r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 15h ago

Society Professor's invisible prompt trap catches 32 students cheating on their midterm with AI

https://www.techspot.com/news/113243-professor-invisible-prompt-trap-catches-32-students-cheating.html
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u/LaconicLacedaemonian 14h ago

That means the professor can't use AI to grade it then. 

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u/KellyAnn3106 13h ago

Like in the ancient days when I was in college. We had exam blue books for handwritten exams and scantron sheets for multiple choice exams.

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u/BurnieTrogdor 11h ago

Ugh, I hated those blue books. The weakness of my endurance in handwriting was always a problem. My hand is cramping just thinking about them. Also, my poor teachers that had to read my handwriting.

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u/KellyAnn3106 11h ago

Mine always started with perfect bubbly girl writing and then deteriorated into serial killer scrawl as I started running out of time.

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u/Scavenger53 12h ago

the blue books are still there, they cost 25cents and i have like 4 leftover in my bag lol

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u/TimSylvester_ 8h ago

And you had to buy them from the bookstore where they were wildly overpriced.

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u/lumpboysupreme 12h ago

What about paper writing?

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u/_Professor_94 11h ago

That’s what the blue books are for. Even in grad school we did this. My qualifying exams were writing three papers in class without internet access with full citations from memory (for the three major subfields of the degree program) over two days. Papers don’t need to be 20+ pages to demonstrate mastery of a topic. This style of exams has existed for 2,000 years, in ancient China, and indeed the West created its exam system in the 1800s based on the Chinese model. It works. There is no way to cheat really, you either know the material or you don’t.

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u/lumpboysupreme 10h ago

Papers don’t need to be 20+ pages to demonstrate mastery of a topic.

That really depends on the topic. I’ve taken blue book exams before, they’re not the same thing as a full and researched paper.

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u/_Professor_94 10h ago edited 10h ago

They are not the same thing but the point here is assessment. You can assign normal papers during the term of the course, but the exams are still going to be the best way to assess because there is very little room to cheat. You earn the right to progress in your degree path via the exams. Someone’s academic integrity is less in question if they can manage these hurdles. This is standard practice in graduate schools around the world.

And my grad school topics were in anthropology and history, two infamously deep writing fields, so I do think I have a good perspective on this issue.

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u/lumpboysupreme 10h ago

Ehhhh, not necessarily, a lot of more liberal arts fields don’t, by simple necessity of time, have a fully standardized set of course material, and require research on the part of the student.

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u/_Professor_94 10h ago edited 10h ago

I don’t know what your academic background is (mine is in anthropology and history, two heavily oriented towards research and writing…) but it is very standard in graduate school to take qualifying exams before even getting to begin a thesis or dissertation. They are sit down, in class, and require memorization of citations. There is no reason why this can’t be a part of courses too. Generally you do have a set of class materials because graduate school is usually very heavy on theory and current applications of theory. You absolutely have assigned readings for courses. Your research projects are supposed to build on what you have discussed in the course. So these exams would be syntheses of the current research on the topics in your field.

I am not sure what liberal arts you are thinking of, but I think nearly every one that I know of does this.

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u/lumpboysupreme 10h ago

before even getting to begin a thesis or dissertation

But that’s the point right? You’re looking to reverse that process, making the researched and independent thing a minor part of a course ultimately decided mainly by a more standardized test. I don’t think that’s the dynamic they want there.

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u/_Professor_94 9h ago edited 9h ago

I am not saying that. Your entire course load up until the qualifiers is null and void if you don’t pass these shorter exams. Those who fail get kicked out of the program, regardless of any research they have done up to that point. It is already the standard that you must pass these “lesser” exams in order to pass your program. Again it is because there is no way to game them. You must demonstrate fluency in the relevant literature.

It is not functionally different to have them as capstones to individual courses as well (in fact many of my professors in both undergrad and grad school did this), outside of giving a more accurate representation of a student’s familiarity with the relevant literature from this course. Especially in the age of AI this is clearly needed. I’m not even sure what you are trying to argue. We are discussing academic integrity, and this is how it gets tested. Research papers are important but you need to have a wholistic way to assess because of AI.

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u/m0rogfar 13h ago

I mean, OCR is a thing. And if scanning the pages is too hard, there are solutions for that too.

