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Do AI detectors work? Students face false cheating accusations

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427 points JumpCrisscross | 3 comments | 20 Oct 24 17:26 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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lwhi ◴[21 Oct 24 08:16 UTC] No.41901852[source]▶
It is no longer effective to solely use a written essay to measure how deeply a student comprehends a subject.

AI is here to stay; new methods should be used to assess student performance.

I remember being told at school, that we weren't allowed to use calculators in exams. The line provided by teachers was that we could never rely on having a calculator when we need it most—obviously there's irony associated with having 'calculators' in our pockets 24/7 now.

We need to accept that the world has changed; I only hope that we get to decide how society responds to that change together .. rather than have it forced upon us.

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gklitz ◴[21 Oct 24 10:58 UTC] No.41902805[source]▶
Written assay evaluation is not and has never been an effective evaluation. It was always a cost saving measure because allocating 30min face to face time with each individual student for each class is such a gigantic cost for the institution that they cannot even imagine doing it. Think about that the next time you look at your student debt, it couldn’t even buy you 30min time per class individually with the teacher to evaluate your performance. Instead you had to waste more time on a written assignment so they could offload grading to a minimum wage assistent.
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ninalanyon ◴[21 Oct 24 11:47 UTC] No.41903100[source]▶
When I studied physics at Exeter University they still used the tutorial system and finals. Tutorials were held fortnightly; the tutorial groups were typically three or four students. There was no obligation to turn up to lectures or even tutorials. You just had to pass the end of year exams to be allowed to continue to the final. The class of degree that was awarded depended on the open note final exam and the report of the final year project. That report had to be defended orally. Previous years exam papers were available for study as well but the variety of questions that could be asked was so vast that it was rare that any questions were repeated in the finals.

It seems to me that this is pretty much immune to plagiarism as well as being much better for the student.

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bigfudge ◴[21 Oct 24 12:41 UTC] No.41903545[source]▶
I agree. There are small question about bias (gender, race) etc in these oral systems, but I think they are resolvable and much better than written essays (which are now written by AI).
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jack_pp ◴[21 Oct 24 13:05 UTC] No.41903745[source]▶
the teacher knows you either way so the bias would be there for the written exam as well
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1. bluGill ◴[21 Oct 24 13:26 UTC] No.41903934[source]▶
In a written exam they can cover the names - give you a random number as you enter the room and you write that on the paper, and but your name and number on a different paper. You also need to type everything out on a computer with spell check. (and even then if you write bucket or pail will identify you but it is unlikely any professor knows you well enough to tell those)

When you audition for a symphony you perform behind a curtain and are required to wear soft slippers (so they can't tell if you are a wearing high heals - female).

We can probably use voice changers so the examiner cannot tell who you are by your voice, but those tend to be fatiguing.

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2. j_maffe ◴[21 Oct 24 20:50 UTC] No.41908397[source]▶
If you can't trust a professor to professionally and impartially grade someone's work, the system would likely collapse. This is not to say that there hasn't been cases where professors have been shown to be biased, there has. But the premise of universities is to give professors some autonomy in the way they teach and evaluate students.
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3. bluGill ◴[21 Oct 24 21:05 UTC] No.41908524[source]▶
No system is 100% the question is are we good enough. As a white male I haven't seen many problems - but also because I'm in the group least likely to see one.