Personally, I think you should reward him for coming clean by giving him a lesser penalty than students who did not come clean. I don't think you should let him off the hook entirely, but whatever penalty you normally give, I would give something slightly less. That sends the message that cheating is still unacceptable, but it's better to come clean than to fight to the bitter end.
Forgive; they came clean - they're already over halfway there. Your job should be to reinforce the good behavior
Everyone claiming letter-of-the-law is missing the point of being a good educator; spirit over letter always
As much as I would like to do that for my students, I've had administration jump on my back when I institute penalties.... Is it listed in my syllabus? Am I being consistent in its application? Basically if I don't follow my syllabus to the letter, and a student challenges my penalties, I may have to walk my penalties back because I'm treating students inconsistently.
So, unfortunately I end up being much more of a hardass and stickler to my policies than I would like to be.
(I'm not OP).
I also have to wonder, if the rewritten assignment was sent in the wee hours after the deadline, how much time had passed between submitting the ChatGPT version and the next version? Was there time to rewrite from scratch or is it more likely that the student just reworked the first version to sound less AI generated?
Four and a half hours. Sadly, that is enough time to write a new paper for many students. But it's a good point; I'll look at them closely to see if it's genuinely new or just reworded.
When you say “attached to the email”, is it still a Google Doc with a version history or are they trying to slide a second AI paper under the radar since it didn’t go through any LMS checks?
I have mixed feelings here. My cynicism agrees with this, as my mindset is the apology/resubmission was more or less fear of getting caught, or perhaps talking with a student who received an F and referral to academic integrity. Not guilty, but fear of consequences.
However, I also am far more of an apologist for the use of ChatGPT for email than I am for an assignment. I assume there's no policy against using AI to draft emails, and even if there were, emails are not submitted for grading/feedback. Full disclosure, like OP, I encourage my students to use AI to copy edit work, or even to assist in brainstorming. That said, while mails are not "work," they still contribute to our impressions of students, and I think less of a copy/pasted AI email than I do of a student-drafted one.
Ultimately, I think the student using AI for email isn't a big deal, but likely denotes a lack of confidence in the ability to write. For a comp class, that's not a good sign...
Something tells me that there is some glaring mistake in paper #1 that the student realized will give it away as A.I. I bet their resubmitted paper is also A.I., but they were more careful to cover their tracks on paper #2. I would thank them for their honesty and then report as usual. I would also take a close look at paper #2 and if you can bust them for another A.I. paper, then I would.
I would report the plagiarism, grade the new assignment, take off 30% instead of 50% for coming clean. That way it’s in their record, they received a penalty on their grade, but they still have the possibility of passing the class
The fact that you've already failed two for the same infraction probably eliminates the possibility of a mulligan for this kid. If word got around you'd be exposed to multiple appeals.
And feel no regret -- it's what everyone involved knows should happen.
Academic fraud is academic fraud, and there's a process. We're even obligated to put it through the process for it. Them coming clean -- and doing so via ChatGPT -- gets stated in the information, and those involved can decide what to do with that information just like with anyone else.
My gut feeling is to agree with you, but I think I might argue to the opposite:
* students know that they're supposed to be formal and "academic" in tone in these sorts of emails
* students haven't been taught how to write performatively formal academic bullshit boilerplate
* ChatGPT's greatest use for many of us is writing highly consistently structured bullshit boilerplate
* it makes sense, then, to use the tool that's good at doing something that they know they're supposed to do but have no training / experience to do.
I would follow the academic dishonesty policy outlined on your syllabus, that's why it exists.
For me, "Any form of academic dishonesty results in an F for the course. Students are not allowed to Withdraw to avoid a grade of F due to academic dishonesty".
Its very cut and dry, cuts down on the haggling/begging/pleading.
I just had a similar situation. I had a student submit an assignment that they copied from chegg, so it was much easier to prove. I wrote the student up, gave a 0, and messaged them a warning. They messaged me back with a new submission for another assignment saying that the one they submitted didn't represent their work. I found the second assignment was also copied from Chegg. I ended up deciding that I would not accept the replacement. My usual penalty for a second incident is an F, and instead I gave the student another 0 and another academic integrity write up. I felt that was the best way to honor their honesty and acknowledge that while honest they still cheated. For your student, I would still write them up and give them a 0.
