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Professor Hides White Font in Midterm, Catches Students Using AI in the Stupidest Way Possible (futurism.com)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/fuck_ai@lemmy.world
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A professor used white font to hide instructions to throw off students using an AI chatbot to cheat on their midterm.

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[–] 44 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This is ridiculous, in my uni is pen and paper, and people with physical or mental disabilities get accommodations so they can perform as good as other people, I myself have some due to autism.

What is not OK is just to give a medium to enable cheaters like this.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago* (2 children)

    Yeah, it's interesting seeing some professors complaining about how AI has made catching cheaters harder now.

    But then you see that they are letting students have access to phones and laptops during exam with no software/Internet restriction and you think...yeah I wonder why...what could possibly be done...

    Not allow them those devices for a subject like history during an exam? No impossible.

    When I brought it up here a teacher went lol but they have phones and tablets. As if its not worth even trying to prevent. And also they said they didn't want to do paper and pencil either because its too much work to grade.

    There are programs that completely lock down laptops for exams preventing you from using internet, going to the desktop, open other docs, etc so its not like it has to be paper and pencil to prevent AI usage. But, its like some professors just can't wrap their head around the concept of not allowing full access to electronics or none at all despite the subject matter not being something like programming, but history.

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  • [–] 3 points 17 hours ago (1 child)

    Seriously. I taught university courses for several years in the mid 2010s. I didn't have to worry about AI then, but I did have to worry about cell phones. I learned the hard way that during exams, crafty students could take pictures of the exam, upload them to chegg, and get responses back live during the exam time.

    Eventually I moved to a zero-tolerance policy for all electronic devices during exams. There's no way for me to determine if someone is using a phone for cheating or something innocuous. So during exams, I simply had it as a policy that, "having a cell phone or laptop anywhere on your person or desk IS cheating and will result in an instant zero on the exam." Keep your damn phone in your bag during exams. I put this warning in my syllabus, wrote it all over the exams, and gave repeated verbal warnings to students. No one went into this surprised. The last thing I ever wanted to do was bust someone for an innocent mistake. But if I caught you with a cell phone? Even if I never saw you using it? Simply having a cell phone out of your bag during an exam is a zero.

    Hell, I took this so seriously that I came up with my most evil policy ever - the bounty system. See your neighbor with their phone out? Rat them out and I'll give you ten extra credit points on this exam. They have to worry not just about where my eyes are, but the eyes of everyone else around them. That's right students, we're going full prisoner's dilemma. I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me!

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  • [–] 1 point 15 hours ago

    Yeah, that is what my exam experiences have been of zero tolerance for phones and sometimes laptops if exam were paper and pencil. It makes the current news now so puzzling since phones back then despite not having AI access were just as capable back then, and outside help through internet and messages was easy to get so professors back then had the same concerns of electronics being used for cheating.

    Only change then and now seems like professors are not enforcing electronic restrictions as strictly anymore, and students to no surprise are taking advantage of being able to cheat out in the open.

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  • [–] 3 points 20 hours ago (1 child)

    There are programs that completely lock down laptops for exams preventing you from using internet, going to the desktop, open other docs, etc

    These are generally platform specific and, by their nature, extremely invasive. For people who don't care about their computer except as an "internet getter thingy" and use a supported environment this is fine.

    I on the other hand practically can't take such tests without using the university's computers.

    With respect to my understanding of accessibility and decency it pretty much does have to be paper and pencil if they're going to limit information access.

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  • [–] 1 point 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 child)

    Platform specific to windows and mac devices. Thing is if a university wants to create a hard to cheat environment while refusing to do paper exams that is the best option available.

    Alternative is choosing to administer exams on personal electronics while doing nothing to prevent access to internet, notes, and software yet asking students to not use it.

    That is just naive. And this has been the standard at least where I went to school even before AI. It's not like laptops and smartphones are something new. Its been ubiquitous over a decade now. Yet, some schools act like they've never dealt with it before just because of AI when even prior to AI teachers were well aware of the cheating capabilities of electronics. Even graphing calculators.

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  • [–] 1 point 19 hours ago (1 child)

    That is just naive.

    Correct. There are two operating systems people use, the rest don't matter.

    while refusing to do paper exams

    Refuse? Why?

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  • [–] 1 point 19 hours ago

    One teacher here when I brought up paper exams said they find it a hassle to grade.

    Mind you I'm not approaching this from a privacy or consumer advocates position. But, as a general university that doesn't care about that and is just choosing among options available to try to make cheating more difficult.

    I'm more just amazed at how lax electronics in classes has become during exams more than anything.

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  • [+] -7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    Oh, even your students that are unable to use a pen and paper? Neat, don't know how they do it

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  • [–] 9 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Are you aware that students that are unable to use pen and paper already get accommodations both during regular school days as well as at exams?

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  • [–] -3 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

    Some see those as demeaning.

    There's an interesting thing known as "Medical Model" Vs "Social Model" for accessibility;

    Medical Model - you have an amputated leg, here's a crutch, it is awkward and cumbersome to use and makes you feel "other"

    Social Model - you have an amputated leg, it doesn't effect you as having ramps and accessible features it's so normalised that you don't need to struggle with subpar solutions, and you don't notice the difference as much

    You're currently advocating for the worse option, the Medical Model

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  • [–] 1 point 14 hours ago (1 child)

    Amputees don't need crutches because ramps? Go to sleep.

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  • [–] 1 point 17 hours ago

    Why are you such a medicalist? Why do you advocate for demeaning amputees by forcing them to climb a ramp?

    Instead, amputees and everyone else should be outlawed from carrying crutches or assistive devices of any kind, and all ramps should be banned. Anything else would make amputees feel different because of their disability, and you're ableist if you oppose this idea.

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  • [–] 1 point 17 hours ago (1 child)

    If they're getting electronic aids from the institution, then it should have an 'exam mode' that it has to be put into.

    I guess the only reason they don't do electronic exams on institution controlled hardware, is - I assume - they can't afford enough terminals. But they should have enough for the people that can't use pen and paper.

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  • [–] 1 point 13 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

    That's already been the standard for decades in the UK, they're set to offline mode and incredibly locked down.

    I have no idea why the schools aren't doing that in USA other than cause y'all are somehow both incredibly behind the times in some fields of tech (accessibility, education, social care, taxes, politics) and incredibly far ahead in others (engineering, medical, physics, research, murder, warcrimes)

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