The rise of AI and Academic Integrity

The widespread availability of AI is prompting schools, colleges and universities everywhere to reconsider both how they teach, and the ways in which they assess their student’s achievements.

Technological innovations can be used for both the good and the bad. A case in point is the Internet itself, which has transformed communication across the world, bringing huge benefits while also enabling the Dark Web of cybercrime. The same applies to Artificial Intelligence. Understanding AI and its potential will become a standard curriculum requirement, given that applying AI in the workplace is becoming a commonplace requirement for employment. But at the same time, AI is undermining legacy systems of student assessment at a rapidly increasing rate, with increasing numbers of learners using AI to cheat in writing assignments and in examinations. A survey conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute late last year found that 92% of all undergraduates in England now use AI in preparing assignments, with a significant proportion admitting to knowing that doing so is against their university’s regulations. There is no reason to think that the use of AI is dissimilar in South Africa; any educator who asserts that this is not a problem at their institution is most likely unaccepting of the reality.

At UCT Online High School, we fully acknowledge the challenges that the widespread availability of AI brings to us as an online school, and many others in the education space. Our own responses include using leading-edge applications to detect and document inappropriate behaviour in tests and examinations, creating monitored and controlled remote assessment environments. We are able to confirm a learner’s identity and monitor with a high degree of certainty whether they visit other websites to look up information, receive inappropriate assistance, or leave their workstation during the exam session. Our objective is not surveillance or punishment, but to recreate the controlled environment required for authentic assessment. This is profoundly in our learner’s interests, preparing them for their final examinations in conventional examination centres. This approach is grounded in our Learner Disciplinary Code, which sets out our school’s contract with each and every learner, based on respect for the ethics of fairness, ensuring that everyone receives a consistent fair evaluation of their learning gain.

More generally, our objective is to ensure that each and every learner at our school understands that honesty, trust and ethical behaviour are essential qualities in a world that is ever more uncertain. When a learner makes the decision to be dishonest during an online assessment they are undermining their own learning and setting themselves up for failing their Matric exams. They are also breaking the trust of their Subject Specialists, Support Coaches, the broader school community and their Guardians, and are at risk of disciplinary action and expulsion from our school.

Generative AI is here to stay, for the good and for the bad. Incorporating this reality into the day-by-day processes of schooling requires vigilance and adherence to the requirements of our Learner Code of Conduct. But it also requires emotional maturity, respect for the principles of academic integrity. We seek the commitment of every Guardian in working with us to ensure that our learners understand the importance of honesty and ethical behaviour in general; essential human qualities that distinguish us from machines.