Professor Chad Hewitt: Lincoln University Provost on the university's AI crackdown

More than a hundred students at Lincoln University are being re-tested after suspicions they used AI to cheat. 

An entire post-graduate finance class is suspected of wrongdoing, with a threat of disciplinary action if they can't individually explain their workings in an in-person presentation involving coding and answering questions.

The university's Provost, Professor Chad Hewitt, explained there are some cases where they allow the use of AI - but in this case, students were expected to use their own brain. 

"The course has just identified a high number of suspected cases - as a consequence, the easiest thing to do is to bring the students in and ask them questions."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Together do for c Allen, an entire class of Lincoln
University students are being retested because it has suspected that
some of them use AI to cheat. More than one
hundred students are now going to have to orally explain
the code that they wrote for their exam to the
professor to ensure that they understand their work. Chad Hewitt
is the provist professor at Lincoln University in christ Church

(00:21):
and with us now high Chad, Hello, out of the
one hundred, how many students are suspected of using AI?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm not sure about that. The academic canvolve do it.
The course has just identified a high number of suspected cases.
As a consequence, the easiest thing to do is to
bring the students in and to ask them questions.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Is it fair to make the whole class reset it
rather than just the ones you guys suspect?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, I think the challenge is to get a normative
understanding of the understanding of the assignment, the mechanisms by
which the students wrote the code. I think it's not
an onerous task to ask the students questions.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Okay, should this not have been how you tested them
in the first place? With oral exams.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
No, in this instance, for fintech, they're very interested in
the student's ability to write code. We won't know how
the students undertake the work, so usually you would do that.
The students were very clearly identified that the desire was
to understand their work and how they wrote the code,

(01:36):
with the expectation that some students would make mistakes and
therefore you learn through those mistakes. In this case, there
were a very large number of students that indicated a
high level of proficiency, which is unexpected.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
So okay, let me just try to understand what you
just said. So if it was the case that only
a few students had cheated, you'd let its life. But
because lots of them cheated, you're not going to let
it slide.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
No, we would not let it slide. The challenge, of course,
is finding out and being able to detect the use
of generative artificial intelligence.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, I know, but Chad, come on, I mean, the
thing is is, if kids are using computers, every single
one of them has the option at least of cheating.
So should we not, as universities, be moving to using
oral exams more. I mean, sure, get them to write
the code, but then make the oral exam part of
it in order to get around the AI.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, that may be a mechanism that we employ in
the future, but of course this is a course of
one hundred and twenty students, and you do try and
identify things that will allow you to measure the performance
of the course through simple terms. Obviously, in this case,
resetting all of the students is an unexpected change of events,

(02:54):
but it's better than actually turning them into the productor
and having an investigation occur.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
So the problem is basically that when you have this
many students, it's just too hard to go through the
whole kerfuffle of oral exams. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
No, the oral exams will give you a lesson in
terms of some material, but it's not actually what we're
trying to test. We want to know how the students
think and code. So having them actually do and perform
the task is critical in terms of no.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Chaed I think you misunderstand me. I'm not saying that
you replace one with the other. I just think in
the age of AI, we're going to have do, aren't we.
With everything moved towards getting the kids right in front
of you, explaining that they understand it whatever the subject.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Possibly. I think there are instances where the assessments can
be focused where we allow AI use and then we
expect the students to criticize it. There are other instances
where we allow the AI use but for it to
be clearly articulated and declared. In this case, the students
were expected to use their own brand.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Okay, Chad, thanks very much, appreciate it, Chad Hewitt, who's
the provost professor at Lincoln University.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
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