Just before the exam season started last year, the company Open AI launched the chatbot ChatGPT.
The robot works in such a way that it answers the questions it is asked. The online newspaper Khrono writes that the robot got a grade B in the exam in biomedicine.
Before Christmas, almost no universities knew how to capture the use of the robot in exams where all aids are allowed.
Exam answers are checked with a so-called plagiarism check. The text you submit is then checked against texts that are already available on the internet.
ChatGPT writes new texts, and is consequently not detected on plagiarism checks.
Directorate of Education has also decided to limit internet access for certain upper secondary school exams.
– Since the technology is new, we currently have little knowledge of how this affects censorship, the directorate writes in a press release.
Now only three Norwegian universities and colleges report that they have discovered the use of the chatbot in connection with examinations.
Read how TV 2 has mapped the use of ChatGPT in connection with exams further down in the case.
– Seems screwed on
Inga Strümke is one of the country’s foremost researchers on artificial intelligence (AI). She thinks it seems very strange that so few educational institutions report on the use of the chatbot in exams.
– This is just speculation, but it seems very strange. The chatbot has received a lot of attention. It’s probably more about them not having the right tools to detect it, says Strümke.
WEIRD: Inga Strümke researches artificial intelligence. She believes that artificial intelligence is here to stay Photo: Mona Hauglid
She also believes that this is another example of completely new challenges that we are not prepared for.
– Artificial intelligence is entering society, so the school will have to deal with it in one way or another. I mean it’s about using it the right way.
Technology expert Torgeir Waterhouse agrees. He also believes that the education sector appears screwed up.
– It will certainly be used without the teachers knowing about it. But it has not been many weeks since this robot was launched and there is already a debate about how it will affect exams, says Waterhouse.
– The debate should be about how it is used, and not about it must be used, he believes.
EDUCATION: Torgeir Waterhouse, one of Norway’s leading IT experts, believes AI must be included in teaching in schools. Photo: Aleksander Myklebust / TV 2
Fresh deed
The vast majority of universities and colleges write to TV 2 that use of the robot will be treated as cheating. Most justify this with the requirement that exam submissions must be “own work”.
This is how TV 2 has mapped the use of the robot in exams
TV 2 has asked the same three questions to 30 of the country’s largest higher education institutions at the beginning of January:
- Have you discovered the use of the robot? (optionally: Do you suspect that it has been used?)
- How will it be sanctioned if someone has used the robot in a home exam?
- How have you worked to discover it?
(five of the institutions have not responded to TV 2’s inquiry)
Cheating can have major consequences at several universities.
At BI, for example, you can be banned for one to two semesters – depending on the degree of severity.
– ChatGPT robot is not currently defined as an illegal aid in BI’s regulations, but this is something that must be taken up for consideration, writes communication advisor Henrik Stølen at BI.
Several of the universities also reply that they have no prerequisites for detecting use of the robot.
Three universities respond that they have discovered use of the robot in connection with examinations:
At the University of Agder, a student said that he had used the robot to prepare for an exam. At the University of Stavanger, it was used in an exam where all aids were available.
Something similar happened at the University of Tromsø. There, a student was caught “in the act”.
– The exam was defined so that all aids were permitted. We have to be able to assume that more students have used the service, writes exam director at UiT Kristin Johanne Bye to TV 2.
CHEATING: At the University of Tromsø, it was discovered that a student used ChatGPT in an exam. Photo: Helge Hansen
– Too easy to just ban
After ChatGPT was launched, several people have advocated that the time has now come to change how the exam is carried out.
Lecturer in foreign language didactics, Inger Langseth at NTNU has done a lot of research on online education. She believes that the chatbot means that you will have to rethink what constitutes knowledge and how we measure it.
– Perhaps more emphasis should be placed on oral assessment situations, or a combination of oral and written, she believes.
Vice-rector and professor of computer science at the University of Bergen, Pinar Heggernes, believes that AI must be approached differently from subject to subject.
– The quality of the answers from ChatGPT varies from subject to subject, says the informatics professor and vice-chancellor.
She believes that the various subject areas must find out how this can be used in teaching and assessment.
– It will be too easy to simply ban ChatGPT. Then you have to agree on what is prohibited. Cut and paste is cheating from the start. The technology can be used in several ways. The robot can also improve already written texts.
EXAMINATION: Pro-rector and professor of computer science at UiB, Pinar Heggernes believes that one should not go back to old exam forms. Photo: Tor Henning Flaatten / TV 2
She believes that universities must now test knowledge in a new way.
– We don’t want knowledge that comes straight from the book. We want reflections and innovative thinking. This is where ChatGPT falls short. Rather, we must become more creative to test knowledge. We have to test the students’ knowledge to use knowledge, says Heggernes.
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