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How AI Can Spot Exam Cheats and Raise Standards (ft.com)
AI is being deployed by those who set and mark exams to reduce fraud -- which remains overall a small problem -- and to create far greater efficiencies in preparation and marking, and to help improve teaching and studying. From a report, which may be paywalled: From traditional paper-based exam and textbook producers such as Pearson, to digital-native companies such as Coursera, online tools and artificial intelligence are being developed to reduce costs and enhance learning. For years, multiple-choice tests have allowed scanners to score results without human intervention. Now technology is coming directly into the exam hall. Coursera has patented a system to take images of students and verify their identity against scanned documents. There are plagiarism detectors that can scan essay answers and search the web -- or the work of other students -- to identify copying. Webcams can monitor exam locations to spot malpractice. Even when students are working, they provide clues that can be used to clamp down on cheats. They leave electronic "fingerprints" such as keyboard pressure, speed and even writing style. Emily Glassberg Sands, Cousera's head of data science, says: "We can validate their keystroke signatures. It's difficult to prepare for someone hell-bent on cheating, but we are trying every way possible."
School: Student, you are expelled permanently because our AI says you cheated.
Student: I didn't!
School: You have no recourse, we keep your money, you are gone, your life is ruined, goodbye!
Student: 'Tis a fair court!
will make this a nightmare.
So are we just labeling every algorithm that detects patterns "AI" now?
A "small" problem?
This is probably low-balling it:
What can raise standards is a competent, dedicated examiner, nothing else. No amount of stupid statistics and pattern-matching will help, unless the examiner is really incompetent. And stop with the "AI" nonsense. There is no "AI" in existence, the term is just a marketing-lie.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
How many folks will be accused of cheating who didn't cheat? Do they have any defense? Or are they just randomly screwed?
How many classes do I have to take to graduate with a degree from University? How many "opportunities" will I have to be accused of cheating in each class? What are my odds for overall success? And how many hundreds of thousands of dollars am I paying for THIS ASS RAPING?
This is going to be like the TSA bullshit. A 95% accuracy rate. 600 million passengers. 30 million false positives. Zero actual terrorists. But God help you if you're one of those 30 million false positives. "Hey, after all this hatred and abuse we finally got a terrorist. Let me see your hands! Let me see your hands! He's got something in his hands! Take him down!"
Oy vey.
What browser are they using?
Perhaps the better option is to retarget degree courses. Stats is 99.99999% unlikely to ever be used/remember/useful to anyone outside of a hard math degree, accounting, scientific, etc. The same is true for philosophy, the arts, economics, and all of the other bullshit that goes into a degree. People tend to cheat in classes they're not invested in.
We aren't offering gold medals here, just an education. Cheating aside, I've seen the quality of college grads, and it varies widely enough that the presence of a degree or not is largely irrelevant anyway.
Just make the exam a measure relevant for the student, and not relevant for anyone else. Eliminate published grades entirely.
If you want to cheat, go to town. Just don't be surprised when you get a job and don't know how to actually do anything you get fired a lot.
If you don't secure the actual test taking, why does anything else matter?
FIRST you must verify that the person taking the test is the person who's supposed to be taking the test.
SECOND you must verify that the person taking the test has only the equipment and materials allowed by the test.
THIRD, you must monitor the actual test taking to verify the rules are being followed and there isn't any communication between test takers going on.
After that, mark the tests as they are and let the rest of this just be. If you want to see how effective your test day security is, sure, use such tools to get an idea if you are missing cheaters, but you won't be able to catch them this way. If you see evidence of cheating, up your security proceedures next time.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I don't think this is a great idea. I mean, all that money to make sure students that pay tens of thousends of dollars aren't cheating mostly themselves.... it's fucking stupid and it says more about the whole idea of modern capitalism, the illusion of meritocracy and the doubtful relevance of superior education, that about the students that would cheat themselves.
NO SIG
If you want to spot cheats, look no further than the University of North Carolina athletics department. You'll have to go elsewhere for the 'raising standards' part.
ncaa student athlete don't have time for class when the team needs 40+ hours a week and when travel time makes them miss class as well.
they don't really expelled people that much any more some times they just pass them to keep that loan $$$$ coming it.
preston vue testing can do that for $50-$100 a pop. Click hear for student loan ez-pay.
Why call them students then and not economic slaves?
. . . that we can use algorithms to detect cheating. No, no, it's exactly like that. 'AI' my ass. We have been using algorithms for stuff like this for a long, long time. This is not remotely new. The sooner people start replacing statements that frame algorithms in the first person and acknowledge that they are tools used by people to automate tasks, the sooner people will start taking technology like this more seriously instead of giving millennials cyber wedgies.
Theirs not much point in actually sitting a test if the AI already knows who is going to pass and who is going to fail.
I have to do an online 'vocation re-training' course. The essay questions come straight from the government-employee training programs. If you've done vocational training, you know it is 'write the provided paragraph under the essay question' memorization. The problem is: These training resources don't; it is general principles and rules but doesn't explain processes or how to actually do anything. This course doesn't provide anything to memorize. A google-search of the question reveals essay-answer services; which demand recurring payments.
Can AI be used to identify poorly written or "stupid" "ineffective" exams?
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?