[Edling] Now AI can write students’ essays for them, will everyone become a cheat?

[Sarah Eaton via Edling]

I would like to offer an alternative to the one published in The Guardian on artificial intelligence and academic integrity. I recognize that writers of editorial do not often have control over the headline, but I would start by saying that both the headline and the repeated use of the word “cheat” in the editorial point to a particular bias in this piece that points to a presumption of guilt among students and perpetuates adversarial (and unhelpful) relationships between educators and students.

There are scholars around the world who are actively researching the ethical use of artificial intelligence writing apps (e.g., GPT-3 tools) for writing, teaching, learning, and assessment. We have one such project underway at the University of Calgary (Canada) and we are about to launch data collection.

If folks are interested in reading scholarly perspectives from researchers with expertise in academic integrity and artificial intelligence, I recommend:

Dr. Phillip Dawson - Centre for Research on Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE), Deakin University, Australia. (Top recommendation: Defending assessment security in a digital world: Preventing e-cheating and supporting academic integrity in higher education, Routledge, 2021)

Dr. Margaret Bearman - Centre for Research on Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE), Deakin University, Australia.
Top Recommendation:
Bearman, M., & Luckin, R. (2020). Preparing university assessment for a world with AI: Tasks for human intelligence. In M. Bearman, P. Dawson, R. Ajjawi, J. Tai, & D. Boud (Eds.), Re-imagining University Assessment in a Digital World (pp. 49-63). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41956-1_5

Dr. Lucinda McKnight, Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy and Curriculum, Deakin University, Australia.
Top Recommendation:
McKnight, L. (2021, April 8). In an AI world we need to teach students how to work with robot writers. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/in-an-ai-world-we-need-to-teach-students-how-to-work-with-robot-writers-157508

Dr. Thomas Lancaster, Imperial College London, UK. Top recommendation:
Lancaster, T. (2022, September 9). Adapting to artificial intelligence: The future of academic integrity European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI).   https://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster/adapting-to-artificial-intelligence-the-future-of-academic-integrity-european-network-for-academic-integrity

I am sharing the names and works of these scholars with folks on this listserv as they do not work within the field of language education, but they are experts on academic integrity and artificial intelligence. Their scholarship is deeply informed and worthy of consideration.

If anyone is interested in learning more about the research we are doing at the University of Calgary on this topic, I invite you to reach out to me.

Sincerely,
Sarah Elaine Eaton

____________________
Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD
Associate Professor, Werklund School of Education
University of Calgary
916 Education Tower
2500 University Dr. NW
Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada
T: +1. 403. 220. 6378
E: seaton at ucalgary.ca<mailto:seaton at ucalgary.ca>
W: https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/sarah-elaine-eaton
Editor-in-Chief: International Journal for Educational Integrity<https://edintegrity.biomedcentral.com/>



From: Edling <edling-bounces at lists.mail.umbc.edu> on behalf of Francis M. Hult via Edling <edling at lists.mail.umbc.edu>
Date: Saturday, December 3, 2022 at 4:51 AM
To: Educational Linguistics List <edling at lists.mail.umbc.edu>
Cc: Francis M. Hult <fmhult at umbc.edu>
Subject: [Edling] Now AI can write students’ essays for them, will everyone become a cheat?
[△EXTERNAL]

The Guardian

Now AI can write students’ essays for them, will everyone become a cheat?

Parents and teachers across the world are rejoicing as students have returned to classrooms. But unbeknownst to them, an unexpected insidious academic threat is on the scene: a revolution in artificial intelligence has created powerful new automatic writing tools. These are machines optimised for cheating on school and university papers, a potential siren song for students that is difficult, if not outright impossible, to catch.

Full story:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/28/ai-students-essays-cheat-teachers-plagiarism-tech
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