28 AP exams are mandated to go fully or partially online this May, affecting 17 out of 23 AP courses at M-A. This has not only resulted in cheating concerns, but also revamped debates over handwriting and typing preferences.
Teachers are concerned the transition will lead to increased cheating on typed assignments in class, despite College Board citing integrity as the reason behind the switch. “We believe that paper AP testing will continue to be vulnerable to theft and cheating,” the announcement said.
“I was very close to not wanting to even teach AP this year,” AP English Language and Composition teacher David Rosenberg said. “I really never want to be someone who has to monitor my students and be a policeman or a babysitter.” To Rosenberg, the switch to online essay writing forces him to “monitor kids’ writing instead of just helping kids write.” “I don’t know if that work is genuinely theirs,” he said.
“I’ve really had to change how I teach my course, and I honestly think that it’s not serving the teachers or the students,” he added. “I feel like I cannot emphasize much around the homework because of Chat GPT.”
“The downside would be increased chances of cheating, and as teachers, we’ll just have to put more guardrails in places to prevent that,” AP US History teacher Karen Ramroth said. “It really isn’t changing our curriculum at all at this point.”
Despite having reservations about cheating, Ramroth is overall optimistic about the change. “I’m hoping I’ll be able to get feedback to students about their essays more quickly since I won’t have to be deciphering handwriting on the essay portions,” she said. “I also like the idea that students can edit their text as they write without having to cross things out, draw arrows, or rewrite sections by hand.”
One student was also open to typing. “To be honest, I’m in the middle about it because I’m always used to paper, but I think typing is very convenient.” said senior Bo Pahulu, who is taking AP Psychology.
However, Rosenberg feels more strongly about preserving the physical aspect of writing.“I really am not against students learning how to type,” he said. “But in terms of having an only digital relationship with literature, whether reading it and writing it, just makes me uncomfortable.”
“There’s a certain romanticism to holding a paper book,” he said. “I understand it’s a necessary evil to a certain degree, but I don’t think it’s a necessary evil right now.”
