As technology continues to advance, so do the methods that students use to cheat in examinations.
Academic cheating is not a new phenomenon. Cheating during tests and examinations has been with us for a long time and is no longer a perception.
Examination malpractice and cheating have evolved over the years from the traditional techniques of copying from each other, writing on materials found in an exam room, and writing on body parts to now using modern techniques of mobile phones and more recently Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated answers. The latter is now rampant and gaining momentum.
This malpractice is widely becoming a “norm” in tertiary education with students using AI-generated answers for their essays, assignments, and term papers negating the essence of education research.
Until now, less attention has been focused on second-cycle students with regards to AI academic malpractice but with the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) withholding the subject results of candidates from 235 schools who sat for the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) due to suspicions of collusion and the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated answers, a national conversation on this academic dishonesty must start.
A statement issued by the council on Monday (Dec 18, 2023) said the withheld results of the candidates may be released or canceled depending on the outcome of investigations. The Head of the National Office of WAEC, Wendy Enyonam Addy-Lamptey, described the situation as unfortunate, stressing that the issue required thorough investigations to unravel the actors behind the incident.
When Artificial Intelligence (AI) services – such as ChatGPT(Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) developed by OpenAI was launched in 2022, it triggered an alarm for many stakeholders in education who worry about students using the technology to cheat.
Evidence is growing that AI services have changed how students study and find information. This, combined with the rise of a ‘click-through’ culture within our universities, not only undermines the integrity of the entire education system but also leads to further questions of the credibility of degrees of graduates.
While AI offers numerous benefits, it also presents emerging issues that could spiral out of control if not addressed seriously.
RGGNEWS believes that proactive measures must be taken now starting with a national stakeholder’s forum where experts must be tasked to find effective ways to minimise AI use for academic cheating. This eventually will help ensure that the application of AI in education is genuinely for the benefit of all.
The rise of AI is already transforming many aspects of society and its impact is likely to be even greater in the future. The concern of many therefore is how to make its use positive rather than troublesome.
