Deputy Principal
Mr Simon Vaughan, Deputy Principal
Assessment Integrity
As we enter the heavy assessment period of the later part of Term 2, I thought it would be a good time to re-visit academic integrity. Academic integrity means acting honestly, morally and ethically when completing an assessment piece. Usually this piece is a seen/take home assessment that relies on some form of research and builds skills such as time management, collaboration, referencing and drafting. It is imperative that students are authentic in the work they produce and submit to their teacher. Academic integrity is a critical component to being a successful student.
Recognising the importance of ethical scholarship and academic integrity enhances students’ opportunities for life long learning, certification, employment and university entry. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has meant academic integrity is becoming far more important. Understanding what AI technology is, its strengths and limitations is important to help ensure students have the 21st Century skills needed to become discerning global citizens.
Generative AI can generate new content such as text, images, audio and video that resembles what humans produce. There are hundreds of generative AI platforms available freely on the internet with ChatGPT and Microsoft Co-pilot among the most popular. In some situations AI can be used to save time and increase efficiency, however at no time should a student use a generative AI platform and present this work as their own. If students do this, they put themselves at risk of severe academic misconduct ramifications that can impact a final mark/grade and QCE/ATAR points. There are also limitations to the use of AI.
The information that is drawn together by these platforms can be incorrect, incomplete, biased or unoriginal. Responses by AI can also not meet the requirements of tasks set to students. This is often the first give away to teachers that a student is trying to pass off the AI generated work as their own. Teachers can also identify responses that have been generated when a student misses a draft date (or has shown limited work up until this date) and then presents a full and complete draft. It is the responsibility of a student to show authenticity in their work, if students use AI to do their assessment, authenticity doesn’t occur. If AI is used students don’t know what is meant in the draft, why some writing is there or cannot make sense of what is written.
It is extremely important that students can authenticate their own work so that judgements can be determined on what is produced by them. I have attached a fact sheet from the QCAA for students and parents for future reference.
Regards,
Simon Vaughan | Deputy Principal
References
QCAA (2024) Developing artificial intelligence capabilities
Commonwealth of Australia (2023) Australian Framework for Generative Artificial Intelligence in Schools
Press the link below to download the fact sheet: