After experiencing the online exam hall during the COVID-19 era, the traditional on-campus, in-person exams have made a comeback into our lives. Behind this shift lies not only the desire to reintroduce students to the "nervous atmosphere" of real exams but also a significant issue: the proliferation of cheating and artificial intelligence.
Since tools like ChatGPT entered our lives, the likelihood of cheating seems to have skyrocketed. According to data from Turnitin, their AI detection feature launched in April 2023 found that one in ten papers was partially written by AI within the first year. As a result, this semester, professors of courses like "Statistical Inference I" and "Genetics" have decided to switch to in-person exams.
Applied mathematics lecturer Amalia Culiuc, in an email to The Herald, expressed her weariness with frequent academic dishonesty. "I often face suspicious looks; students' answers seem to be AI-generated, or their friends, after studying together, end up writing identical content," she said.
Culiuc mentioned that in courses requiring proofs, AI use is "unpredictable." "You can really feel that the text lacks the flavor of human creation," she said. She even found phrases like "as an AI language model" in students' assignments, indicating they had done no proofreading.
Image Source: This image was generated by AI, authorized service provider Midjourney
To avoid accusing students unjustly, Culiuc had to turn a blind eye to some obvious cheating because she lacked sufficient evidence. Interestingly, in student evaluations, many felt that online exams reduced their interest in the material, and some said they saw others cheating but could do nothing. These feedbacks strengthened her resolve to return to in-person exams.
Katherine Mason, an associate professor of the course "Culture and Health," also pointed out that the emergence of ChatGPT prompted her to make this change. "The temptation to cheat using ChatGPT during online exams was too great," she无奈地说, "I chose to solve this problem with traditional paper exams."
Biology professor Mark Johnson attributed the switch to in-person exams to being "straightforward." "During the pandemic, our Genetics course was entirely remote, so we developed online exam methods," he recalled. "While this provided flexibility for students with special needs, it also posed some learning challenges."
Johnson noted that while the flexibility of online exams has its advantages, students need a quiet place and technical devices to complete the exams. "Online exams have caused many learning difficulties," he said. For him and the Genetics teaching team, in-person exams give students a chance to focus on reading questions and performing to the best of their abilities.
"The core of our course is applying the concepts discussed in class to genetics problems," Johnson explained. "If you're working on this in your dorm with full internet access, it's easy to get distracted and affect your learning."
For the first in-person midterm exam in Genetics this fall, Johnson felt it was the "right decision." "In-person exams ensure everyone has access to the same resources, unlike online exams where the boundaries of resource use are blurred."
Culiuc observed that after switching to in-person exams, students' attitudes towards learning improved significantly. In the course "Operations Research: Deterministic Models," she used the same notes as in the fall 2023 online exam, yet students now caught errors they had previously missed, showing greater engagement. "I feel they are taking the course more seriously: forming study groups, asking questions actively, and reading notes carefully," she said. Although she didn't give high grades, getting an A is now more challenging.
Johnson added that the difficulty of the course hadn't changed due to in-person exams. "The Genetics course doesn't emphasize rote memorization," he said, with exams focusing more on "applying thoughts to problem-solving." If the course relied more on memorization, the ChatGPT issue would be more pronounced.
Shrey Mehta, a student in the course, said that while he didn't think the course's difficulty had changed significantly, the psychological pressure of in-person exams was noticeably higher. "The professors have been very fair in setting up the course this year, with consistent exam difficulty," he said.
Although Culiuc believes not all AI use is "evil," she encourages students to use AI to generate practice questions, but she also坦言: "When you read the fifth AI-generated proof in a row and receive an AI-generated email after warning students, you start to question the meaning of your work." She苦笑着说: "Needless to say, this email didn't make me feel 'all is well.'"