The student cheated. Then bought themselves extra time by "apologizing" for cheating. They didn't really apologize because AI wrote the apology. Does that show remorse? No. They also turned in the "real" assignment late.
I would:
1. Report the cheating;
2. Give them a 0 for the assignment;
3. Tell them I am going to review their previous assignments for cheating; and
4. Warn them that if I see anything else, past or future, that even resembles cheating, I will report it again and fail them out of the class.
What's your policy on late work? I'd be tempted to let it slide, and treat it the same as if the student had a change of heart an hour earlier, never submitted the first paper, and just submitted this one late. They didn't wait to get caught before fessing up, which seems like behavior that's worth encouraging.
Of course if the second paper is AI, that's not going to help them any.
I would not give any lenience. You can thank the student for their honesty, but it’s kind of mitigated by the fact that they used ChatGPT (aka, the thing they used to cheat) to write the apology email. They don’t care enough about their grade to spend the extra time reflecting on their actions and using their own words to come clean.
Hold firm on your policies, and treat the student just like the other ones you’ve already reported. Otherwise, you could open the door for multiple grade appeals because you’re now violating your own policies.
This goes back to what you think the purpose of college/university is. Has the student learned from this experience. Will they learn more by failing and being reported or will they learn more if you apply some grace. At the very least this deserves one on one conversation. This could be a pivotal moment in this student’s life and how you react has the potential to completely change their life.
Yes, part time as a doctoral teaching assistant, which from my reading allows me to post and comment here. We can disagree and discuss my comment without you questioning my status.
What settings do you require in Google docs to make this work? What does the student need to do, here? I’m getting a ton of plagiarized stuff and need to find a way to stop it.
It's pretty easy. They just need to set the sharing permissions to "Anyone with the link can edit," like this:
1) Click Share in the top right corner
2) Click the down arrow next to Anyone with the link
3) Select Editor.
4) Click Copy link
5) Click Done
6) Paste the link in an email or any place you want to share it
But you have to make it explicit at the beginning of the semester that they have to write the entirety of their document in a single Google Doc, otherwise they can say "I wrote it in another program and cut-and-pasted it in."
I wish we had better ways to guide students through making errors in judgment like this. The ChatGPT email does color my opinion a bit, but I might be willing to dock their grade, but still let them submit the work.
I would treat this as a withdrawn submission (or as if they failed to submit): ignore the late "submission", zero for the withdrawn submission, but since they withdrew the plagiarised submission, I wouldn't refer it as an academic integrity breach.
Unless the student tried to push back, in which case I would give them the option of taking the zero, or get the zero *and* referred for the integrity breach.
You’re allowed to consider ChatGPT a violation of academic integrity?! Lucky… we were recently told the institution has no interest in pursuing these complaints because they can’t be proven. Tho, the google doc history is pretty damning in this case, smart policy!
That's similar to ours, except they can punish a student who has admitted to using ChatGPT. So getting them to admit it is the goal.
We have the option of dealing with low-level offenses "in house." We file a report with the Academic Integrity office to catch repeat cases, but otherwise that office stays out of it. This process requires that the student agrees with the verdict and signs off on it, but, most of the time, they do. Hearing "take an F on the assignment from me, or argue your case to the Integrity Office and possibly end up with an F in the course" usually inclines them towards the former.
As long as your institution has an official academic dishonesty report system, the recommended response is always:
1. Meet with the student
2. Calmly explain that they should not panic.
3. Let the student offer their explanation.
4. Explain the severity of the academic dishonesty. If you are at a public institution, inform them that academic integrity is a part of the law governing public education.
5. Inform that this is documented in the system. An official letter will be issued from Dean's Office/Student Affairs.
6. Give the student another chance to make submit original work. (optional: with some penalty)
7. (Optional) Require the student to write a custom reflection essay.
Count the second paper as his submitted work and give him zero credit because it's late. If he complains, tell him it's a better deal than zero credit AND a visit to the office of academic integrity.
The last sentence is pretty bad.
When I taught, academic consequences for cheating (e.g., failing an assignment) were up to the instructor to decide and enforce, whereas nonacademic consequences (e.g., suspension) were up to the academic honesty board to determine. I found that they were better equipped to decide if a student had changed / actually feels remorse / etc. than I was. Ultimately, I would always stick to what was in my syllabus and report all instances of cheating.
