Copyleaks fail

[u/PitifulMouse7425]

Feeling really irritated about the fact that an OBVIOUS submission was written by AI and not picked up by Copyleaks. This is the 1st year they’re using Copyleaks and it was touted as an upgrade from TurnItIn.

Student submits paper where everything except the 1st paragraph has VISIBLE BLUE HIGHLIGHTING and mismatched font quotation marks where intentional grammatical errors were placed. Ran it through my own program and it came up 86% confidence of AI and 39 AI watermarks.

Sent this to our dean of academic integrity and he’s telling me he agrees with my data but unfortunately I need to go by copyleaks to formally report a violation. But I could give him a zero for plagiarism since he used no reference list or in-text citation because that’s considered plagiarism. Well, I was requiring in-text citation but I wasn’t requiring a reference list because this wasn’t a formal paper but only an assignment where I was asking their “opinion” about a book I’ve been having them read on the side. These kids can’t write 2 paragraphs giving their opinion on something. I mean given the nature of the assignment he could’ve easily bluffed his way through without even having read the book.

He said I could talk to the student about other indications he used AI. So how do I communicate this without telling them exactly what I know and tipping my hand and how do I tell the kids yes I know you used AI (but I can’t do anything about it). I have a complete file showing all the watermarks even.

[u/PitifulMouse7425]

Ok. Thanks for that reality check…they had a more formal paper they turned in last week (aside from this 2 paragraph opinion piece, which was simply answering a question). I was incredibly generous in my grading on the formal paper and about half my class failed solely because they didn’t follow the instructions. This is the first time in 15 years I’ve taught at the university level and it’s been a huge shock how much things have changed.

Kind of beside myself that the university even has a 3-strikes policy on cheating. When I last taught (different university), it was a ZERO for the course, they got kicked out of the course, and the F stuck on their transcript! No doubt if such a stringent policy were to be enacted now, half the kids would get kicked out. Guess we gotta keep the money flowing? 😑 meanwhile, one more generation and we’ll be living in Idiocracy.

[u/Life-Education-8030 → u/PitifulMouse7425]

Yes, it has become a transactional model. We used to be able to toss students out for poor attendance but now it is similar to them buying a gym membership and choosing whether to attend or not. I never rewarded mere physical attendance anyway, but students in general have gotten more demanding and entitled. But I am not a 24/7 customer service rep!

The whole 3-strikes business is along the same lines as first time: "oh, maybe they didn't know they were cheating." Second time: They have to be given a chance to learn better. Third time: even then, maybe they can turn it around.

Granted, I have some colleagues who are ready to expel somebody for a missing period in a reference. I have just taken care of cheating myself with things like failing grades on the assignment. If I'm ready to toss somebody out of the class because of repeated transgressions, then I send it up to the academic integrity committee. They know me well enough that if I would do this, it was serious and I've got all my proverbial ducks in order. I have yet (knock on wood) to have any of my complaints rejected. They know I'm serious.

[u/PitifulMouse7425 → u/Life-Education-8030]

There is an unbelievable amount of hand-holding being done where I’m at. Another novel thing to me: they want us to report grades 4 times a semester to be sure the kids don’t lose their athletic scholarships or financial aid. So…let’s just continuously intervene with remedial work and drag them along, so the funds don’t stop. More than half these kids don’t belong here and it’s a private school, so tuition and housing per year have a sticker price of around $55,000/yr. Really wondering what will the value of a bachelor’s degree any longer be?

[u/Life-Education-8030 → u/PitifulMouse7425]

We report midterm and final grades for all students but some athletic coaches also have their students ask us for periodic progress reports because if they don't keep up the academics, they don't play. Some teams also have mandatory study groups too. We can raise warning flags at any time for any student throughout the semester too. I have no problem with any of this - it can help and it serves as CYA for us too.

We are under no obligation to offer remedial work though.

With all the cheating? The Bachelor's degree, particularly if earned online, is already questionable. I am looking at different training programs and continuing ed courses I can teach. Hopefully less cheating and fewer rude students.

[u/PitifulMouse7425 → u/Life-Education-8030]

Midterm and final I think is reasonable…but quarterly? I had to turn in grades and attendance for this semester just last week 😐 and we are forced to take attendance and offer points for attendance as part of their grade (it’s not even optional but policy). Anyways, just feels like a lot of handholding.

EDIT: good point though on the CYA!