How lovely to wake up this morning and see an article about postplagiarism in Times Higher Education. Karen Kenny from Exeter University writes about the six tenets and then extends the discussion to assessment.
It seems that the idea of postplagiarism is catching on. Dr. Rahul Kumar and I have launched a postplagiarism online community, where we share blogs, news, articles, and translations of the work into other languages. You can check out all our resources over on our other site.
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Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
Just 26.3% of the European Union’s artificial intelligence (AI) professionals are women, according to a report from LinkedIn.
In my work with of the Women for Ethical AI (W4EAI) UNESCO platform, we had similar findings in our gender outlook study.
There are no easy solutions to this gap, but for those working in this area, some five concrete things you can do to promote gender inclusion (and equity in general) are:
Invite women into leadership roles, strategic planing for artificial intelligence and advanced technology.
Ensure that policies explicitly include women, girls, and other equity-deserving groups.
Invite women (and in particular, early career women and those who are precariously employed) to share and showcase their expertise and knowledge (and compensate them for their contributions).
Create formal sponsorship programs for women and girls who want to develop their knowledge and cp-competencies related to AI, with ongoing opportunities for learning and skill development.
There are a myriad of ethical complexities when it comes to artificial intelligence and gender is only one of them. Acknowledging inequalities and then working to support equity, fairness, and justice will remain ongoing work in the years to come.
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2024). UNESCO Women for Ethical AI: Outlook study on artificial intelligence and gender. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391719
This blog has had over 3.7 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please ‘Like’ it using the button below or share it on social media. Thanks!
Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
The headline reads, “IELTS exam fraud scandal ‘shocks’ Indonesia“, as reported by Vietnam.vn. The article goes on to offer details about large-scale cheating on English-language proficiency testing, saying that, “Faced with the increasing incidence of fraud, many prestigious universities around the world have adjusted their admission policies, especially regarding IELTS requirements.”
Contract cheating and exam proxies (i.e., impersonators) are at the heart of the scandal, with customers each paying about 47,000,000 Vietnamese Dong (which seems to convert to about $1851 USD or $2650 CAD, according to one online currency exchange website).
The article reports that these cheating incidents have caused schools in Singapore, Australia, and the US to raise the minimum test score for entrance to certain programs. (I am puzzled as to why schools think that raising the minimum score for admissions will prevent cheating on standardized texts used as an entrance requirement? My guess is that it might just drive up the price of fraud…)
Two chapters from our edited book, Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education (Eaton, Carmichael, and Pethrick, 2023) are worth mentioning, as the authors of both chapters raised the alarm about the issue of large-scale global cheating on English language proficiency exams.
Angela Clark (York University), in her chapter, “Examining the Problem of Fraudulent English Test Scores: What Can Canadian Higher Education Institutions Learn?”, argues that “relying on a single language proficiency test score to determine an individual’s readiness is problematic, and also problematic is the lack of related academic research and data to help guide admissions decision-making”. She looks at media reports from the UK, US, and Canada, noting that, “Media reports and a lack of data serve to promote distrust of the language testing process and the test scores that institutions receive.”
Cheating on English language proficiency exams is nothing new and nor is it isolated to any one country.
Both of these chapters are thoroughly researched and well written. If you’re interested in the topic of fraud in English language exams, I recommend checking them out. In the meantime, large-scale cheating on standardized tests and the related problem of admissions fraud should shock exactly no one.
References
Clark, A. (2023). Examining the problem of fraudulent English test scores: What can Canadian higher education institutions learn? In S. E. Eaton, J. J. Carmichael, & H. Pethrick (Eds.), Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education (pp. 187-207). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21796-8_9
Sabbaghan, S., & Fazel, I. (2023). None of the above: Integrity concerns of standardized English proficiency tests. In S. E. Eaton, J. J. Carmichael, & H. Pethrick (Eds.), Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education (pp. 169-185). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21796-8_8
This blog has had over 3.7 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please ‘Like’ it using the button below or share it on social media. Thanks!
Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
Generative AI (GenAI) is transforming teaching, learning, and assessment in higher education.
Learn to integrate GenAI effectively while maintaining academic integrity and enhancing student agency.
Dr. Sarah Eaton shares innovative strategies that promote critical thinking and original scholarship. Explore how GenAI reshapes academic practices and discover proactive approaches to leverage its potential.
This session equips educators, administrators, and policymakers to lead purposefully in a dynamic academic landscape.
Speaker bio
Sarah Elaine Eaton is a Professor and research chair at the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary (Canada). She is an award-winning educator, researcher, and leader. She leads transdisciplinary research teams focused on the ethical implications of advanced technology use in educational contexts. Dr. Eaton also holds a concurrent appointment as an Honorary Associate Professor, Deakin University, Australia.
More Details
Date: January 29, 2025
Time: 12:00 – 13:00 Mountain time
This talk is free and open to the public, but there are only 20 seats available to join us in person! We can also accommodate folks online.
This blog has had over 3.7 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!
Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
Here are three things you can do to prioritize human rights and dignity when it comes to policies and procedures to address allegations of academic or research misconduct:
Use a human-rights-by-design approach to developing, revising, and implementing policies by conducting a comprehensive review of existing academic integrity policies. Update policies to explicitly incorporate human rights principles, ensuring they address fair process, privacy, equitable treatment, and respect for human dignity. It is essential to involve individuals from representative groups in this process.
Provide ongoing training, education, and support to faculty, staff, and students about human rights principles and how they apply to misconduct investigations and case management. Create orientation programs that explain expectations for ethical conduct while respecting diverse cultural perspectives. Offer workshops and resources, peer mentoring programs, and support services.
Focus on continuous improvement and quality assurance of ethics and integrity practices by gathering feedback from students, faculty, staff and relevant stakeholders. Regularly review misconduct case management processes and data to ensure equitable treatment across different demographics.
Implementing human rights principles into misconduct investigations and case management helps to create more effective and sustainable learning environments. This approach prioritizes people over punishment, dignity over draconianism, and compassion over callousness.
This blog has had over 3 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!
Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
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