The Covid-19 pandemic is coming to an end around the world and now is the time to analyze its impact on all institutions of society one of the most interesting to study in our opinion is education. A large number of researchers note that during the quarantine restrictions and online learning, the process of incorrect borrowing and violation of the principles of academic integrity has increased significantly. Also at the end of 2022, neural networks based on artificial intelligence received wide publicity and application, which also raises many questions in the field of maintaining academic integrity.
We would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations on maintaining the principles of academic integrity in the student community in 2023.
During the pandemics, on-line exams were sometimes used by some students as an opportunity to cheat. They used different strategies, like whatsapp-groups to help each other answer the questions via chat and sharing screenshots during the exams. Also, they can eventually search in internet for answers by opening new windows. Another challenge in massive courses is to be sure of the identity of the person who is actually doing the exam. As Professors we had to use a lot of strategies trying to avoid that, but these strategies are limited and time-consuming. Probably the most secure way of taking exams in a virtual manner is to examin individual students orally, but this is not an option in massive courses with hundreds of students. We observed that due to the lock-downs in the pandemics, whith prevented students to go the universities, practical knowledege related to laboratory experiences was severely impaired. We are still dealing with the consequences of that, with mid-career still students lacking basic practical abilities to manipulate laboratory equipement.
online learning has become the new normal, but one has to complement teaching and learning by other forms of expression, where face to face intervention is an imperative necessity.
We have gone back to the pre-pandemic way, no new normal for on-line learning in our career, which is a lot based on laboratory and practical knowledge.
I work with children with autism, and during the Covid-19 period we were working remotely and this had a good effect on some children in learning through the parents and the family, but it had a negative impact on others as some families do not work on training the children This training is given to both the teacher and staff. But the institution was very keen to provide the service in the best way and to the fullest and without stopping.
From my point of view, I believe that in the event of exceptional circumstances such as these, our solutions must be alternative, and the constant search for alternatives must be non-stop.But I always like to work face to face