In a 2023 report, the BBC found that students were using Chat GPT to write their essays and were receiving first class grades from it. A Freedom of Information request to Cardiff University revealed that there were 14,443 visits to ChatGPT website in January 2023, from the university’s own Wi-Fi. The university has plagiarism detection through the Turnitin system where a similarity report is produced, but most students seem to be getting away with it due to the increased usage of ChatGPT.
A student from the School of English, Languages and Philosophy told Gair Rhydd about her usage of AI in assignments: “ChatGPT has been really useful to me during my three years at Cardiff University. I’ve used it to help structure my essay or to generate essay plans that I could use to help with my formative assessment” she said. “I think it helps a lot when I’m behind on researching theorists and scholars for an essay, especially the software perplexity which seems more reliable than ChatGPT as Perplexity provides URL to the generative content it gives me – which ChatGPT doesn’t provide”.
Cardiff University states it takes plagiarism and academic misconduct seriously, stating “We are aware of the potential impact of AI programmes, like ChatGPT, on our assessments and coursework. “Maintaining academic integrity is our main priority and we actively discourage any students from academic misconduct in its many forms”.
An ‘academic integrity’ module on Learning Central has also been implemented in recent years for ENCAP students to complete. It’s a requirement for all students to complete at the beginning of the autumn semester. The module helps teach students how to use generative AI carefully and to be responsible when submitting academic work. If students are found guilty of academic misconduct, they would have to go through a disciplinary that includes the following: 1. Consideration of the allegation/ concerns – if there is a concern about a student, an investigation will be made by the school’s academic misconduct coordinator.
- University Academic Integrity Panel – student to submit evidence or a statement to the panel to determine if their allegation is true.
- Cases that emerge Post-Award – If a complaint is received it will be reviewed by the student’s Head of school.
- Request for Review – Students have the right to request a review of the decision under the University Review Procedure, and it must be received by Student Cases within 14 days of being sent the outcome.
From strict measures taken from Cardiff university, they have reported in January that they are working with staff in the ‘AI in Education Group’ to support staff in integrating AI in teaching. They’re planning to develop an ‘AI and productivity in the workplace workshop’ which will be similar to what students had to complete with the Academic Integrity module. However, students have complained about academic staff using AI for teaching in platforms like BlackBoard and Mentimeter.
CUTV asked several students what they think of staff implementing AI in learning materials. One student had said “I feel like there’s a double standard because there’s a lot of checks on us using AI in any of our work.. it feels a bit hypocritical in a way”.
Another had said “It’s inherently just lazy and today we had a lecturer show us an AI-generated image because she said she couldn’t find an image and I found it within seconds”. The university declined allegations of staff using AI in course content at the time.Staff will be able to use it in materials after completing AI workshops and strategic planning with the AI Education Group.