Universities in Somalia strive to spot AI-ese in student essays

[Deeq A.]

Sometimes AI language models hallucinate and add inaccurate information in the essay or re-arrange sentences in a way that affects the flow of the essay or the facts presented.

Mogadishu (PP Education) — Artificial Intelligence presents significant challenges for higher education institutions globally. A London-based private school had to modify its essay-based assessments due to the prevalent use of ChatGPT by students. The Dean of Trinity Business School in Dublin said that 99.9 per cent of his students “use chatbots” to write essays.

Many universities are racing  to find a way to spot AI-se (AI-generated language in student essays), as current plagiarism detection systems struggle to detect essays produced with the help of ChatGPT, Google Gemini or Perplexity.AI.

Artificial Intelligence language models used by students to write or refine their essays contain “tell-tale signs” that lecturers and professors can spot. Reduced word count bothers students highly dependent on AI to “write” essays. ChatGPT reduces the word count of a student’s original essay by 15-20 % if a student uses a “rewrite” prompt. Rephrasing benefits of ChatGPT or Google Gemini do not compensate for a reduced word count. Lecturers and professors pay attention to the conclusion of an essay. A shorter word count and trite conclusion adversely affect essay marks.

Sometimes AI language models hallucinate and add inaccurate information in the essay or re-arrange sentences in a way that affects the flow of the essay or the facts presented. One solution suggested by a writing coach a mini-essay exercises written by students in the class several times a month. This type of assessment will provide students with an opportunity to summarise the topic of the lecture or tutorial/supervision and wean them off reliance on prompt-based essays that could soon be treated as plagiarism.

A sound grasp of the material covered in the assigned reading list remains the reliable path to writing essays used by many universities as a part of student assessment. 

“Higher education institutions in Somalia find themselves unprepared for the prevalent use of ChatGPT and Google Gemini for essays written by students. Universities have yet to fully acknowledge the challenge posed by Artificial Intelligence in restructuring how we assess students’ essays and written assignments” a lecturer in Mogadishu said. 

© Puntland Post, 2024

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