Schools in the UK have been urgently warned of the threat brought by artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT regarding coursework and assessments in the country. Education think tank, EDSK especially pointed out the virtually impossible task for teachers to select if students have done their own work or leaned on AI to complete essays and assignments. Considering this, the major exam boards are urging schools to make pupils do some of their coursework “in class under direct supervision” to reduce any suspected cheating.
ChatGPT is a form of AI that is programmed to reply to questions with a human-like manner and write text. This has stirred fears that pupils could use the technology to craft essays and assignments. In light of this, the think tank EDSK stated that the addition of ChatGPT represents a significant menace to the integrity of formal assessments. Moreover, they mentioned that with AI being involved in the process, it is nearly impossible to decide if the work is truly a student’s own or if it was written by a computer.
Following such concerns, the head regulator of Ofqual, Jo Saxton stated that exams have become more critical than ever before. She also believes that for courses, students must write essays under exam circumstances. The General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Geoff Barton also mentioned the issue of growing dependence on students taking a high number of academic exams. Instead, he suggested a combination of academic and vocational decisions as well as using AI as a way to help learning, instead of using it to try to cheat.
The Department for Education further reinforced the idea by acknowledging exams as the best and fairest assessment tool and to reduce the amount of coursework. The Department is in contact with Ofqual, exam boards and school heads in order to ensure that exams are conducted fairly. They believe that teachers are the most suitable to judge the originality of their student’s work and that exams will still remain a main component of any assessment system.
