Panel with AI experts to review appeal of NTU student penalised for academic misconduct

SINGAPORE - A panel with artificial intelligence experts convened by the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will assess the appeal of one of the three university students who were penalised for AI usage in their submitted work.

All three of them were given zero marks for an essay as part of a module on health, disease outbreaks and politics at the School of Social Sciences.

In response to queries, NTU said on June 26 that it had met two of the students in separate face-to-face consultations this week to discuss their cases.

The objective of the consultation for the first student was to assess the grounds for appeal and not to make any conclusions about the specifics of her case, said a spokeswoman.

For the second student, her request for an appeal was rejected, as “the student had admitted to using Gen AI for the essay and had shared how it was used prior to the preliminary inquiry in April”, she added.

The third student told The Straits Times that he did not submit an appeal.

NTU said the first student has formally submitted her appeal to the university, adding that details cannot be provided while this process is ongoing.

This student had first recounted her experience of being questioned if she had used AI for an essay by her instructor, Assistant Professor Sabrina Luk, in a Reddit post on June 19. In the post, she claimed she was accused of using AI for a final essay for a particular module because she had made errors in her citations and used a reference organiser.

A reference organiser is a software tool that helps collect and organise references and citations.

The student, who is in her third year reading public policy and global affairs, said she had provided proof of her writing process but was not met with leniency. This included a time-lapse of her writing recorded by Draftback, a Google Chrome extension that records one’s writing process.

She was told she had committed academic fraud, resulting in a permanent academic warning and a drop in her grade point average. She requested to remain anonymous.

She told ST that during this week’s consultation, a panel consisting of senior academics reviewed her essay paragraph by paragraph and allowed her to explain her writing process, and show how she used the reference organiser.

In a Reddit post on June 26, she said that she would do her best to get grades for the other components of the assignment apart from the citations.

“But if this last attempt fails, then I’ll treat this as a lesson that sometimes things are unfair, but we move forward,” she said.

The second student told ST that she felt “hopeless” at the outcome of her request for an appeal. She said she had used AI only for background research and did not include any generated responses from ChatGPT in her essay. Her ChatGPT history and essay was shown during the proceedings.

She said she was not aware that using ChatGPT for background research was not allowed because of NTU’s AI policy and was not asked to submit any academic integrity form.

University’s stance on using AI

In general, students are allowed to use Gen AI in their assignments, the spokeswoman told ST.

“As part of academic integrity, students are asked to declare any use of AI and how they are being used,” she said. “When using AI, students are ultimately responsible for the content generated. They must ensure factual accuracy and cite all sources properly.”

She added that some instructors may disallow the use of Gen AI for specific pedagogical reasons. In this case, the professor had disallowed AI use for a specific written assignment to assess students’ research skills, their originality and independent thinking.

The professor’s briefing slides to students, which were seen by ST, said: “The use of ChatGPT and other AI tools are not allowed in the development or generation of the essay proposal or the long essay.

“You will receive a zero mark for the assignment if you are caught using ChatGPT and other AI for writing assignments.”

The spokeswoman said the university remains committed to its goal of equipping students with the knowledge and skills to use AI technologies “productively, ethically and critically”.

“If AI is not allowed, the reasons are communicated to students, so they understand the course instructor’s desired learning outcomes.”

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.