Brown University Prof Alleges Widespread Cheating With Help From AI in His Class
“I think the incident itself is terrible, but I think in some sense I’m more disappointed by the reaction of the university”
This is obviously going to be an issue throughout higher education going forward.
GoLocalProv reports:
“Massive Cheating” in Brown University Class, Alleges Professor – “Systemic Failure That Needs to Be Addressed”
A Brown University professor is alleging that widespread cheating by students in one of his classes took place this past semester – with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) – and is saying it is a “systemic failure that needs to be addressed from the top.”
Robert Serrano, who has been in the Economics Department at the Ivy League institution for 34 years, says that the grades for a midterm exam, which he allowed to be taken “at-home” – were significantly higher than in previous years.
He says a review by graders found that exam responses mirrored those of ones by ChatGPT – and when he addressed the class and said they could keep the midterm grade they received but had to take the final in-person, that nearly a third of the class dropped out.
Now, he is questioning Brown’s response to the matter.
“I think the incident itself is terrible, but I think in some sense I’m more disappointed by the reaction of the university,” said Serrano.
Exam and AI Cheating in Question
Serrano, who teaches Econ 1170, said that in this class this past spring, “there was a huge difference in the distribution of grades of the midterm exam this time and the midterm exams in previous editions of the course.”
“This is a very challenging course that attracts typically very strong students, and in the past, the average grade for the midterm ranged from 65 to 80,” said Serrano. “The average this time was 96.”
Serrano noted that this past semester, he saw a huge influx of students in his class.
“In past editions of the course, the enrollments were at most 30, as low as 8 one semester,” said Serrano. “This semester it jumped to 86.”
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Comments
Clearly, the luxury of take-home exams is one you will have to surrender.
Further evidence that for many (most?) college isn’t about wanting an education, it’s about getting a credential.
When I was taking some higher level electronics classes about a hundred years ago, there was one particular professor that most of my fellow students tried very hard to avoid.
They avoided him because he actually expected his students to do the work and learn the material. They couldn’t get easy grades from him and they knew it so they avoided him.
I specifically worked my schedule to take as many of his classes as possible. The dude could teach and if you applied yourself, he’d bend over backward to make sure you “got it”.
Of course most of my fellow students were kids. They weren’t actually paying for their college time (yet…plenty of them were taking out loans to fund it) and were basically treating it like a lark before the hard work of adulting began. I was an adult in active military service. I was there because I wanted to expand my knowledge and skills; different motivations.
Universities don’t care about fraud or unqualified graduates. Their only concern is how to cover it up.
Look at braindead AOC. An Economics degree from Boston University? How much time studying vs on her knees?
In my college classes exams are always open book/open notes. However, I forbid using any electronic devices to preclude the use of chatbots during the exam. Students who took notes on tablets/laptops were told notes must be in hardcopy format if used during the exam.
I don’t take as many medical students as I used to because they just are not well prepared to come into their M3/M4 student clinicals. Either they want to showboat how ignorant they are or they whine when asked a direct question that isn’t answerable with one simple word or a yes/no or true/false proposition. I also don’t allow them to have their cellphones or iPads with them during rounds or in any patient area. The whining is sooo grating!
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