{"id":1523,"date":"2024-05-30T17:25:17","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T16:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1523"},"modified":"2024-05-30T17:25:17","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T16:25:17","slug":"understanding-academic-integrity-through-reddit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/understanding-academic-integrity-through-reddit\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Academic Integrity Through Reddit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the Joint International Conference on Ethics and Integrity in Academic, held in Gatineau, Canada, in May 2024, I shared some of my thoughts on using Reddit to understand and research academic integrity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Academic integrity related topics are widely discussed on Reddit. Here are just a few examples of post titles, with themes often indicating students who have become caught up in academic misconduct procedures, along with faculty expressing frustrating that students are not following the processes they expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Academic Integrity Dilemmas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One typical Reddit post from 17 May 2024 saw a discussion of a moral dilemma, with the text below summarised using generative AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

A 19-year-old woman faced a moral dilemma when her friend, Sarah, asked her to cover for Sarah’s cheating during exams. Sarah justified her actions by claiming that “everyone does it” and tried to guilt-trip poster into helping her cheat. Poster refused to take the fall for Sarah on a major exam, leading to a strain in their friendship. Sarah accused poster of being judgmental and distanced herself. Poster is now questioning if she made the right decision.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/AITAH\/comments\/1cu1rgj\/aita_for_declining_to_cover_for_my_friends<\/a><\/span> <\/span><\/p><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Using ChatGPT to categorise the 54 responses to the post at the time (there may be more responses now) led to the following summary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Category<\/strong><\/td>Description<\/strong><\/td>Number of Comments<\/strong><\/td>Sample Responses<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Integrity and Academic Honesty<\/td>Comments supporting poster\u2019s decision to uphold integrity and warning about the consequences of cheating<\/td>20<\/td>\u201cYou\u2019re risking your career and your college degree for Sarah. If you get caught, you can be expelled.\u201d<\/td><\/tr>
Friendship and Manipulation<\/td>Comments highlighting Sarah’s manipulative behaviour and that she is not a true friend<\/td>18<\/td>\u201cThis person isn\u2019t your friend, they\u2019re using you to cheat.\u201d<\/td><\/tr>
General Support<\/td>General support for decision without specific reasons<\/td>12<\/td>\u201cYou made the right choice.\u201d<\/td><\/tr>
OP in the Wrong<\/td>Comments suggesting Sarah\u2019s cheating does not affect poster<\/td>1<\/td>\u201cKinda TA, her cheating doesn\u2019t affect you.\u201d<\/td><\/tr>
Mixed or Other<\/td>Mixed opinions or other related points such as a discussion on academic policies<\/td>3<\/td>\u201cHow exactly did she expect you to take the fall for her in a major exam?\u201d<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Views on a student covering for academic misconduct by their friend from a Reddit discussion<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the presentation, I discussed how real life scenarios like these can be extracted from Reddit to engage students in academic integrity discussion<\/strong>. They can also be used as the basis for academic research papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not All Research is Real!<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I shared multiple examples of research studies. This includes published research, as well as quick (and unchecked) analysis that I’d produced quickly using generative AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research papers can be produced quickly now using Reddit to identify current trends, incorporate real world examples, and to collect global views, all in an environment where people may be more honest than when they’re completing a survey relating to academic integrity or academic misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take, for example, this (again ChatGPT aided) thematic analysis of current views on AI detection in education<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theme Name<\/strong><\/td>Description<\/strong><\/td>Top Keywords<\/strong><\/td>Average Sentiment<\/strong><\/td>Number of Posts<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
AI Detection Tools and Patterns<\/td>Focuses on AI tools and patterns in writing, with mentions of Turnitin and detection.<\/td>ai, written, text, generated, tool, say, patterns, turnitin, detection, writing<\/td>Positive<\/td>15<\/td><\/tr>
Adoption and Improvement<\/td>Discusses the adoption of AI by cheaters, researchers’ involvement, and potential improvements in technology.<\/td>think, cheaters, adopt, account, taking, majority, technology, researchers, eventually, improve<\/td>Mixed<\/td>8<\/td><\/tr>
AI Detectors and Student Software<\/td>Centers on AI detectors, student software, and ChatGPT, highlighting efforts and beliefs around these tools.<\/td>ve, trying, detector, software, students, work, ai, believes, tested, chatgpt<\/td>Mixed<\/td>12<\/td><\/tr>
Academic Papers and AI Usage<\/td>Involves the use of AI in academic papers, mentioning programs, universities, and personal experiences.<\/td>papers, ai, use, friend, program, person, colleges, comes, university, taken<\/td>Mixed<\/td>10<\/td><\/tr>
Solutions and Ethical Concerns<\/td>Concerns AI solutions for cheating, trust issues, and student affairs, indicating administrative and personal viewpoints.<\/td>student, ai, solution, cheating, don, trust, ve, affairs, talked, substantial<\/td>Negative<\/td>7<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Thematic analysis of views on AI detection in education based on Reddit posts<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, care does need to be taken to ensure that research studies are real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another example, I instructed a system using an alternative LLM to produce fake Reddit research data, process that data for a research paper, then produce the final abstract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There can be some truth to text generated by an LLM, but I am not convinced that professors should be thought of as “adversaries exploiting students for financial gain”. As useful as Reddit can be, the accuracy of generated research does need to be considered with care<\/strong>, particularly where conspiracy theories are involved!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reddit is a useful service for researchers and practitioners interested in finding out more about academic integrity. In this blog post, I share some of the ideas I discussed in a recent conference presentation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[325],"tags":[34,450,503,7],"class_list":["post-1523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-integrity","tag-academic-integrity","tag-canada","tag-reddit","tag-research"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Thomas Lancaster","author_link":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/author\/thomas-lancaster\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Reddit is a useful service for researchers and practitioners interested in finding out more about academic integrity. In this blog post, I share some of the ideas I discussed in a recent conference presentation.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1523"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1530,"href":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions\/1530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomaslancaster.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}