901
College professors are going back to paper exams and handwritten essays to fight students using ChatGPT
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
901 points (97.7% liked)
Technology
59339 readers
5271 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
AI is a tool that can indeed be of great benefit when used properly. But using it without comprehending and verifying the source material can be downright dangerous (like those lawyers citing fake cases). The point of the essay/exam is to test comprehension of the material.
Using AI at this point is like using a typewriter in a calligraphy test, or autocorrect in a spelling and grammar test.
Although asking for handwritten essays does nothing to combat use of AI. You can still generate content and then transcribe it by hand.
You know idiots with AI do that all the time everyday right?
Isn't that the point and what people are trying to prevent?
My broader point (in your metaphor) is that calligraphy tests are irrelevant at this point. The world changed. Theres not going back.
A calligraphy test is not irrelevant if you are studying to LEARN calligraphy. If you are arguing that calligraphy as a subject doesnt need to exist then fine then don't study it. But you don't learn it by asking AI to do it for you.
Typewriters are also irrelevant today. It was an analogy. I agree that AI can be used in some evaluations, depending what you're evaluating.
I allow and encourage Googling for information when I interview software engineering candidates. I don't consider it "cheating", on the contrary. Being able to unblock themselves is one of the skills they should have. They will be using external help when doing their job, so why should the test be any different.
But that also reminds me now that I actually once had a candidate using generative AI in the coding interview. It did feel like cheating when it was a the level of asking for the full solution, not just help getting unblocked. It didn't help at all though because the candidate didn't even have enough skill to tell the good suggestions from the bad ones or what they needed to iterate on.
🤔 I dispute that typewriters are irrelevant. Famous writers still use them today, and they are a perfect means for helping some disabled people type out essays on the spot to test their comprehension of a subject. It gets around handwriting issues without allowing electronics that could be used for cheating into an exam space.