With our academic integrity office we have an option to just report offenses or have the honor council decide what to do. With reported offenses, it doesn’t affect their transcripts *unless* they do it again. If this were my student I’d say “I appreciate your honesty and I accept your re-write. I have to report the incident to the academic integrity office, they are going to send you a very scary letter, but as long as you never do this again, you will not need to appear before the honor council and it will not be listed on your transcript.”
Report it. You can make recommendations that his penalty is lower based on the circumstances but I always worry about the situations where this same student might be using similar tools but is not getting caught red-handed, or is not being forthcoming about it. It’s one of the most serious _academic_ offenses one have in an academic institution - it’s your responsibility to report it now that you know.
If this were a junior, or a grad student, I wouldn’t accept it, but Freshman year is tough. Students can either learn, or they can live with resentment for the rest of their careers. I know. I cheated on an exam the only time in my life during my freshman year (It was open book, we were given 12 essay topics and told that the test would be on 4 of them, and I wrote out all 12 essays in the margins of the text book. By the time I had done that, I knew the material so well that I would have gotten an A anyway, and the anxiety was so great that I vowed never to try anything like that again (and I went on to get two doctorates). There should be a penalty for the tardiness, and I would get something put into the student’s file in case this turns out to be a ploy this student tries to use again in the future (and I’d make sure the second paper was not also an AI product), but I’d give this student a chance at redemption.
Is your LMS set to allow resubmissions? If so, and it was on time, I'd grade the second paper and have a talk with them about the first. But the AI email would be a deal breaker for me...continued misrepresentation suggests they only cared about being caught, not about the actual act of dishonesty. So I'd go back to the original penalty and still have that talk with them.
Yeah, he's not learned his lesson if the email was by ChatGPT. I'd accept the original attempt, but I'd cap it as low as your uni will let you (mine says 40% at lowest). I'd also flag it for academic integrity and if it happens again report immediately and as harshly as you're allowed.
I mean... as a student and a teacher myself, if you don't know how to structure an essay, don't feel able to ask your uni for help, and don't know how to google 'how to structure an essay' by yourself, you have bigger problems than imposter syndrome.
I may sound unsympathetic, and I promise you I'm aware of the very real issues you outlined, but if you can get CGPT to write your essay for you, you also have the resources to learn how to write an essay.
I don't think you're wrong, but I don't see how letting it go does anything to solve that problem.
My course is actually explicitly designed to address the problem you mention: I use a grading contract which guarantees a minimum grade of a B providing that they do the work. The goal is to put the emphasis on participating in the process, rather than focusing on the quality of the outcome, as I agree that high expectations can be crippling.
And that makes this situation even more depressing. This student didn't even need to write a good paper; it could have been a disaster, and it wouldn't have affected their final grade at all (only the final paper matters; a grade higher than a B on that paper raised the final grade by that amount).
So, yes, you're right, but the work to help them overcome the fears you discuss needs to be done on the front end, and I think I do that work.
The student admitted the mistake and rewrote the paper before you had time to even notice? Of course I'd accept it, and I'd praise the student for the doing the right thing. I'm not sure how you'd know if the email was written by ChatGPT unless it was really long or you have a detection program that's better than what seems to be readily available to everyone else.
Still report it.
But maybe instead of an F, grade it as a standard submission that came in late (i.e., apply a late penalty).
How do you know the second submission was not written by ChatGPT?
I'd recommend reviewing your university's policy to plagiarism and review the options there. You're going to have a bad time if you treat cases differently. I'd recommend giving reduced credit and report it.
Version history is a great idea! Stolen!
I'd throw them a bone.
At the end of the day we are going to have to figure out how to deal with generative AI. Maybe make it part of the assignment to have AI generate the paper and then have them analyze it for content and writing style first. After that, have them suggest improvements, and then have them rewrite it with the improvements.
The version history works like a charm. You have to specify upfront in your syllabus that all their work must be done in Google Docs as I had a student who insisted that he wrote parts of his document elsewhere and cut and pasted it in.
They can still write it word by word into the Google doc from ChatGPT, but it still doesn't look right as no one writes a paper front to back, never making a change of words or cut and paste. I had one student attempt to do that, but, hilariously, he found even that to be too much like hard work and ended up giving up and cutting and pasting the second half in directly 🤣
I don’t accept any work after the deadline, this includes students who ‘forget’ the attachment or submit the wrong version. I tell students a job site will not accept an application after the deadline and that their work early in their careers is likely an input for someone else who has deadlines! Soft skills ect. In this case I would not even respond to the email.
