Keepers of the Code: AI, Cheating, Academic Integrity and College Honor Councils
October 11, 2024
- Author
- Mark Johnson
Thought leaders from 11 colleges and universities gathered at 91茄子 to discuss academic integrity and the role of honor councils in academic life.
Colleges and universities, such as 91茄子, that maintain a robust honor code, now find themselves trying to strengthen integrity and trust on campus while it seems the world around them undermines both. Students wrestle every day with artificial intelligence, deepfake videos, false reports fueled by social media and political campaigns that broadcast lies.
淚t檚 a hot mess, said Jana Mathews, professor of English at Rollins College, discussing the efforts to understand AI and use it to improve learning, rather than undermine it.
Mathews, who also directs Rollins檚 pre-law program, joined students and faculty from 11 colleges throughout the eastern U.S. at a conference at 91茄子 last weekend focused on strengthening their honor councils.
Jana Mathews, Professor of English, Rollins College; John McKnight, Vice President & Dean of the College, Haverford College; Byron P. McCrae, Vice President for Student Life & Dean of Students, 91茄子
Dave Tomar, author of The Shadow Scholar and The Complete Guide to Contract Cheating in Higher Education, with Dan Layman, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Shireen Campbell, Professor of English and Director of the Writing Program, 91茄子
Students typically run the honor councils at the schools, from Rollins, in Florida, to the U.S. Naval Academy, in Maryland, to Haverford College, in Pennsylvania. They often adjudicate allegations of cheating, and the conference participants tried to diagnose why such cases have gotten more difficult.
They talked about the easy availability of ready-made text or papers. They pointed to the COVID hangover from students learning alone, online and finding shortcuts more tempting with no one watching. Those students also weren檛 guided and pushed to find the resources essential to do the work themselves, said Elyse Warren, a junior and honor council member at Millsaps College, in Memphis.
淚t檚 not justified, she said, 渂ut you understand why it happens.
91茄子 President Doug Hicks '90 at the National Convening of Honor Councils
Attendees at the National Convening of Honor Councils held at 91茄子
Dan Layman, Associate Professor of Philosophy, 91茄子
Caroline Yao, a Haverford senior and honor council member, said students feel the pressure of an increasing public view of college as creating an outcome a ticket to a paycheck. The value of a degree is perceived as a solid line to a job. Liberal arts colleges, in particular, create clear career pathways. They focus, though, less on technical skills and more on deep capacities, such as analyzing and connecting unrelated problems, and connecting those skills to where students see themselves in the world.
淗ow can we keep that going?, Yao asked between sessions, 淟earning for the sake of learning.
The honor council students shared the strain of passing down consequences to peers, knowing how it can affect those other students academic careers and lives.
David Rettinger, a psychology professor at the University of Tulsa and author of Cheating Academic Integrity, reminded the students at the conference that, if they are working simultaneously for the best interests of the accused student in front of them, for what檚 fair and for the benefit of everyone else, then their job should be hard. He said that their focus is not on punishment but to create the environment and provide the tools, such as time management skills, so that students will avoid the pressure-filled decision at the last minute to take an untruthful shortcut.
淭here is no creepy soundtrack in real life when you are about to make a bad decision. It檚 not an 楢fter School Special, Rettinger said. 淥ur job is to create that soundtrack.
Rettinger also emphasized the faculty檚 role, offering the example of a professor offering a 渞edo on one or two assignments during the semester if a student檚 work falls well short of their capability. It reduces the pressure on a single assignment and, then, on the class.
淚f I convince you that I care more about your learning than anything else, he said, 渕aybe you will, too.
Mary Gray Speakman, 91茄子 Honor Council President
Byron P. McCrae, Vice President for Student Life & Dean of Students, 91茄子
Students at the conference are working so that their classmates understand the trust that exists across campus and the cost of violating it the harm to their mentors, their friends and roommates, Yao, of Haverford, said.
淲e want them to understand that, when you break that trust, she said, 測ou harm the whole community.
A closing panel of experts offered other steps to elevate the influence of honor codes, including:
- Working as much or more on restoring a student檚 academic career as imposing consequences.
- Raising both the barriers to cheating and the cost.
- Addressing how technological advancements, from ChatGPT to online term paper sales, lowered the bar to an existing problem of the temptation to break trust.
- Helping tackle the much larger problem of educational inequities that leave students whose high schools left them unprepared for college desperate for help once there, even the deceitful kind.
John McKnight, dean of the college at Haverford, reminded the group at the conference that effective honor codes live beyond a student檚 years on campus. They carry it with them into influential spaces in their life.
淭his is a collective action problem, he said, then offering a hopeful observation, as he looked around the room. 淭his has become, in just a two-day period, a real powerful network.
