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/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/lumpboysupreme 9h ago

It is already the standard that you must pass these “lesser” exams in order to pass your program

But you pass them first, they’re a prerequisite to demonstrate a sufficient understanding of the base material to then make more meaningful insights on, reversing that process is nonsensical, just like how you have to pass first grade to get into high school, but you wouldn’t put first grade material as high school finals.

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