AI Cheating Spurs Return to Traditional Exams; EdTech Opportunity Arises
The return to traditional pen-and-paper exams, often called "Blue Books," in American schools, driven by the rise of AI-facilitated cheating (like using ChatGPT), marks a pivotal moment in education. This shift underscores both challenges and opportunities.
Given this trend, potential business or marketing opportunities include:
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Advanced Secure Assessment Solutions:
- AI-Resistant Digital Exam Platforms: Developing software and platforms that create secure, locked-down digital environments for exams, preventing access to AI tools, web browsers, or other unauthorized applications during assessments.
- Sophisticated AI Detection Software: Tools that can accurately identify AI-generated text, even when heavily paraphrased or mixed with human writing, specifically tailored for educational submissions.
- Modernized Physical Exam Infrastructure: Innovations in physical exam materials, such as "smart" blue books with unique identifiers, counterfeit-resistant paper, or secure, single-purpose writing tablets for in-class essays.
- Enhanced Proctoring Services: AI-assisted or human-led proctoring solutions (both remote and in-person) designed to detect and deter methods of AI-assisted cheating during traditional exams.
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Curriculum and Pedagogical Transformation Services:
- Consulting for AI-Proof Assessment Design: Services for educational institutions to redesign assessment strategies, focusing on tasks that AI cannot easily replicate, such as in-class discussions, oral examinations, real-time problem-solving, project-based learning, and personalized reflective essays.
- Developing Critical Thinking & Process-Oriented Learning: Educational programs and materials that shift focus from rote memorization (easily outsourced to AI) to critical thinking, analytical skills, creativity, and the process of learning itself.
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Specialized Training and Ethical AI Integration Programs:
- Educator Training: Workshops and professional development for teachers on recognizing AI-generated content, designing AI-resistant assignments, and ethically integrating AI as a teaching aid rather than an unchecked student resource.
- Student Education on Academic Integrity & AI Ethics: Programs and resources for students about the ethical use of AI, the importance of original work, and the long-term consequences of academic dishonesty facilitated by AI.
- AI as a Learning Tool, Not a Cheating Tool: Development of frameworks and guides on how students can legitimately use AI for research, brainstorming, or as a personalized tutor for understanding concepts, clearly delineating ethical boundaries.
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"Human-Verified" Skill Development and Assessment Products:
- Platforms for Authenticating Human Effort: Systems or services that verify and showcase student skills developed and demonstrated without AI assistance, potentially through observed practical tasks, viva voce exams, or handwritten submissions under supervision.
- Tools Supporting Non-Screen-Based Learning: Educational products and methodologies that encourage learning and skill development away from digital screens, tapping into the sentiment that some students learn better through traditional methods. This could include interactive workbooks or hands-on project kits.
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Next-Generation Ethical AI Tutors and Learning Assistants:
- AI for Genuine Understanding: Developing AI-powered educational tools that act as Socratic tutors, guiding students through learning processes and helping them understand concepts deeply, rather than just providing answers for assignments. These tools would need safeguards against misuse for cheating.
- AI for Personalized Feedback and Support (for Educators): AI tools that help educators identify learning gaps and provide personalized support to students based on their genuine work and engagement, rather than assessing AI-generated submissions.
Origin Reddit Post
r/futurology
AI Cheating Is So Out of Hand In America’s Schools That the Blue Books Are Coming Back | Pen and paper is back, baby.
Posted by u/chrisdh79•05/31/2025
Top Comments
u/ThankeeSai
What did you write your essays in on tests?
u/YOwololoO
Using it for studying is fine. Using it to write your essay for you is not. What’s hard to understand about that?
u/RagefireHype
Because 90s propaganda lied and said it would be required to be an adult. It’s only used for signatures and it’s not even official cursive most people use to sign their name, they just scribb
u/MA202
Got a BS in 2011, never heard of a blue book
u/KrawhithamNZ
Exams were invented because assessing students individually is resource intensive.
We rank school and students by their exam results and often that meant students were taught how to pass ex
u/ASuarezMascareno
Unless you have to write It down live, in class, with no phone/computer.
We are just about to go back to fully traditional exams. No homework, no multiple choice, just plain old few hours l
u/Drink15
Just write down what chatgpt says. You have to write something anyway. It’s just more work and time, but still less work and time than actual studying.
u/andy_nony_mouse
That was the first thing I thought of with I heard about AI cheating a few years ago. Back to the Blue Books.
u/snotparty
How would that be possible if they were in an exam room with just books and pencils? I think that's the idea. Also essay writing in class, no screens, would be a good idea too. That was st
u/FuturologyBot
The following submission statement was provided by /u/chrisdh79:
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From the article: It’s no secret that AI is wrecking America’s educational system. With easy access to apps like ChatGPT
u/FuturologyBot
The following submission statement was provided by /u/chrisdh79:
---
From the article: It’s no secret that AI is wrecking America’s educational system. With easy access to apps like ChatGPT
u/token-black-dude
In thirty years, the one guy in high school that did their own assignments is gonna be dead, because the doctor who worked on his appendicitis faked his exams with AI
u/ASuarezMascareno
I did all my education (school and university) with the bulk of my graded being traditional written exams. Homework and essays could be at most 10-20% of the grade, and I only had one or two
u/Nixeris
I left college 3 years ago, and all major essays and test essays were still written via blue books and pencils/pens.