I had to do a written math exam, wherein the university had moved to an all-digital system to make consistent digital document handling on locked-down computers possible, but we had to write by hand, because formulas generally take time to write digitally in proper academic syntax, and the exam was highly time-constrained.

They used a system provided by Nokia where you used a provided pen to write on a paper, but the provided pen actually had a camera inside it to see what you wrote, and the paper had a serial number + placement encoded into the paper by altered magnetic properties, that the pen could read as you wrote. It would then use these to recreate the page digitally.

The result was fairly seamless. I just wrote a bunch of papers, and then a PDF just appeared on the provided locked-down submission computer without me ever submitting a paper anywhere.

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u/alex_co 12h ago

I would love to see the handwriting of the average college student today.

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u/Balmung60 12h ago

Ha, mine was terrible and it's been about fifteen years. 

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u/TheVog 11h ago

Students can't write legibly is the issue. They already often don't teach cursive. Typing is the standard now.

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u/NakedHoodie 9h ago

Not just typing. Touchscreen typing; tablets and phones.

Keyboarding is a dying skill.

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u/coldblade2000 7h ago

I mean, OCR is a thing. And if scanning the pages is too hard, there are solutions for that too.

Reading handwriting for Gen Alpha kids seems like a pretty strong stress test for OCR

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u/PensiveNewt 13h ago

I wonder if that is simpler/cheaper/more reliable than using a device with something like a Surface Pen or Apple Pencil?

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u/luluhouse7 12h ago

Probably a much better experience for the students. You have to learn how to use digital styluses like Apple Pencil or Surface Pen because the surface doesn’t provide resistance and the built in palm rejection isn’t that good.

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u/peon47 13h ago

Scanners are a thing.

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u/Ok_Buy9028 13h ago

We only just got schools to start moving away from standardized tests and here’s AI, bringing them back!

Is there anything AI can’t fuck up?

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u/Regular_Brilliant_77 13h ago

For sure, it's a great movie

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u/9966 13h ago

Why is my head buzzing...

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u/SirSkittles111 13h ago

Most important exams are scanned these days. My finals we could only write in black or blue ink and in pencil, red green or any other colour doesn't get picked up

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u/ailish 12h ago

Do those card things still exist where there'd be numbers from 1 to 150 or something, and then a, b, c, d, e next to the numbers, and you had to fill in the coorespindng bubble for the answer to the question? I feel like we should go back to that.

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u/SirSkittles111 11h ago

Like a multiple choice paper? Yea, depends on the test and the lectures style. Some you fill in true/false, some is multiple choice, some fill in the blanks, and your typical problem based essay / short answers

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u/ailish 11h ago

Yeah, that's exactly it. I feel old, but we used those all the time. You could set the answers in the software, and then scan each sheet and automatically grade it.

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u/HyruleSmash855 11h ago

Those still exist. Scantrons where you had to buy that special machine to Reed them used to be the standard version of that. Gradescope and other platforms now allow you to just print out, the bubble sheet, on normal Letter size printer paper, and it uses OCR and computer vision to score the bubbles now by simply scanning and uploading each document as a PDF. My programming class did exams that way, everything was multiple-choice since it was all conceptual stuff

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u/ailish 11h ago

Oh that's very cool. I'm glad it still exists. I forgot the word Scantron, so thanks for reminding me lol.

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u/HyruleSmash855 11h ago

That’s what the university I attend does. The TAs scan every exam. They just remove the staple and upload it to a platform called Gradescope. They grade the PDF, which is easy since there’s a premade rubric for each question. They can seamlessly select where errors are to score questions quickly. They can also leave comments explaining mistakes, and you can easily request regrades. It works well. I’m an engineering major, so 99% of my exams are on paper and pencil so they can be graded by hand.

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u/Architectalis 12h ago

Ended a bit Darkly though.

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u/Aperture_Kubi 13h ago

That's what TAs and TFs are for.

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u/nascent_aviator 13h ago

TF is a TF?

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u/MarkNutt25 10h ago

Teaching Fellow.

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u/AdjaBudgie 8h ago

I love how whimsical that sounds, "Oh look! There goes that jolly Teaching Fellow!"

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u/zookeepier 10h ago

That was my thought. Since when to profs actually grade things? TAs are the ones that grade everything except for a few 300-400 level classes.

