Have any of you been following the accusations of cheating at CU Boulder this year? All school year, multiple professors have accused their students of using AI for papers, resulting in the student receiving a failing grade and/or having to go before a tribunal trying to prove their innocence. In extreme cases, half of the class has been accused of cheating and been failed. Some professors refuse to then escalate the case to the tribunal.
is there a link?
It’s been all over Reddit this school year. I follow all of the schools my daughter has applied to, and what is happening at Boulder is not happening to that same extent at her other schools.
If you want a news article about the issue at different schools, here you go:
I find it hard to believe it’s that widespread and they are being failed but not reporting the discipline. In fact, if that were the case it’d be all over the news because students would report they are being failed without a way to defend themselves.
That sounds like a rumor that spreads from person to person with zero basis.
I would pay it zero attention.
Not an accusation/insinuation.
Did you read the article?
The article is about a bunch of colleges and I read fast but the only Boulder connection I saw was a prof they were asking for insight. So maybe it belongs in a different thread. I have seen a couple of students on Reddit complain that they were flagged for AI cheating and not given a chance to explain /prove themselves, but neither were at Boulder.
I’m not interested in if it’s Boulder or not.
I’m interested in the subjects of academic honesty & AI.
Whether it belongs in this thread or somewhere else is someone else’s concern…
I’d point out, tho, like you did, it did reference a Boulder prof.
Yes - but did you see what OP said? I don’t see that in the article. I see a Colorado Prof saying there’s a lot of false positives - talking in general, not about the school - and a KU professor talking about differences from AI detection to fraud detection.
Nothing about what OP is stating, which I find hard to believe for the reasons I stated above.
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As I said, it is all over the Boulder subreddit and has been all school year. Someone wanted a link. I am not posting a link to Reddit. So I posted a general article about the issue at various colleges.
My point is: what I’ve been reading about the level of cheating accusations at Boulder this past year give me pause, and perhaps other parents should look into this as well, if nothing else so they can caution their student against using any grammar tools at all.
i don’t have a dog in that fight.
I heard you - and I’m simply saying it’s not believable.
It would be in a more mainstream media.
That’s my opinion but it’s fine that you don’t agree.
But no way are people getting failed for cheating, denied due process, and that doesn’t make the news or get escalated.
Reddit threads aren’t exactly known for accuracy.
It’s all over the media, everywhere, article after article. AI detection is wreaking havoc in some students’ lives. It seems more egregious at Boulder than at some other schools on our list.
OK - i didn’t see it in what was posted.
I’ve seen articles like you’ve shown - but not specific to Boulder. I know it happens but i’m not believing it happens and students are not given a chance to challenge. That’s what’s not believable. So I’m guessing CU is no different than anywhere else. If half a class is failing, it’d be in the media so I’m not buying it.
Reddit is not a news source.
Anyway, wasn’t Baylor much less expensive for you and your student loved it.
So what if Baylor is less expensive for us? I can’t comment on an issue affecting another college my daughter was accepted to? Shouldn’t parents and their students considering Boulder —or any college—be aware of a potential concern? Do you have a student at Boulder? If not, why does it matter to you? Honestly I am not understanding your logic.
I also never claimed that Reddit was a news source. People have lived experiences. It’s not automatically true because ABC News says something, and it’s not automatically false because it’s on Reddit.
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Both my kids were admitted but we didn’t go there.
It’s fine if you want to share it - but you’ve not shared any info than - they say on Reddit. The articles showed nothing.
It’s fine - you brought it up - and if people want to check into it, they can.
I doubt they’ll find anything for reasons I listed above. All schools have processes for academic fraud charges/accusations.
I asked if “anyone else had been following the accusations of cheating this year.”
The first person immediately asked for a link.
You chimed in saying “I don’t believe it” multiple times, have been trying to discredit things you haven’t even read about, and then questioned my right to ask about it.
So you haven’t been following the accusations of cheating at Boulder this year. Why not just say that?
ETA: this is not a news source either, yet here we all are sharing our experiences.
I don’t read this Reddit religiously, but I check in a couple of times a week (it’s currently high on C26’s list, which is also why I’m looking at this current thread). I haven’t seen any posts about this in this Reddit, and while I haven’t read every post, if it was as ubiquitous as you say I’m sure I would have seen something? I have on another college Reddit (not one mentioned in that article).
Doesn’t seem dissimilar to me than when turnitin was throwing up false positives for plagiarism left and right. The schools need to have a way to deal with it. So yes something to investigate, everywhere.
There’s a fairly big thread from 5 hours ago, for one.
Oh, because it was titled with the prof name I didn’t read it initially (those threads are usually “how hard is this class?” or something like that.) Certainly seems to be an issue with that prof, but also some debate over the students and what they actually used from what I could see of the responses. I would certainly advise my kids to stay away from AI for essays at this stage -know of more than one field where the AI has actually made up examples (even fabricated legal cases!). Had this discussion with someone just the other day.
The OP of that thread does have an appeal in process. Hopefully they will update when a decision is made.
As someone deep in the entire world of this stuff most of this is b.s. and I feel sorry for some of these students and sorry for the professors. I’m doing a lot to train my kids how to use and defend their use of AI properly but we’ll see where it goes. The world is changing and this is the inevitable noise of that change in progress. Sure if you go to ChatGPT and you write a simple prompt and cut and paste it in you’re playing with fire. But so is the professor who uses stupid AI detection stuff that gets tripped up by Grammarly which nearly every kid I know has been using since middle school.
Expect bumps, document your work, document how you used AI, don’t trust things, use proper sourcing, use NotebookLM properly, etc. and you’l be fine. But most of all always know how to write with your own voice and authority because the AI will never do that for you unless you train it yourself 
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