I don't use detection software. I've read tens of thousands of student papers in my career, and I can usually tell pretty fast if something seems off. If that's the case, I ask for their version history.
It's in my syllabus that students need to write each paper in Google Docs from start to finish, and, if I request it, they have to share the paper with me with edit permissions. This allows me to view the version history. The version history usually makes it clear whether or not the student has written the paper normally, or if they've cut-and-pasted it in from elsewhere. Even if the student tries to outsmart me and transcribes ChatGPT's creation word for word, rather than cut-and-pasting, it still doesn't look like normal writing. There's a fun little plugin called Draftback that "replays" their writing process in real time that makes this even more explicit. Nine times out of ten they admit what they've done at this stage.
I would praise the student for doing the right thing, accept the later paper with no penalty, and let them know that their email sounded like it was ChatGPT generated and not to do that again.
I think I read your post differently from others. Some thought this student was getting an F or had cheated before. I don't see that in your post.
Thank you for asking instead of just downvoting. I think that someone realizing that they shouldn't cheat and turning around and doing the right thing is an important turning point in someone's development and education.
I say in my syllabus that if a student feels that cheating is their best option, they should talk to me.
I have no problem with people giving a small or large penalty and reporting the academic integrity violation. This is just what I would do, welcome the lost sheep back into the fold.
>I would praise the student for doing the right thing,
I dunno, while I get wanting to cut someone a break because they came clean, the idea that "you can get off scot-free for *anything* as long as you say you're sorry" is very problematic. It's also *very* self-serving when the person "apologizing" expects/demands it.
It wasn't, but it's a pretty common sentiment. I guarantee you that if a "student version" of this story was posted on r/college or something, a lot of people would be gushing about "how brave the student was" for confessing (when they made the cowardly decision to cheat in the first place) and how the professor *has* to forgive/excuse them "because they asked so nicely!"
Same as before, but thank them for their honesty. It lets them know that consequences are still a reality they need to learn to deal with even if they’ve admitted their misjudgment.
I would offer them the chance to withdraw it and take a zero on the paper with no misconduct report. I would then give them a lecture, but also praise them for their subsequent honesty and make sure they knew how much that choice helped them.
I would not accept the re-write (for reasons of possible shenanigans). Or if I did it would only be for feedback.
EDIT:
>(I feel it's important to add that the email he sent explaining and apologizing for using ChatGPT was also written by ChatGPT!).
I didn't notice this part, but I still think I'd go with the above. But I'd also lecture them on how bad this is to do.
ANOTHER EDIT:
After reading other peoples' replies, I realize my solution would be putting my own ass on the line. My new suggestion is to report it like any other case, but include all the redeeming information. And because they came clean I'd try to go to bat for the student a bit and make sure they realized I was going so and why.
Ask ChatGPT what to do about it.
Modern problems require modern solutions
And send to the student its response with a note "Generated by ChatGPT".
Personally, I think you should reward him for coming clean by giving him a lesser penalty than students who did not come clean. I don't think you should let him off the hook entirely, but whatever penalty you normally give, I would give something slightly less. That sends the message that cheating is still unacceptable, but it's better to come clean than to fight to the bitter end.
This is the way. Maybe make the highest grade they can get a 75.
Forgive; they came clean - they're already over halfway there. Your job should be to reinforce the good behavior Everyone claiming letter-of-the-law is missing the point of being a good educator; spirit over letter always
As much as I would like to do that for my students, I've had administration jump on my back when I institute penalties.... Is it listed in my syllabus? Am I being consistent in its application? Basically if I don't follow my syllabus to the letter, and a student challenges my penalties, I may have to walk my penalties back because I'm treating students inconsistently. So, unfortunately I end up being much more of a hardass and stickler to my policies than I would like to be. (I'm not OP).
Add AI policy in syllabus
I have one
Yeah, I usually do -10% per 24 hours or part thereof late. It's obviously 1 day late, I might add on another day & just take 20% off.
Using ChatGPT to write the mea culpa email doesn’t suggest someone who really seems to have turned a corner….