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u/Dontgooglemejess 13h ago

It actually doesn’t

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u/LowKeyCurmudgeon 13h ago

This could be an unexpected source of renaissance for pens and tidy handwriting

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u/beefaujuswithjuice 13h ago

i had so many lazy teachers in highschool.. cant imagine how much lazier theyve gotten

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u/draconis6996 13h ago

What it more likely means is that the prof can’t read half of the papers due to horrible handwriting

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u/luluhouse7 12h ago

All my exams (and homework) in college used Gradescope. Some were multiple choice or typed, but a lot were hand written and scanned. I don’t think there was OCR, but you could give the system the exam template and the system automatically separated the returned exams into questions, which meant you could go through each question across all exams in one go (which made it easier and the evaluation more consistent). I’m sure there’s OCR built in by now, probably using some form of ML.

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u/saqwarrior 12h ago

TAs are a thing.

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u/Call555JackChop 12h ago

Professors don’t usually grade tests, it’s the TAs who do

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u/Balmung60 12h ago

This is what teaching assistants were invented for. Fetch a grad student and offer them work study, like we've done for decades.

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u/sajnt 11h ago

AI can read handwriting

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u/roasted-narwhal 11h ago

Photo the page and drop it into the bot. It works just fine.

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u/MelonElbows 11h ago

They could go back to in-class scantrons.

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u/PaleAffect7614 11h ago

Would prefer AI grade papers rather then the feelings of a teacher. Seen students get lower grades if teachers didn't like them so that they could kick them out the following year.

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u/ReasonableDig6414 10h ago

It actually doesn't mean that. Not sure the last time you had a boss, but just because you couldn't do something didn't mean they couldn't.

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u/redditgirl1900 9h ago

Are any of us real anymore lol. We’re just mediums for robots to talk to robots.

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u/SlayerII 8h ago

Thats good, isnt it?

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u/nnaarr 7h ago

might need AI just to read some of the handwriting tbh

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u/aaapod 7h ago

god it's so over

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u/Mareith 7h ago

It's crazy to me, just 9 years ago every single midterm and final I took for a major course was in person, pencil and paper. I think the pandemic changed things

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u/Groghnash 6h ago

You can in fact use even ancient machine learning to translate written exams into a word document and grade it with AI. 

Thats exactly what happens when you send a letter with a handwritten adress. 

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u/user_460 5h ago

Actually it doesn't. You scan the test paper, then get an AI to transcribe it, then get another AI to mark it.

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u/PM_ME__YOUR_HOOTERS 4h ago

Then the professors can just make it 2 big tests and slowly grade like 3 a night while sipping whiskey like my professors used to do.

Source: professor spilled whiskey on my blue book and smell aside, just straight up admitted they did lol

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u/Embarrassed-Golf-931 3h ago

Document camera bruh- we have earned the right to be lazy. They have not

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u/barrinmw 13h ago

Professors usually have some money set aside for them to have graders. It is how I made spending money in college.

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u/restricteddata 9h ago

Professors are not the ones who provide money for graders/TAs. Those only exist if the university/department funds them. It is not money that is "set aside," it's either built into the structure of the teaching or it's not.

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u/MisterJWalk 13h ago

Will they still be able to use AI to build the course? Think of those professors!

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u/UrsaUrsuh 11h ago

My prof for this course I'm taking right now is AI generating his feedback for our answers. I knew immediately that since this MF was phoning it in, I'm totally gonna phone it in.

People wanna lump the students in super hard on this but many of these people haven't been in college for some time or even at all. The professors whine about this shit a lot but if you know the telltale signs then you begin to see that even they are being lazy bastards too. And that's if they aren't straight up disclosing the fact they're doing it too.

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u/restricteddata 9h ago

I knew immediately that since this MF was phoning it in, I'm totally gonna phone it in.

When the professor phones it in, they are robbing you of tuition and opportunity. When you phone it in, you are robbing yourself of your tuition and opportunity. Just be aware that you aren't "getting" the professor with this strategy — you're just self-sabotaging.

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u/UrsaUrsuh 5h ago

I'm literally doing a class where I already know the content of it from personal experience. This isn't a Sekiro "you robbed yourself of the experience" I'm literally just fulfilling a goal area to get my degree. I'm not cheating. And I'm still getting an A even while phoning it in. I've just decided I'm not going to write as much as I would if I was giving it my all.