Plagiarism cases growing at U of Manitoba as students increasingly turn to artificial intelligence
AI tools like ChatGPT can be useful, students say, but students' union warns of tough penalties for cheating
As first-year students at the University of Manitoba get their bearings around campus, they're also navigating recently introduced guidelines on the use of powerful new artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT — and the number of cases of plagiarism using the app have started to climb.
At the start of the year, there were virtually no such cases, said Francois Jordaan, a U of M academic integrity specialist.
But he's seen several cases a week over the latest summer session, he said.
"Instructors can note when there's changes in your writing," said Jordaan. "What we see with ChatGPT is that the writing is very generic and very vague."
ChatGPT functions a bit like a search engine, but it provides specific, tailored results. A user can enter a question such as, "What role did Louis Riel play in forming Manitoba?" and get a short history essay on the screen in seconds.
Several freshmen said it can be a valuable tool.
"If you're in a writing block, you can get something going," said Eryn Czirfusz, who just came to Manitoba from B.C. to study architecture. "Then you can build off it to make your own work really good."
"Google and YouTube are more confusing," said first-year information technology student Shutkrati Tyagi, who recently came to the U of M from India. "ChatGPT can give more specific information."
The AI tool can generate material on subjects ranging from poetry to chemistry to statistics, and that's a growing concern for the university.
The University of Manitoba Students' Union is teaming up with Jordaan's academic integrity office to get the word out that students must do course work themselves.
"There's even been instances where 'ChatGPT' was left in the essay, at the bottom of the page," said UMSU vice-president of advocacy Liam Pittman, who advocates for students facing academic misconduct proceedings.
"The penalties can range anywhere from an F on the assignment all the way to disenrolment," he said. "For international students, the consequences are very severe, because it can impact their visa."
UMSU president Tracy Karuhogo said the students' union also recognizes that AI can be a versatile research tool.
"Our main focus is to make sure students know how to use ChatGPT appropriately," she said, acknowledging she's tried the app herself.
"I used it to find articles, then I read the articles I needed and referenced them in my paper," said Karuhogo.
"That was an appropriate way to use it, because I did not copy or get my information from ChatGPT."
Pittman emphasized that when in doubt, students should ask their instructor if using the tool is OK.
"A lot of professors are putting that in their syllabi," he said. "If it's not in there, talk to them."
'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em'
One assistant professor at the university's nursing college tried out ChatGPT with her students, telling them to go ahead and use it.
"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," Kim Mitchell said with a chuckle. "Let's figure out a way to work with AI because this is a tool, and it's not going away."
She crafted complex project instructions for an undergraduate course that required hands-on work and in-depth analysis. Those are things ChatGPT isn't good at — yet.
"I thought, 'There's no way that Chat GPT could write this assignment.' And I was right," said Mitchell.
"As a human, you have the ability to discriminate between what's good information and what's not," she said. "If you just indiscriminately put in everything that ChatGPT did, it probably would not be very high-quality work."
Mitchell said most of her students who tried ChatGPT reported that while it was effective for generating outlines and ideas, and for formatting and summarizing their work, they weren't likely to use it again.
Nursing students found that ChatGPT's offerings required lengthy revisions, put their original writing at risk of being shared with other users, and lacked "a human element," said Mitchell.
"They really felt that it stole their writing voice, and they didn't like that."
Only getting better
But with artificial intelligence getting better all the time, the university expects to see more students cutting corners with ChatGPT.
First-year English student Mori Tuesday said he worries other students — such as those studying to become doctors — might take advantage of the app.
"There could be cheating in that, and then you'd have doctors not really knowing what they're doing," he said.
That's a concern echoed by Jordaan.
"You went to university for a specific reason — to gain specific skills," the academic integrity expert said.
"If you're not going to put in that work, that has consequences. Maybe not right now, but one day, when you are an engineer having to build a bridge … you won't necessarily know those skills."
He added that students often face tremendous pressure balancing their personal, academic and work lives, creating a "perfect storm" when multiple projects are due at once.
"So they rely on a shortcut to just get this assignment in," said Jordaan, who works with students caught plagiarizing to help them develop time management skills.
UMSU said it can also point students toward resources to help them succeed, such as English courses for international students who aren't confident in their writing and who might be tempted to use AI to help them produce academic texts.
"Start doing these writing workshops in the first year," urged Karuhogo.
"It helps you get comfortable writing," the UMSU president said. "And it helps prevent the stress of being scared you'll be accused of academic misconduct."
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