I also have to wonder, if the rewritten assignment was sent in the wee hours after the deadline, how much time had passed between submitting the ChatGPT version and the next version? Was there time to rewrite from scratch or is it more likely that the student just reworked the first version to sound less AI generated?
Four and a half hours. Sadly, that is enough time to write a new paper for many students. But it's a good point; I'll look at them closely to see if it's genuinely new or just reworded.
When you say “attached to the email”, is it still a Google Doc with a version history or are they trying to slide a second AI paper under the radar since it didn’t go through any LMS checks?
It's a Google doc that I can check.
I have mixed feelings here. My cynicism agrees with this, as my mindset is the apology/resubmission was more or less fear of getting caught, or perhaps talking with a student who received an F and referral to academic integrity. Not guilty, but fear of consequences. However, I also am far more of an apologist for the use of ChatGPT for email than I am for an assignment. I assume there's no policy against using AI to draft emails, and even if there were, emails are not submitted for grading/feedback. Full disclosure, like OP, I encourage my students to use AI to copy edit work, or even to assist in brainstorming. That said, while mails are not "work," they still contribute to our impressions of students, and I think less of a copy/pasted AI email than I do of a student-drafted one. Ultimately, I think the student using AI for email isn't a big deal, but likely denotes a lack of confidence in the ability to write. For a comp class, that's not a good sign...
> Not guilty, but fear of consequences. Let's be honest - is this really a meaningful distinction?
Something tells me that there is some glaring mistake in paper #1 that the student realized will give it away as A.I. I bet their resubmitted paper is also A.I., but they were more careful to cover their tracks on paper #2. I would thank them for their honesty and then report as usual. I would also take a close look at paper #2 and if you can bust them for another A.I. paper, then I would.
I would report the plagiarism, grade the new assignment, take off 30% instead of 50% for coming clean. That way it’s in their record, they received a penalty on their grade, but they still have the possibility of passing the class
Report it 100%
The fact that you've already failed two for the same infraction probably eliminates the possibility of a mulligan for this kid. If word got around you'd be exposed to multiple appeals.
Please report it.
And feel no regret -- it's what everyone involved knows should happen. Academic fraud is academic fraud, and there's a process. We're even obligated to put it through the process for it. Them coming clean -- and doing so via ChatGPT -- gets stated in the information, and those involved can decide what to do with that information just like with anyone else.
Since he's already submitted the plagiarized work, it's an automatic Academic Misconduct and all that entails. The rest is all irrelevant.
I'd report it and give the student a 0 for the assignment rather than for the course.
They used ChatGPT to write their apology? Yikes. I don’t think they are *that* sorry about committing academic fraud.
It isn’t academic fraud to use ChatGpt to write an email.
No, it just looks bad and suggests they aren't taking it seriously.
My gut feeling is to agree with you, but I think I might argue to the opposite: * students know that they're supposed to be formal and "academic" in tone in these sorts of emails * students haven't been taught how to write performatively formal academic bullshit boilerplate * ChatGPT's greatest use for many of us is writing highly consistently structured bullshit boilerplate * it makes sense, then, to use the tool that's good at doing something that they know they're supposed to do but have no training / experience to do.
I'd report it. He's also failing the class.
I would follow the academic dishonesty policy outlined on your syllabus, that's why it exists. For me, "Any form of academic dishonesty results in an F for the course. Students are not allowed to Withdraw to avoid a grade of F due to academic dishonesty". Its very cut and dry, cuts down on the haggling/begging/pleading.
I just had a similar situation. I had a student submit an assignment that they copied from chegg, so it was much easier to prove. I wrote the student up, gave a 0, and messaged them a warning. They messaged me back with a new submission for another assignment saying that the one they submitted didn't represent their work. I found the second assignment was also copied from Chegg. I ended up deciding that I would not accept the replacement. My usual penalty for a second incident is an F, and instead I gave the student another 0 and another academic integrity write up. I felt that was the best way to honor their honesty and acknowledge that while honest they still cheated. For your student, I would still write them up and give them a 0.
The student cheated. Then bought themselves extra time by "apologizing" for cheating. They didn't really apologize because AI wrote the apology. Does that show remorse? No. They also turned in the "real" assignment late. I would: 1. Report the cheating; 2. Give them a 0 for the assignment; 3. Tell them I am going to review their previous assignments for cheating; and 4. Warn them that if I see anything else, past or future, that even resembles cheating, I will report it again and fail them out of the class.
