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AI IN EDUCATION

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News “Building resilience, the ability to roll with the punches and man- says that software-generated text can give itself away by being
age change at a fast pace – those are dispositions you can prac- too consistent – it tends to lack human randomness. But detec-

How the chip sector tice and teach,” says Harrison. tion tools can only generate a probability that an LLM was
is gearing up for School homework is an example of what educators called form- used, and unlike with straight plagiarism, they cannot point to a
the AI revolution
ative assessment, which aims to monitor and reinforce learn- likely source.
ing during a course. Using LLMs in summative learning, such “None of them can prove conclusively that the text was written
How ISC2 aims
to overcome as exams and coursework at the end of a course, is particularly by AI,” he says. Furthermore, as LLM tools are incorporated into
cyber barriers sensitive as it could allow students software such as Microsoft Word,
to gain a qualification or a higher their use may become as routine
Editor’s comment grade if they do so. there are potentIally three as spelling and grammar checking
Jisc, a not-for-profit agency that is at present.

Buyer’s guide provides technology services across ways for educators to deal Webb sees three ways for edu-
to the future of UK further and higher education, is cators to deal with AI in assess-
business software wIth aI In assessment: avoId It,
researching how LLMs are affecting ment: avoid it, outrun it or embrace
different types of assessment. It has it. Avoidance means using highly
Harnessing large outrun It or embrace It
language models already found that multiple choice controlled environments such as
for education quizzes are particularly vulnerable. exams, but these don’t work for all
Michael Webb, director of technology and analytics at Jisc, assessment. Trying to outrun AI by using formats that services
says that previously, someone trying to cheat on an online quiz at can’t handle is likely to be a short-term fix given how fast the
least had to use a search engine, potentially learning something technology is developing, with ChatGPT’s supplier OpenAI add-
in the process, but LLMs short-circuit even that. “Anything that ing support for diagrams in March.
has been done before, ChatGPT is really good at,” he says. He believes educators will usually be better off embracing
LLMs. This can include setting guidance and rules for their use,
Ai detection cApAbility something many universities have already done, and requir-
Many institutions use plagiarism detection tools such as TurnItIn, ing students to declare they have used them – although if AI
run by a Californian-based company of the same name, which becomes ubiquitous in word processing, this could be a tempo-
aims to identify material that has appeared previously. In March rary measure. Assessments could be based on new data from
2023, the company launched an AI detection capability. Webb ongoing or yet-to-be-published academic research, or students

computerweekly.com 21-27 November 2023 16