u/DR_MantistobogganXL
Sorry when did exams stop being done with pen and paper? Aren’t kids learning to write anymore?
u/Ohboyham
I got kids in school and it seems like a lot of the kids learn the material better away from a screen.
u/andy_nony_mouse
That was the first thing I thought of with I heard about AI cheating a few years ago. Back to the Blue Books.
u/BillyBlaze314
Looks like cursive is back on the menu boys!
And I am adding extra text as my last comment was removed for being too short, despite the fact it is a short phrase. Furthermore, with the cont
u/Feisty-Resource-1274
The problem is at a job if someone doesn't participate in a team activity they can get fired but in many schools there are zero consequences. So many times group activities just end up being
u/FormalFox4217
I work as a teacher, everything is directed towards student interest. Also they can't fail, how does that prepare them for factory work?
u/EatAtGrizzlebees
Yep. I just graduated with a BS last year at 37. Never used AI because my intention was to learn. Who knows what the young kids were doing in the courses I took.
u/Once_Wise
Interestingly multiple choice exams test things other than the knowledge of the subject. I had a history class in college that used multiple choice questions. I just had to skim the book t
u/BillyBlaze314
Looks like cursive is back on the menu boys!
And I am adding extra text as my last comment was removed for being too short, despite the fact it is a short phrase. Furthermore, with the cont
u/Sarcasmaster_666
That's not going to change anything. What stops them from using 'AI' to write for them, and then just copying it from screen to paper, with no comprehension and focus on a netflix show / anim
u/AwildYaners
Yeah. I’ve seen and anecdotally have acquaintances or friend’s siblings in college, right now, at top schools like Berkeley or some Ivy League schools, and they say nearly everyone uses some
u/RiffRandellsBF
Scantrons. Not resource heavy to grade at all. An exam that has 50 multiple-choice answers takes all of 5 seconds to grade via Scantron. Right-Answer is easy, Best-Answer is hard. Add a writt
u/Nixeris
I left college 3 years ago, and all major essays and test essays were still written via blue books and pencils/pens.
u/bullcitytarheel
Oh shit luckily the AI I use to generate my opinions told me that that’s totally fine actually and not to worry
u/arah91
I know a lot of people hate it, but I think there should be more group work too. In school, everyone seemed to dislike it, but once you're in the corporate world, almost everything you do inv
u/bullcitytarheel
In 30 years, the one guy in high school that did their own assignments is gonna be President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho of their very own idiocracy
u/ASuarezMascareno
I did all my education (school and university) with the bulk of my graded being traditional written exams. Homework and essays could be at most 10-20% of the grade, and I only had one or two
u/JimBob-Joe
Oral exams would probably work well too. More presentations. Leading class topics. This could be an opportunity to revolutionize the way we teach.
u/It_Happens_Today
I'm 33 and love cursive. I can write twice as fast and just as legible as print. I never understood the hate.
u/Super_Mario_Luigi
Can't wait to read the typical takes on being accused of wrongdoing. "It's not our fault and here's why"
u/WloveW
Yeah, I don't think you get what the blue books are. The blue book meant it was time to have an exam and you needed to pull a full-ass essay straight out of your brain and write it down on th
u/Ohboyham
I got kids in school and it seems like a lot of the kids learn the material better away from a screen.
u/Super_Mario_Luigi
Can't wait to read the typical takes on being accused of wrongdoing. "It's not our fault and here's why"
u/adubs_1107
As a High School teacher, I’m moving everything back to pencil and paper
u/JCSterlace
The idea that our system is designed to produce factory workers is very attractive but untrue. The expansion of public schooling has very roughly coincided with the rise of factories, but it'
u/__eros__
Yeah they never went away
u/H0vis
As the quality of AI gets better it's going to be tutoring kids directly. And it's going to be cheap and it's going to be very good. It's not about to replace the socialisation aspects of sch
u/frozenandstoned
Our school system is rote learning designed to produce factory workers. Fun fact. it's why we let it to rot over decades as an institution. Now 54% of Americans can't read past a 6th grade le
u/mike_b_nimble
"When a measure becomes the target, it ceases to be a good measure."
u/KrawhithamNZ
Exams were invented because assessing students individually is resource intensive.
We rank school and students by their exam results and often that meant students were taught how to pass ex
u/mike_b_nimble
"When a measure becomes the target, it ceases to be a good measure."
u/frozenandstoned
Our school system is rote learning designed to produce factory workers. Fun fact. it's why we let it to rot over decades as an institution. Now 54% of Americans can't read past a 6th grade le