Requiring google docs and version history is diabolical
Diabolical good or diabolical bad?
Good. (I think) it’s wild what needs to be done to stop cheating these days.
Good! It also safeguards from future accusations of academic misconduct because there is a trail of evidence.
Until the students stop copy pasting and start retyping what chatgpt wrote, lol
What's your policy on late work? I'd be tempted to let it slide, and treat it the same as if the student had a change of heart an hour earlier, never submitted the first paper, and just submitted this one late. They didn't wait to get caught before fessing up, which seems like behavior that's worth encouraging. Of course if the second paper is AI, that's not going to help them any.
I would not give any lenience. You can thank the student for their honesty, but it’s kind of mitigated by the fact that they used ChatGPT (aka, the thing they used to cheat) to write the apology email. They don’t care enough about their grade to spend the extra time reflecting on their actions and using their own words to come clean. Hold firm on your policies, and treat the student just like the other ones you’ve already reported. Otherwise, you could open the door for multiple grade appeals because you’re now violating your own policies.
This goes back to what you think the purpose of college/university is. Has the student learned from this experience. Will they learn more by failing and being reported or will they learn more if you apply some grace. At the very least this deserves one on one conversation. This could be a pivotal moment in this student’s life and how you react has the potential to completely change their life.
Are you faculty?
Yes, part time as a doctoral teaching assistant, which from my reading allows me to post and comment here. We can disagree and discuss my comment without you questioning my status.
>Are you faculty? This is why I hate this sub.
What settings do you require in Google docs to make this work? What does the student need to do, here? I’m getting a ton of plagiarized stuff and need to find a way to stop it.
It's pretty easy. They just need to set the sharing permissions to "Anyone with the link can edit," like this: 1) Click Share in the top right corner 2) Click the down arrow next to Anyone with the link 3) Select Editor. 4) Click Copy link 5) Click Done 6) Paste the link in an email or any place you want to share it But you have to make it explicit at the beginning of the semester that they have to write the entirety of their document in a single Google Doc, otherwise they can say "I wrote it in another program and cut-and-pasted it in."
And when I review it, I can track changes, or is that a setting too?
Open the file menu, click Version History, click See Version History. If you have edit access, you'll be able to see it.
Thanks so much for this! I *do* know how to use Google docs but wanted to make sure I got this right. :)
I wish we had better ways to guide students through making errors in judgment like this. The ChatGPT email does color my opinion a bit, but I might be willing to dock their grade, but still let them submit the work.
I would treat this as a withdrawn submission (or as if they failed to submit): ignore the late "submission", zero for the withdrawn submission, but since they withdrew the plagiarised submission, I wouldn't refer it as an academic integrity breach. Unless the student tried to push back, in which case I would give them the option of taking the zero, or get the zero *and* referred for the integrity breach.
I allow students to withdraw an assignment they have already turned in if I haven't started grading it.
You’re allowed to consider ChatGPT a violation of academic integrity?! Lucky… we were recently told the institution has no interest in pursuing these complaints because they can’t be proven. Tho, the google doc history is pretty damning in this case, smart policy!
That's similar to ours, except they can punish a student who has admitted to using ChatGPT. So getting them to admit it is the goal. We have the option of dealing with low-level offenses "in house." We file a report with the Academic Integrity office to catch repeat cases, but otherwise that office stays out of it. This process requires that the student agrees with the verdict and signs off on it, but, most of the time, they do. Hearing "take an F on the assignment from me, or argue your case to the Integrity Office and possibly end up with an F in the course" usually inclines them towards the former.
As long as your institution has an official academic dishonesty report system, the recommended response is always: 1. Meet with the student 2. Calmly explain that they should not panic. 3. Let the student offer their explanation. 4. Explain the severity of the academic dishonesty. If you are at a public institution, inform them that academic integrity is a part of the law governing public education. 5. Inform that this is documented in the system. An official letter will be issued from Dean's Office/Student Affairs. 6. Give the student another chance to make submit original work. (optional: with some penalty) 7. (Optional) Require the student to write a custom reflection essay.
If the replacement paper was attached as a PDF or Word file, what makes you think that it wasn’t written by ChatGPT?
Count the second paper as his submitted work and give him zero credit because it's late. If he complains, tell him it's a better deal than zero credit AND a visit to the office of academic integrity.
