The times they are a changin'

In the last few days, I came across a case of alleged "plagiarism" (quotes in purpose) by a student  who had to submit an essay for his English Language unit. The lecturer, identified that the English language used in this essay is by way far from the student speaking competence. And naturally, the question "Did the student wrote this?" was raised in the Department.  The student was called in an oral examination in order to verify that it is his own work. To cut a long story short, the student admitted he used a web application; he provided the text in Greek and the tool automatically translated it to English. He submitted the English text. Is this "plagiarism"? Strictly speaking no. Is this "collusion"? Yes, if you consider the web application a person. Is this "unfair means"? ... Hmmm!! Yes ... but it looks to me more like a fabrication of data issue. Still ...

Let's go back 40 years. Essays were submitted in hand written form, word processing was just starting to be available. Spelling was an issue and was assessed. The word processors made automatic spell checking possible. In principle, no spelling errors existed in essays of students who knew how to utilise this option. As a consequence, spelling was not assessed anymore. Is this a similar problem to the one above, only more sophisticated? 












So, consider the following case. As student writes something in her own language (e.g. Greek):

"Είναι γενικά αποδεκτό ότι τα τελευταία χρόνια έχει παρατηρηθεί τεράστια αλλαγή στη στάση όσων ζουν στις πόλεις σε σχέση με τη χρήση του ποδηλάτου. Η αύξηση στην τιμή των καυσίμων, μαζί με την ανάγκη για κίνηση και άσκηση αλλά και η συζήτηση για τη μόλυνση των πόλεων και την ανάγκη για καθαρότερο περιβάλλον έχουν επιφέρει σημαντική αλλαγή στον αριθμό των ποδηλατιστών. Αυτή η αλλαγή όμως είχε το δικό της τίμημα."

She copies and pastes this to a translation tool (such as google translate, babylon etc.). This is what she gets:

"It is generally accepted that in recent years there has been a huge change in the attitude of those who live in cities in relation to the use of bicycles. An increase in the price of fuel, along with the need for movement and exercise and the debate on the contamination of cities and the need for a cleaner environment have brought about a significant change in the number of cyclists. This change had its own price."

Then, the student copies and pastes the text to a paraphrasing tool (such as paraphrasing, Quill Bot etc,). This is the outcome:

"It is commonly acknowledged that as of late there has been a gigantic change in the demeanor of individuals living in urban areas concerning bike use. The ascent in fuel costs, alongside the requirement for development and exercise just as the discussion on urban contamination and the requirement for a cleaner situation have realized a critical change in the quantity of cyclists. Be that as it may, this change had its own cost."

And finally, the student uses this text to tools that help you compose essays (such as, Grammarly which promises to "Compose clear, mistake-free writing that makes the right impression.".) 

Last step, submission. A small step for the student, a huge step for the assessor. Maria Sachpazian, the lecturer of the above mentioned English language unit, described it as "The end to my career. We are sadly redundant..... (sobbing quietly) "!! Is she right?

And the "problem" is not restricted to language. See for example the case of PhotoMath, a tool that someone can take a photo of a complex equation and the solution (and most importantly its solving steps) will appear in the screen of your smart phone. See how it works (English teachers would love this!):

Advances in Artificial Intelligence made possible what we thought it won't be. And this is just the start. It extends to more subjects, creative writing, automated analysis of data, interpretation of research results, "art", etc. Maybe in few years time, we will be having the same conversation for Computer Science with automatic code generation tools (who teaches HMTL nowadays huh?) or for Psychology with psychotherapist chat bots.  

My main question is: Do you accept it or fight it? Fighting it means that we will be as educators in a continuous struggle to prove that the way submitted work is produced does not meet the learning outcomes. Accepting it means that we are aware of these tools and we accept the fact that students are aware too (sometimes we even teach them to use them) and change! Change the way we set learning outcomes; make them more challenging in the hierarchy of Bloom taxonomy, an area where we still (but not for long) have the advantage over machines? Change the way we assess student work; by looking at other skills and abilities while testing their knowledge? So, rephrasing my own question, Do you accept it (and adapt) or fight it? Most of you can guess what is my answer. However, the issue here is what you think!!

I leave you with a song. It seems that "change" has always been an issue. Back in 1964, the poet Bob Dylan expressed in his song as "The times they are A-Changing":

Petros Kefalas
VP Learning & Teaching