Mark McClaulin is approaching his nursing degree from Murdoch University in Perth, but the incident, which included one mission, landed him in a prolonged battle with the university's administration, “challenging his integrity in every way.”
In April, he was told that the workbook he handed over raised concerns.
Excerpt from an email sent to McClaurin on April 3, 2025:
“Data collected from sources such as Turnitin, along with academic insights from experienced marking teams, led to the presence of submissions. It is considered to be at high risk of academic misconduct. These concerns are related to Potential use of artificial intelligence In your generation of work, plagiarism, and/or conspiracy. ”
A few days later, he was told in an analysis of his work that he showed little editing time, evidence that a chunk of text was cut and pasted into the document, and an unusual format.
McClaulin claims he has not been fooled and evidence that his assignment metadata has been “cut and pasted” because he used grammar software, a university-approved grammar software.
“From the first accusation I was open and honest, but the AI component on Grammarly has been turned off,” he said.
“This tool is widely promoted and encouraged by the universities for students to use to support their research.”
It passes despite the mark cut
The university conducted its own research and concluded that McClaulin had used AI for part of his mission on the balance of probability.
He also noted that he successfully completed nine units of the course and had no records of previous misconduct.
McClaulin decided he would only receive 70% of the marks assigned to his workbook.
Murdoch University says it has not commented on individual cases for privacy reasons. (Supply: Murdoch University))
He said he had enough marks from other assignments to pass through the unit, but even if he reduced marks from the workbook – he was on track to get his degree this year, he had no intention of letting go of the issue.
“I think my overall problem is, up until now, Murdoch can't give me any word, sentence, paragraph, phrase, or AI patterns. [in my assignment]”Mr. McClaulin said.
“I'm not using AI in a way that I believe I used it.
“For years, I've been accused of being a cheat when I've spent my time, effort, money, off work, sitting there studying, away from work.“
In a written statement, Murdoch University said it could not comment on McClaulin's case for privacy reasons, but said all students would need to “complete the Academic Integrity Module, which includes instructions on the proper and inappropriate use of AI.”
Mark McClaulin says he used university-approved grammar checking software. (ABC News: Luke Stevenson))
“If the use of generator AI in assessments is indicated, universities will take an educational approach considered under an established academic integrity process,” the statement read.
“Our top priority is to help students understand appropriate academic practices.
“If concern arises, our process is designed to be fair, transparent and proportional, so that education and involvement are prioritized before punitive measures are considered.”
Ai difficult problem to detect
The AI detection problem is being deployed on campuses around Australia as universities and students tackle the widespread availability of generator AI programs like ChatGPT.
Also, students are increasingly worried about the accusation, and some students choose to perform assignments via checkers before handing over the checker, and not mistakenly accusing the program that checks plagiarism of not doing their original work, like Turnitin.
One student told ABC Radio Perth that she and her peers are taking preemptive action against allegations of misconduct.
“A lot of students start assigning in Google Docs, so whenever something is written, deleted, or changed, and you have evidence that you've written everything yourself,” he said.
She said.
Dale, a recently retired TAFE teacher, said the practice of using AI to complete assignments is widespread.
“We found that students use AI to write assignments, but in reality they had little knowledge of the subject,” he said.
“The machine did the work, [the] Students have no inherent knowledge. ”
McClaulin said his latest appeal for university decisions had failed and he had sought legal advice on where he could go from here.
He said it was not just about clearing his name, but about pointing out the university about the process.
“That's another reason why I really do this… I really believe they're not 100% informed of what they do and how it can have. [an affect] To the people,” he said.
Murdoch University welcomed “appeals and constructive feedback on our management process” and said it was “working on continuous improvement.”
