The process of onboarding new students to higher education institutions can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive task for universities. From enrollment paperwork to academic advising, the onboarding process requires a significant investment of time and resources. However, recent advances in chatbot technology have created an opportunity to streamline this process, reducing the burden on university staff and providing new students with a more efficient and personalized experience.

How will higher education institutions' plagiarism policies deal with AI generated content? An interesting article on Sky News recently caught my attention. In it, technology reporter, Tom Acres, evaluates ChatGPT as the ultimate homework cheat.

With the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), chatbots are becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life. One such chatbot is ChatGPT, a natural language processing tool that can generate responses based on inputted text. While this technology has obvious benefits, it also presents some risks, particularly when it comes to academic integrity. Could students use ChatGPT to cheat on their homework? How can lecturers deal with the potential for plagiarism? Let's take a look. 

ChatGPT was primarily designed as a conversational AI tool, and while it is possible to make use of its capabilities to generate answers to questions, it should not be used for any type of assessment or homework assignment as it carries with it significant risks. 

For one thing, since the answers generated by ChatGPT are based on natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, they may contain inaccuracies or even be completely wrong. 

This could lead to lower grades or even plagiarism accusations if the student submits the answer without checking its accuracy first. Additionally, since the answers generated by ChatGPT are based on other people’s inputs, there is a risk that they could contain copyrighted material which would put students at risk of copyright infringement charges. 

Lecturers need to remain vigilant when assessing homework assignments from students who might be using AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT. 

One way to do this is by randomly selecting portions of the work submitted for review and comparing them against existing resources such as Google or other online databases, a process that for smaller or emerging institutions could be impractical and time-consuming.

Additionally, lecturers should ensure that students understand that any use of AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT will result in immediate disciplinary action and/or academic penalties depending on the severity of the offence. Academic and assessment policies and procedures now need to accommodate this as a common eventuality that would need a document process to analyse, evaluate and remedy should incidents occur in the student journey.

Finally, lecturers should consider implementing anti-plagiarism software tools into their assessment process in order to detect any attempt at cheating through AI-powered tools like ChatGPT.  

In conclusion, while AI-powered tools like ChatGPT offer an interesting alternative for generating answers to questions quickly and easily, they should not be used for any type of homework assignment due to the risks associated with them including inaccuracies in answers and copyright infringement charges. 

Lecturers need to remain vigilant when assessing student assignments and should consider implementing anti-plagiarism software into their assessment process in order to detect any attempts at cheating through AI-powered tools like ChatGPT. 

Students should avoid using these types of tools altogether in order to prevent any potential issues with their academic integrity and performance. 

How is your institution addressing academic integrity in the AI era? Share your thoughts and comments below!