of drama over the weekend. My daughter is a Senior at a University I won't name here because it's not relevant. She has maintained a 3.7 GPA and had no real issues other than changing her major five times over the last few years, which has cost her a couple semesters in time and me some extra money.
She and several other students had not received a grade on a major paper, and she asked the professor by email if she could get her grade. We heard nothing until Sunday, when she got an email back advising her that
a) the professor was giving her a 0 for the paper (!);
b) he believed she had used AI to write some or all of her paper (!!), and
c) accordingly he was reporting her to the Academic Integrity Committee on suspicion of plagiarism (!!!)
She and the whole family were astounded, and very soon got very angry. My daughter got straight A's all through school and was a NHS member. The Dean had said several times he hoped she would continue to get her Masters, and she was scheduled to take a trip to South Korea as part of her College's delegation this summer.
She has never had a whisper of cheating in her life and would never do so now.
What also astounded us, was that the professor had not bothered to talk to the Dean or other professors about her, and did not ask her about how she had created her paper (the easiest and most effective way to find out if someone really did their work). So I helped my daughter calm down, then send a response email to the professor including those points and copying the Dean. My daughter also included a screen shot from TurnItIn, a program which is used to check for whether a phrase or passage is online somewhere. The program came back with a 0% similarity score.
Fortunately, Monday morning the professor responded with an apology. He accepted her defense - partly I think because he realized he should have done more to confirm the authenticity of her work, and partly because he did not include the Dean from the start, which one really ought to do with something this serious. He apologized for his choice of words, for jumping to conclusions, and issued a good grade for her paper.
In further discussion, the professor mentioned that improper use of AI by students is a real thing now. There are services which will write a paper for you - you give them the assignment and they come back with a paper. I guess that is the modern equivalent of having a nerd friend write papers for you as some people did back in my day. But just as a professor could tell by writing style if someone likely had 'help' with their paper back in my day, AI today is still a bit vague and general, so a critical eye can catch it. In my daughter's case, she admitted she was up late working on the paper, so some of her work had less specific detail then she would normally include. But as I said, I still think that the professor should have had a conversation with her about how she made the points she did - people reveal quickly enough if they know the subject, while a faker would be revealed soon enough.
As I said, my daughter's case was quickly resolved, although I understand there are some other students who may have a harder time proving their innocence. But this reminds me as well, about an unexpected threat from AI. We have heard of deep fakes, where images and even voices can be artificially created, but now we see the danger of fake academic work. I think it's going to get harder for students to prove original work, in a world where so much can be created out of nothing for a fee.
What do you think?
She and several other students had not received a grade on a major paper, and she asked the professor by email if she could get her grade. We heard nothing until Sunday, when she got an email back advising her that
a) the professor was giving her a 0 for the paper (!);
b) he believed she had used AI to write some or all of her paper (!!), and
c) accordingly he was reporting her to the Academic Integrity Committee on suspicion of plagiarism (!!!)
She and the whole family were astounded, and very soon got very angry. My daughter got straight A's all through school and was a NHS member. The Dean had said several times he hoped she would continue to get her Masters, and she was scheduled to take a trip to South Korea as part of her College's delegation this summer.
She has never had a whisper of cheating in her life and would never do so now.
What also astounded us, was that the professor had not bothered to talk to the Dean or other professors about her, and did not ask her about how she had created her paper (the easiest and most effective way to find out if someone really did their work). So I helped my daughter calm down, then send a response email to the professor including those points and copying the Dean. My daughter also included a screen shot from TurnItIn, a program which is used to check for whether a phrase or passage is online somewhere. The program came back with a 0% similarity score.
Fortunately, Monday morning the professor responded with an apology. He accepted her defense - partly I think because he realized he should have done more to confirm the authenticity of her work, and partly because he did not include the Dean from the start, which one really ought to do with something this serious. He apologized for his choice of words, for jumping to conclusions, and issued a good grade for her paper.
In further discussion, the professor mentioned that improper use of AI by students is a real thing now. There are services which will write a paper for you - you give them the assignment and they come back with a paper. I guess that is the modern equivalent of having a nerd friend write papers for you as some people did back in my day. But just as a professor could tell by writing style if someone likely had 'help' with their paper back in my day, AI today is still a bit vague and general, so a critical eye can catch it. In my daughter's case, she admitted she was up late working on the paper, so some of her work had less specific detail then she would normally include. But as I said, I still think that the professor should have had a conversation with her about how she made the points she did - people reveal quickly enough if they know the subject, while a faker would be revealed soon enough.
As I said, my daughter's case was quickly resolved, although I understand there are some other students who may have a harder time proving their innocence. But this reminds me as well, about an unexpected threat from AI. We have heard of deep fakes, where images and even voices can be artificially created, but now we see the danger of fake academic work. I think it's going to get harder for students to prove original work, in a world where so much can be created out of nothing for a fee.
What do you think?
