ND daughter wrongly accused of using AI

[EmeraldDreams73]

Hi, dd21 is ND and in her 3rd year of uni. She's been accused of using AI to write her most recent assignment. She's not very tech-savvy at all and is absolutely adamant she hasn't used it and wouldn't know how. I believe her, she never does anything against the rules and she can't lie, there is no way she's capable of just brazening it out, she would 100% crack if she'd done it. I've read the submission and I'm no expert, but it just sounds to me like her, but trying to sound good.

She's had a meeting with the module lead, took her handwritten notes and the synopsis she'd written when requested earlier in the process and talked about it. Also highlighted words in the finished submission that she remembered finding through googling "better word for...".

She knows the content inside out, but always uses Word instead of Google docs for drafts - she once lost a big chunk of work at A level when she accidentally highlighted the wrong bit on Google docs by mistake and refused to use it from then on. She saves and renames files, but deletes old ones once she's got a final version - she's anxious about submitting the wrong one. She took her (v old) laptop in to the meeting and they obvs couldn't see digital revisions (she didn't know you had to turn on the Word tracking thing on that version, I think they showed her how so that's good going forward).

From what I can gather the meeting was inconclusive bc the lecturer must have seen she was being truthful, but still felt it was too different from previous papers (hadn't used grammarly etc, they asked - again, she wouldn't lie). She's been told that their head of xyz needs to review it and it's 50/50 what will happen next. Then heard nothing more for 24 hours which I'm sure is normal as they're all busy.

She's beside herself with worry. She has a processing disorder which means she takes forever to get things firmly in her mind, but then is fine. She's always had extra time for assessments/exams and does at uni too.

She can't remember what she said in the meeting and is terrified that they'll "think she's stupid" and kick her out. Even making her rewrite it would set her back hugely regarding time for current assessments, and the whole thing has just trashed her confidence. She was really proud of that one as she'd spent even longer than usual "going over every sentence and finding better words to use and I put loads of commas in".

I've told her that if they ask for another meeting, to say that she'd like me with her. I really want to ensure they know the kind of person she is, as well as the kind of learner, and the damage this is doing. She's already stressed about workload, but was pleased with how she was managing.

Anyone had experience of this kind of thing? What was the outcome? Her focus has always been to keep saving things to avoid losing work but (stupidly, I suppose) it's never occurred to her or me that she'd need to prove she's not cheating.

Glad it’s been resolved so quickly 💐

All's well that ends well 😀

I fully understand your concerns, as my own daughter is dyslexic and was promised all sorts of considerations that never materialised. I also see the other side, however, which is that staff are ridiculously overstretched, often untrained in SEND, and are bound by central policies whether they like them or not. Also, using AI in essays is a real problem without a real solution as yet.

I'm pleased it is sorted, and the chances are that now that this has happened it is less likely to happen again for your daughter, particularly if the teaching team is relatively small and word will get around.

Have her save older versions of documents as she writes them. At the end of first writing session do a “save as” and save the word document as say
historypaperv1, then after the second session, hit save as and save it as historypaperv2….and so on. Then you only submit the last version.

I’m really pleased for you and your daughter, OP. Such a relief!

It’s been interesting reading about the experiences of ND people with this sort of thing. I am neurodivergent and years ago had to answer some questions as an at home assessment following a course at work. The course was delivered by an external company. I passed, but there was a note (can’t remember exactly what it said) but basically saying that I should put things in my own words and not copy directly. That would be fair, except everything was in my own words.

AI is such a challenge for unis.

They are going to have to find a way around it as there will be people getting a degree and having no clue about the content.

I’m wondering if they’ll be more exam heavy.

I have just done a masters and the uni was very honest about AI.
They said you can use it but you must write a statement at the end of every piece of work ti say you’ve used it.

Its not the using it that is the issue, it’s the not mentioning it that would have been an issue for us.
Many of my classmates used it for the whole thing.

Your poor DD. There is nothing worse than being accused of something that you haven’t done.
But it doesn’t matter. She needs to know that it’s nothing personal and they have to check if multiple pieces of work seem too AI.
They do not think she’s a cheat or stupid or anything.

Glad there was a swift resolution. Hopefully this won’t have knocked her confidence too much but also given her the knowledge that student services are there to help her if she gets really stuck and that it’s ok to ask for help.

I work in a university and they use detection software to flag work with high similarity to other work or likely use of AI. I.cant talk for other unis but when an allegation comes in it is always checked first whether the student is known to learner support for any additional needs so perhaps there is a link. I am aware that things like grammarly can be partly responsible for AI "offences" which is tricky as it is a package that's often supplied to dyslexic students for example.
Please reassure.your daughter she won't be kicked out! Her uni should have published regulations that cover assessments, appeals and misconduct etc and this will detail how any allegations are dealt with. I've never heard of a first "offence" leading to exclusion (nor any AI offences). The process would usually be perhaps a warning and given some additional educational info on AI. Subsequent offences are at risk of being deemed an offence and repeats of that would be dealt with seriously.
Many students find Microsoft 365.useful as you can revisit previous versions of a document which can be good if trying to evidence the evolution of a piece of work.