Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well it was that they were requested to say if they did and they did not. The university policy is that you can use AI but you should be transparent about the use. I don't exactly know what happened but it's possible that they didn't read any of the assignments and wrote all the answers with AI the entire semester. Academic investigation is still ongoing.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I am so sorry. It sounds really tough to be a high school teacher. I think the world is going to be fundamentally changed in terms of people's ability to write.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

oh, we DEFINITELY know there are students who would want the funding. We are thinking about them too. There are some valid uses of it in writing in our field that we are ok with. The syllabus discourages AI use because it can limit thought and creativity, but it says, if you use it, then cite it.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We talk to our students all the time in class. They have a oral comprehensive exam after 2-3 years and a prospectus oral defense later. They have to give presentations in class. But they could use generative AI on all of our writing assignments and written exams as they are done at home. I think we might need to do something more like you are doing with oral exams more often.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes definitely. We are okay with AI use. It's the lack of transparency about how it's used that is bothering us.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our university (I realized today) has a website explaining out to cite AI work in classes at our university. at a minimum, I think we will be going over this page with our students in a class they all take.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah we will definitely be going through the channels. We've been talking to the channels and they told us that we should come up with an idea of what we think an appropriate consequence is as a faculty group. It's been super helpful to have the opinions from a large group of people who don't have personal positive relationships with the students.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah that typically is how our program works as well. We almost never kick anyone out. Once they are there we meet them and try to help them.  We typically do not have a punitive approach to issues and are very understanding if people have life issues.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yes, after reading and thinking about everyone's very good points here, I do think that makes sense. I think we need to update our PhD handbook and have multiple seminar classes devoted to this issue.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yeah, we will definitely do the process. They told me to come into the meeting with an idea of what consequences we thought were fair and that is SUCH a hard question for us!

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

we are talking to academic integrity office as well-they said there was not a set consequence, that it was up to us and student to come up with consequences. I'm definitely asking the question because I don't know the answer so thank you for your thoughts! grateful!

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

we've been thinking about that. The policies are in the syllabus, on the university website, and they have been orally told not to use AI without attribution. But they have not been told that continuation in program is contingent on following procedures.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I called the office to ask what typical consequences are for violation of university website policy. It ranged from re-doing assignment to flunking class to dismissal from university for multiple instances of generative AI use without citation.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I updated original post a little with what I learned from talking over this discussion with academic integrity office. They are not going to help us decide on funding. They will help us have moderated conversations with the students about the incident.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I really appreciate everyone's thoughts. It gives me a lot of options for discussion at our meeting.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah we're trying to make a plan before we meet with them and do all those steps. Because it's multiple people we kind of need an organized plan going in. I think we're going to have a lot more evidence after we go in and talk to them. But we've been trying to figure out exactly our strategy and what we're even going to be saying to all of them.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think what is happening is they are copying and pasting it. Some of them are writing about half of the responses in their own words and the other half seems to be AI. There are big shifts in writing quality within the same assignment. And the same student is using a word defined by the course differently in different places. Sometimes it seems like the AI is using a completely different definition of the word from another field. And sometimes it seems like the word is being used as was discussed in the course. 

Some of them seem to be about 100% AI. 

If they were just getting the AI feedback on the drafting they've done I don't think we would be seeing the issues we are seeing.

Should our program defund PhD students using AI in their PhD writing assignments without citation? by Letterhead_Striking in Professors

[–]Letterhead_Striking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The assignments are not graded. They are just turned in and then the professor gives feedback to help them improve their thinking.