Professor Hui Qi University The California city of San Diego has adopted an old method of dealing with the copying phenomenon in the midst of a pandemic: oral exams.

This method of examination dates back at least to Ancient Greece. It has also been the traditional method of university examinations for hundreds of years and remains one of the options in many European universities today. In the 17th century, written examinations replaced oral examinations in most English-speaking countries.mainly because they were thought to give a more accurate result.

An attempt is now being made to take a step in the opposite direction. “The students were nervous,” Key said. “None of them had ever taken such tests before.” This initiative led to a three-year experiment. With a research grant, seven professors teaching nine different engineering courses use various forms of oral examinations.

This experiment comes at a time when teachers around the world are introducing oral exams to discourage cheating.

Key believes oral exams can help students demystify, think better, and understand material.

Nearly two-thirds of college students admitted to cheating before the pandemic, according to the International Center for Academic Integrity. When the pandemic hit, plagiarism increased, according to Turnitin, a company that sells a plagiarism detection system.

ChatGPTchanged the situation. This spring, Turnitin found that about 4% of the assignments delivered to professors were almost entirely created by artificial intelligence.

The use of artificial intelligence by students threatens the existing model of higher education. In May, ratings agency Moody’s said that AI-related fraud and plagiarism problems posed a credit risk to the sector.