Group project plagiarism is a different beast than individual essay plagiarism
caught something this week that doesnt fit neatly into any of the usual ai cheating conversations. group project, four students, one section clearly ai generated based on tone shift alone, but none of the four would say who actually wrote that section. everyone points at everyone else. with individual essays at least you know who to talk to. group work adds a whole layer of diffusion of responsibility that makes the conversation so much messier. no policy is a policy, and right now my school doesnt have anything specific for group ai use versus individual ai use. anyone have a working policy for group assignments specifically, or are we all just handling this case by case.
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@Blake Deschenes thats a smart addition, going to propose something similar for my department this week honestly.
i'm not sure contribution logs solve it entirely, a group could just as easily fabricate the logs collectively the same way they closed ranks on who wrote the section.
this. 100% this concern from ethan is valid but the logs still shift the burden of proof in a useful way. if four students all sign off on a fabricated log and it later comes out that one section was ai generated, thats now a collective integrity violation rather than an unsolvable mystery. it doesnt prevent the lie but it makes the lie riskier for the group to maintain, which changes the incentive structure even if it isnt airtight.
simplest fix honestly is grading group projects on individual components submitted separately alongside the shared final product. more grading work but it removes most of the ambiguity up front.
my department requires individual contribution logs for every group project now specifically because of this exact problem, each student notes what section they drafted and a brief description of their process. doesnt catch everything but it removes the everyone points at everyone else defense.