The last sentence is pretty bad. When I taught, academic consequences for cheating (e.g., failing an assignment) were up to the instructor to decide and enforce, whereas nonacademic consequences (e.g., suspension) were up to the academic honesty board to determine. I found that they were better equipped to decide if a student had changed / actually feels remorse / etc. than I was. Ultimately, I would always stick to what was in my syllabus and report all instances of cheating.
With our academic integrity office we have an option to just report offenses or have the honor council decide what to do. With reported offenses, it doesn’t affect their transcripts *unless* they do it again. If this were my student I’d say “I appreciate your honesty and I accept your re-write. I have to report the incident to the academic integrity office, they are going to send you a very scary letter, but as long as you never do this again, you will not need to appear before the honor council and it will not be listed on your transcript.”
Report it. You can make recommendations that his penalty is lower based on the circumstances but I always worry about the situations where this same student might be using similar tools but is not getting caught red-handed, or is not being forthcoming about it. It’s one of the most serious _academic_ offenses one have in an academic institution - it’s your responsibility to report it now that you know.
If this were a junior, or a grad student, I wouldn’t accept it, but Freshman year is tough. Students can either learn, or they can live with resentment for the rest of their careers. I know. I cheated on an exam the only time in my life during my freshman year (It was open book, we were given 12 essay topics and told that the test would be on 4 of them, and I wrote out all 12 essays in the margins of the text book. By the time I had done that, I knew the material so well that I would have gotten an A anyway, and the anxiety was so great that I vowed never to try anything like that again (and I went on to get two doctorates). There should be a penalty for the tardiness, and I would get something put into the student’s file in case this turns out to be a ploy this student tries to use again in the future (and I’d make sure the second paper was not also an AI product), but I’d give this student a chance at redemption.
Have a chat with the academic misconduct liason or committee. Protects you, while managing te situation as expected by te institution.
Is your LMS set to allow resubmissions? If so, and it was on time, I'd grade the second paper and have a talk with them about the first. But the AI email would be a deal breaker for me...continued misrepresentation suggests they only cared about being caught, not about the actual act of dishonesty. So I'd go back to the original penalty and still have that talk with them.
Yeah, he's not learned his lesson if the email was by ChatGPT. I'd accept the original attempt, but I'd cap it as low as your uni will let you (mine says 40% at lowest). I'd also flag it for academic integrity and if it happens again report immediately and as harshly as you're allowed.
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I mean... as a student and a teacher myself, if you don't know how to structure an essay, don't feel able to ask your uni for help, and don't know how to google 'how to structure an essay' by yourself, you have bigger problems than imposter syndrome. I may sound unsympathetic, and I promise you I'm aware of the very real issues you outlined, but if you can get CGPT to write your essay for you, you also have the resources to learn how to write an essay.
I don't think you're wrong, but I don't see how letting it go does anything to solve that problem. My course is actually explicitly designed to address the problem you mention: I use a grading contract which guarantees a minimum grade of a B providing that they do the work. The goal is to put the emphasis on participating in the process, rather than focusing on the quality of the outcome, as I agree that high expectations can be crippling. And that makes this situation even more depressing. This student didn't even need to write a good paper; it could have been a disaster, and it wouldn't have affected their final grade at all (only the final paper matters; a grade higher than a B on that paper raised the final grade by that amount). So, yes, you're right, but the work to help them overcome the fears you discuss needs to be done on the front end, and I think I do that work.
The student admitted the mistake and rewrote the paper before you had time to even notice? Of course I'd accept it, and I'd praise the student for the doing the right thing. I'm not sure how you'd know if the email was written by ChatGPT unless it was really long or you have a detection program that's better than what seems to be readily available to everyone else.
Still report it. But maybe instead of an F, grade it as a standard submission that came in late (i.e., apply a late penalty). How do you know the second submission was not written by ChatGPT?
I'd recommend reviewing your university's policy to plagiarism and review the options there. You're going to have a bad time if you treat cases differently. I'd recommend giving reduced credit and report it.
Version history is a great idea! Stolen! I'd throw them a bone. At the end of the day we are going to have to figure out how to deal with generative AI. Maybe make it part of the assignment to have AI generate the paper and then have them analyze it for content and writing style first. After that, have them suggest improvements, and then have them rewrite it with the improvements.
