E-school budgets $200K a year to combat cheats in AI age

Manitoba’s largest online high school is budgeting $200,000 annually to proctor tests — $12 per student assessment — to discourage cheating.

InformNet registers more than 3,000 students annually in Grade 9 to 12 independent-study courses.

Combining fall, winter and summer intakes, enrolment has more than doubled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Academic integrity issues have also surged, so much so that InformNet hired a technology company to start monitoring test-takers in November, principal Tom Tarrant told the Free Press.

“We proctor every test. It’s really levelled the playing field again,” said Tarrant, who’s been at the helm of the e-school for the last 10 years.

He said that ChatGPT, along with other artificial intelligence chatbots and online resources, have tempted some students to cut corners in recent years.

InformNet, based out of Jameswood Alternative School in Winipeg, is operated jointly by the St. James-Assiniboia and Pembina Trails school divisions.

The administrative team has allocated $150,000 throughout the school year and $50,000 for summer school, which runs until July 30, for Integrity Advocate services.

Tarrant said they chose the firm founded in St. Albert, Alta., because it’s Canadian-owned and offers “passive” proctoring.

Integrity Advocate does not require students to install anything on their computers and allows teachers to review content that is flagged prior to making any hard determinations, he noted.

Students require a microphone, video camera and internet connection to participate. A human reviewer watches the footage after a test is submitted.

InformNet’s academic integrity guidelines warn that all teachers are aware of and have access to sites including Chegg, Brainly and Quora.

“Honesty will determine the consequences applied,” states an excerpt of the nine-page document.

Disciplinary action happens on a case-by-case basis, but students are generally given a zero on an assignment if they are found to have engaged in academic misconduct.

Repeat offenders are typically removed from a course, as per the e-school’s internal policies.

InformNet’s flexible, independent-study model is generally what attracts students. Students often enrol if a course is unavailable at their community school or it conflicts with their in-person schedule.

The Pine Creek School Division has run Manitoba’s other online high school — known as the Teacher Mediated Option or TMO — since 2014.

Operations leader Tammy Kruse said the e-school’s size is advantageous when it comes to promoting academic integrity because teachers get to know their students really well.

There were only 272 registrants, all of whom engage in live instruction, in 2024-25. That’s a significant increase from 80 in 2019-20, albeit a fraction of the InformNet community.

“Being smaller, we have more of an opportunity to have relationships with those students. We know where they’re coming from,” Kruse said during a phone interview.

“If it’s a homeschool situation, I’ve been to their home.”

At the same time, she indicated that teachers need to be proactive to promote positive study habits and vigilant when reviewing student submissions.

She is in frequent communication with Tarrant and principals at in-person schools across Manitoba to network and discuss referrals.

Manitoba Education has not endorsed a proctoring program of any kind. A provincial spokesperson said that schools and school divisions make decisions on software and technology use “based on their local needs.”

A team of teachers from the Louis Riel School Division is working on guidelines to leverage and regulate AI in classrooms in southeast Winnipeg.

The Manitoba Association of Education Technology Leaders published a list of general tips on AI, such as the importance of reviewing a program’s privacy policy before using it, in 2023.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca