The Academic Integrity Technological Arms Race and its Impact on Learning, Teaching, and Assessment

Abstract

This essay discusses the technological arms race that has developed in response to academic cheating. The author highlights three technological advances that impact academic integrity, from oldest to newest: a) text-matching software, b) online exam proctoring software, and c) artificial intelligence and Large Language Models (LLMs). This essay argues that there is no “silver bullet” to preventing or investigating academic misconduct and that our ethical obligations for learning, teaching, and assessment must include a human focus to promote student success.

Keywords

• academic integrity
• academic misconduct
• technology
• text-matching software
• artificial intelligence
• online proctoring