Canadian universities grapple with evaluating students amid AI
cheating fears
Kevin Maimann
| CBC News | Posted: June 8, 2025 8:00 AM | Last Updated: 3
hours ago
Some professors are switching to written or oral exams to get
around potential cheating
Image | AI Regulation State Lobbying
Caption: OpenAI's ChatGPT and other generative AI apps have
made cheating on essays and exams easier for university
students. Now, schools are re-assessing how they evaluate
students. (Richard Drew/The Associated Press)
(BUTTON) Load Image
Open Image in New Tab
Canada's post-secondary institutions are looking for new ways
to assess students as they respond to fears about AI being used
to cheat on exams.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, most university exams were moved
online. Then came generative AI tools like ChatGPT, capable of
producing essays and answering complex questions in seconds.
In the U.S., reports of rampant AI cheating led to an explosion
in sales of "blue books" used for old-fashioned pen-and-paper
exams this school year.
In Canada, some professors are making a similar move amid
widespread reports of AI cheating, while others are testing out
oral exams or finding ways to incorporate AI. Six in 10
Canadian students said they use generative AI for their
schoolwork, according to an October 2024 study from KPMG in
Canada.
"We are definitely in a moment of transition with a lot of our
assessments," said Karsten Mundel, co-chair of the University
of Alberta's AI Steering Committee.
Image | karsten
Caption: Karsten Mundel, co-chair of the University of
Alberta's AI Steering Committee, says the school is seeing an
increase in handwritten exams. (Karsten Mundel)
(BUTTON) Load Image
Open Image in New Tab
Don't boil AI down to cheating tool: prof
Mundel speaks with his students about his expectations around
AI. If they use it for brainstorming, he asks them to explain
their process and the prompts they used so he can see how they
led to the final product.
He takes an optimistic view of this new challenge, saying AI
has reinvigorated conversations about what academic integrity
means in the current day.
"I get worried when AI in any educational context gets boiled
down to this tool of cheating," he said.
"I think it's an exciting time right now because of the
transformations that it will bring, and to really help us get
at the core of what skills we're trying to teach."
Image | katie
Caption: Katie Tamsett, vice-president academic of the U of A's
student union, says while she recognizes some students do use
AI to cheat, those concerns have to be balanced with the fact
that there's no escaping AI in the real world. (Katie Tamsett)
(BUTTON) Load Image
Open Image in New Tab
At his school, Mundel says, there's an increase in handwritten
exams, as well as new approaches that incorporate oral exams
and assignments that use AI and then have students reflect on
their AI use.
He says going back to pen and paper isn't necessarily the best
solution, and acknowledges some students have complained about
the change.
"We don't have the skills anymore — universally, at least — to
hand-write long-form things. And so that's a learning curve for
our students, and for the instructors who have to read."
Many post-secondary students today have grown up working
primarily on electronic devices and don't have as much
experience with writing by hand in university. For example in
Ontario, learning cursive in elementary school was made
optional in 2006, though the provincial government made it
mandatory again in recent years.
Katie Tamsett, vice-president, academic, of the U of A's
student union, says concerns of cheating using AI have to be
balanced with the fact that the technology is being used in the
real world.
"As students, we're seeing that in the workforce, AI is being
used. And so when we're doing our courses in university, we
want to be seeing that AI is being incorporated as a tool."
Tamsett says the student union is in ongoing conversations with
the university about how to develop best practices around AI.
Student says schools can be 'overly reactionary'
University of Toronto Students' Union president Melani Vevecka
says her experience with pen-and-paper exams has been largely
positive, but says they can be a barrier for students with
anxiety or learning disabilities.
"Part of the challenge to accommodate everybody is figuring out
what kind of assessments will hold value in a world where
students can probably generate a decent essay within a few
minutes," she said.
* AI cheating runs wild on campus
* Western University students continue to cheat but few
getting caught using AI to do it
Vevecka understands the pitfalls of relying on AI, and says she
knows some students have used it to cheat.
But she also says it's been helpful in her studies, like, for
example, generating practice questions ahead of a final exam.
She feels universities' responses to it have in some cases been
"overly reactionary."
What Vevecka would like to see is more of a focus on clarity
and education around AI, "rather than vague restrictions or
punitive suspicion, which is kind of something that most
academics are trying to do."
"I think that universities should be creating academic cultures
where students are empowered to think critically about the
tools that they use, and where trust is preserved through
transparency and not just surveillance."
WATCH | Canadian universities grapple with AI:
Media Video | The National : Universities grapple with making
AI a teaching vs. cheating tool
Caption: A teaching tool or a cheating device? Universities and
colleges are trying to figure out what role artificial
intelligence has in the classroom.
Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require
significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story
pages.
Jennifer Figner, provost and vice-president, academic, at the
British Columbia Institute of Technology, says the move to
in-person exams is a trend, but one she views as being
"fear-based" — and a route her school is encouraging professors
not to take.
"What really we should be doing is challenging ourselves to
figure out, how do you incorporate AI into testing or into
assessment, rather than trying to work around it by going back
to pencils and paper and stuff that we did in 1970?" she said.
On the other hand, Figner says, the pandemic coinciding with
generative AI created an environment where cheating became so
easy that not doing it could put students at a disadvantage.
Image | figner
Caption: Jennifer Figner, Provost and Vice President, Academic
at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, says the move
to in-person exams is a trend, but one she views as a
"fear-based" response. (BCIT)
(BUTTON) Load Image
Open Image in New Tab
Software that detects AI cheating is imperfect, so she also
worries about students being wrongfully penalized.
And oral exams can be "far more labour-intensive and
time-consuming" than having all students take an exam at once.
Figner says AI is ultimately going to force the entire
education sector to "totally revamp" the way students are
assessed and evaluated.
Existential questions for universities
Christina Hendricks, academic director at the University of
British Columbia's Centre for Teaching, Learning and
Technology, does handwritten exams for finals in her philosophy
classes.
But some UBC professors are sticking to computers, doing
in-class exams with supervision to deter cheating. Some are
done in a lab where the only thing students can access is the
exam, and the rest of the computer is locked.
In some disciplines, she's heard of instructors assigning
infographics, slides or videos to get around AI — but now all
those things are also easily done with AI tools.
* Former Brandon University instructor alleges more than half
his students used AI to cheat
* Are students taking artificial intelligence too far?
Accusations of plagiarism are up at MUN
Her centre helps instructors take small steps to change their
assessment setups over time.
In the long term, Hendricks agrees that universities will have
to completely overhaul their assessment strategies.
"I think that there's going to be these reflective, existential
questions for some faculty," she said.
"What are we teaching? What do students need to know in their
future lives, as people in an AI world and for their careers,
and how do we adjust our activities and assessments to match
that?"
More Stories Like This
The related links below are generated automatically based on
the story you’ve just read.
Loading...
CBC Lite is a low-bandwidth website. To see what's new, check
out our release notes. For high quality images, media,
comments, and other additional features visit the full version
of this story.
We and select advertising partners use trackers to collect some
of your data in order to enhance your experience and to deliver
personalized content and advertising. If you are not
comfortable with the use of this information, please review
your device and browser privacy settings before continuing your
visit. Learn more about Online Tracking and Privacy Choices.
* Corrections and Clarifications
* Terms of Use
* Reuse & Permission
* Privacy
* Accessibility
* Contact a Newsroom
* Submit Feedback
* Lite Help Centre
* Jobs
* RSS