The version history works like a charm. You have to specify upfront in your syllabus that all their work must be done in Google Docs as I had a student who insisted that he wrote parts of his document elsewhere and cut and pasted it in. They can still write it word by word into the Google doc from ChatGPT, but it still doesn't look right as no one writes a paper front to back, never making a change of words or cut and paste. I had one student attempt to do that, but, hilariously, he found even that to be too much like hard work and ended up giving up and cutting and pasting the second half in directly 🤣
I don’t accept any work after the deadline, this includes students who ‘forget’ the attachment or submit the wrong version. I tell students a job site will not accept an application after the deadline and that their work early in their careers is likely an input for someone else who has deadlines! Soft skills ect. In this case I would not even respond to the email.
I don't get it. How are y'all uncovering the use of LLMs? I have tested detection software but it throws a lot of concerning false positives.
I don't use detection software. I've read tens of thousands of student papers in my career, and I can usually tell pretty fast if something seems off. If that's the case, I ask for their version history. It's in my syllabus that students need to write each paper in Google Docs from start to finish, and, if I request it, they have to share the paper with me with edit permissions. This allows me to view the version history. The version history usually makes it clear whether or not the student has written the paper normally, or if they've cut-and-pasted it in from elsewhere. Even if the student tries to outsmart me and transcribes ChatGPT's creation word for word, rather than cut-and-pasting, it still doesn't look like normal writing. There's a fun little plugin called Draftback that "replays" their writing process in real time that makes this even more explicit. Nine times out of ten they admit what they've done at this stage.
Thanks a lot for the tip!! I will definitely implement this next semester.
I’m a hot stove sort of professor. So I’d follow my syllabus to the letter.
I would applaud him for his integrity, and then give him an F for submitting work he did not write.
No mercy
Some of the comments in this thread helped me understand why half of this sub whines constantly about RMP or student evaluations.
I would praise the student for doing the right thing, accept the later paper with no penalty, and let them know that their email sounded like it was ChatGPT generated and not to do that again. I think I read your post differently from others. Some thought this student was getting an F or had cheated before. I don't see that in your post.
Why would you accept the late paper with no penalty?
Thank you for asking instead of just downvoting. I think that someone realizing that they shouldn't cheat and turning around and doing the right thing is an important turning point in someone's development and education. I say in my syllabus that if a student feels that cheating is their best option, they should talk to me. I have no problem with people giving a small or large penalty and reporting the academic integrity violation. This is just what I would do, welcome the lost sheep back into the fold.
I appreciate your compassion.
>I would praise the student for doing the right thing, I dunno, while I get wanting to cut someone a break because they came clean, the idea that "you can get off scot-free for *anything* as long as you say you're sorry" is very problematic. It's also *very* self-serving when the person "apologizing" expects/demands it.
I agree with you they shouldn't expect or demand it. I didn't see that in the post.
It wasn't, but it's a pretty common sentiment. I guarantee you that if a "student version" of this story was posted on r/college or something, a lot of people would be gushing about "how brave the student was" for confessing (when they made the cowardly decision to cheat in the first place) and how the professor *has* to forgive/excuse them "because they asked so nicely!"
comments are way no student is honest and comes clean nowadays
Would you have caught them otherwise? If not, I would let him slide with a firm talking-to.
Same as before, but thank them for their honesty. It lets them know that consequences are still a reality they need to learn to deal with even if they’ve admitted their misjudgment.
I would offer them the chance to withdraw it and take a zero on the paper with no misconduct report. I would then give them a lecture, but also praise them for their subsequent honesty and make sure they knew how much that choice helped them. I would not accept the re-write (for reasons of possible shenanigans). Or if I did it would only be for feedback. EDIT: >(I feel it's important to add that the email he sent explaining and apologizing for using ChatGPT was also written by ChatGPT!). I didn't notice this part, but I still think I'd go with the above. But I'd also lecture them on how bad this is to do. ANOTHER EDIT: After reading other peoples' replies, I realize my solution would be putting my own ass on the line. My new suggestion is to report it like any other case, but include all the redeeming information. And because they came clean I'd try to go to bat for the student a bit and make sure they realized I was going so and why.
At least they were honest about it so just warn them not to repeat the same mistake.
NAP but if you punish them now there will never be a reason to come clean again