Academic integrity has always been a challenge for professors, but the rise of AI has taken it to a whole new level.

When one professor turned to tech-driven solutions to tackle cheating, the response from administration was surprisingly not a supportive one.

Read on for this tale of how one professor is tackling academic dishonesty.

College administration says that AI is here to stay? It sure is, and it will reduce cheating.

I’m a college professor and teach a first year core linguistics unit.

Cheating has always been a problem, more so with the advent of AI where some students turn in reference-less ChatGPT word salad.

The professor already had a process students could follow to defend their work if cheating was detected.

There are tools that can detect AI written text.

It’s not definite, but if a piece of text is assessed as being likely AI written, coupled with a student being unable to defend themselves in an oral viva, then it’s pretty solid evidence.

I submitted academic dishonesty reports for several students.

I was hoping to spend a hour or so on call in total with those students and ask them questions about their essays.

However, the school’s administration did not have their back on this.

I got an email back from admin saying that they would not entertain having oral vivas, that AI detectors give false positives so, “unless there is an actual AI prompt in their essay we don’t want to hear about it.”

Even if they did cheat, “It’s just a sign of adaptability to modern economic forces.”

They finally told me that I should therefore “learn to incorporate AI in my classes”.

Okay college administration, I will “learn to incorporate AI in my classes”.

So they got busy adapting their courses.

I’m the course coordinator for the core unit.

I have full control over the syllabus.

I started to use an AI proctoring software for all my assessment and quizzes.

This software can use facial recognition and tracks keystrokes and copy-pasting.

I also changed the syllabus to have several shorter writing assessments (i.e 400 words) instead of a couple large ones (i.e 1500 words).

They defend their decision, which may seem extreme to some.

Before you dislike me for ruining students’ lives — this is a first year course.

Additionally, only citizens can enroll in online degrees in my country, and they only need to start paying back their student loans if they earn more than $52k a year.

The result?

The professor claims they’ve seen exemplary results.

Cheating has been reduced to a nil in my unit.

All forms of cheating have been abolished in my class, including paid ghostwriting – AI and human.

But administration still wasn’t pleased.

I was called to a meeting a few weeks ago where a board told me that data analysis showed that a higher proportion of new students in my major are discontinuing their degree.

This was forecast to cost them $100,000’s in tuition and CSP funding over the next few years.

They told me that they “fear my unconventional assessment method might be to blame.”

But the professor was only doing what they were told.

I simply stated that I was told to incorporate modern technologies.

We are offering an asynchronous online degree, so our pathos is to uphold academic honesty.

I offer flexible AI-driven asynchronous assessment options that are less demanding than having to write large essays.

While the professor’s solution may be unorthodox, they still were technically doing as told.

What did redditors think?

This student knows firsthand how unreliable AI-detecting software can be,

It’s clear that all administration seems to care about is $$$.

While the professor’s intentions are good, what about the wider implications on students’ privacy?

The administration’s reaction to a concerned professor only reinforces this user’s concerns about the bleak state of higher education.

His solution to administration’s directive was exactly what they asked for, just not what they’d anticipated.

AI may be taking over the world, but this professor is determined to fight back.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.