College professors are searching for ways to “ChatGPT-proof” their exams

https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-driving-return-to-paper-exams-written-essays-at-universities-2023-8

by ironyman • 3 years ago

15 18 3 years ago

jqpabc1232• 3 years ago

Start emphasizing problem solving and applications and creative thinking over rote regurgitation of data.

My favorite engineering professor was all over this decades in advance. You could bring any reference material you wanted to take one of his tests.

We couldn't find the solutions to his test problems in a search engine. If you can nowadays, maybe student and professor both need to reconsider your career path because you may not have one for very long.

iteria• 3 years ago

There are rote concepts that underpin stuff like that. There is a certain amount of rote you need in order to be creative. Calculators are great, but knowing how to multiply has more value than just knowing that 3 times 4 is 12. This same idea applies to so many disciplines and I'm wondering if we're going to go back to a more tedious kind of learning where long periods of supervision are necessary to keep sure you know the foundations necessary for the higher level more conceptual classes.

jqpabc1232• 3 years ago

Everbody on the planet has a smartphone and access to a world of information and data at their fingertips.

Unless you are a contestant on Jeopardy, being able to recall lots of little pieces of data no longer has a lot of inherent value.

What does still have significant value is understanding what the data represents and how it can used and manipulated and combined and applied in creative ways in order to make good decisions and solve problems.

happytiger• 3 years ago

The same thing happened when calculators came out, when the Internet mainstreamed, mobile phones came out, and now AI...

It's the education system that needs to adapt, not the students. Change is hard, but eras of computing drive societal change and professors and colleges need to adapt to stay relevant and not the other way around.

Moldoteck• 3 years ago

It really should be more about working inside the class without homework. This way environment will be controlled

pydave• 3 years ago

Are exams all written online now? Were they okay with students googling answers and sharing them with each other, but getting customized answers from a robot is where they draw the line?

more_corn• 3 years ago

Good luck with that. Llama2 can run on a gaming rig. You can train it on your own writing and it will write exactly like you (but better or worse as you choose). There’s no way to put the genie back in the bottle.

The only way forward is performative knowledge verification in person and a controlled environment.

atonse• 3 years ago

Most interesting thing about this I remember reading is when a history professor assigned a chatgpt essay to his students and asked them to find flaws in it.

brnaftr361• 3 years ago

What does an exam measure in theory and in practice? I have never come up with a sufficient answer for myself.

airbreather3• 3 years ago

especially in engineering, but also many other subjects, it is just an elaborate hazing ritual to gain admission to the club

10g1k• 3 years ago

So, pen and paper?

archo• 3 years ago

https://archive.is/3tyII

PeterStuer• 3 years ago

In what universe is an oral exam considered 'going medieval'?

airbreather3• 3 years ago

one way is to get rid of exams

the running joke at university doing engineering was "here I have got two hours to get four problems half right, in the real world I am going to have as long as it takes to not make a mistake"

so, assess by continual assessment, make submissions by github, students have to push a commit at least every 20% of progress so the lecturer can see the incremental development/thinking and progressto wards the final result.

consequently, the correction of the approach and process to the problem can be much better tailored and it will also be much harder to use chatGPT, or any other cheating method for that matter.

College professors are searching for ways to “ChatGPT-proof” their exams

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