Colleges rethink online exams as AI makes cheating easier

In short: AI tools are making it easier for students to cheat in online classes, so colleges are changing how they test and grade, but the best evidence does not say online degrees are automatically worthless.

What's going on

Educators report that more students are using large language models, which are AI systems that can write and answer questions in plain text (like a very fast writing assistant). Some students also use “agentic” AI browsers, which are tools that can click around the web and complete tasks for you (like a helper that can navigate websites on your behalf). Together, these tools can make dishonest help easier to scale across many assignments.

A 2024 survey of more than 95,000 students at 20 public research universities found that about two-thirds had used AI for classwork. One-third said they used it regularly. Among students who used AI, 9% said they had used it to cheat.

Schools are also dealing with “humanizer” tools that rewrite AI-made text to sound more like a person. That makes simple AI detectors less useful. Multiple sources also warn that AI detectors can be unreliable and may wrongly flag legitimate writing, including work by non-native English speakers.

What to watch

Colleges are responding by redesigning assessments. More classes are shifting toward in-class work, short and frequent assignments, oral discussions, and grading the steps a student took, not just the final paper. The big question for online degrees may become less about whether a class is online, and more about whether the school can clearly show students mastered the material and followed clear rules for when AI help is allowed and when it counts as cheating.

Source: NYTimes