‘But there is a difference between recognising AI use and proving its use. So I tried an experiment. … I received 122 paper submissions. Of those, the Trojan horse easily identified 33 AI-generated papers. I sent these stats to all the students and gave them the opportunity to admit to using AI before they were locked into failing the class. Another 14 outed themselves. In other words, nearly 39% of the submissions were at least partially written by AI.‘
Article archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20251125225915/https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/set-trap-to-catch-students-cheating-ai_uk_691f20d1e4b00ed8a94f4c01
In one of my classes, when ChatGPT was still new, I once handed out homework assignments related to programming. Multiple students handed in code that obviously came from ChatGPT (too clean a style, too general for the simple tasks that they were required to do).
Decided to bring one of the most egregious cases to class to discuss, because several people handed in something similar, so at least someone should be able to explain how the code works, right? Nobody could, so we went through it and made sense of it together. The code was also nonfunctional, so we looked at why it failed, too. I then gave them the talk about how their time in university is likely the only time in their lives when they can fully commit themselves to learning, and where each class is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn something in a way that they will never be able to experience again after they graduate (plus some stuff about fairness) and how they are depriving themselves of these opportunities by using AI in this way.
This seemed to get through, and we then established some ground rules that all students seemed to stick with throughout the rest of the class. I now have an AI policy that explains what kind of AI use I consider acceptable and unacceptable. Doesn’t solve the problem completely, but I haven’t had any really egregious cases since then. Most students listen once they understand it’s really about them and their own “becoming” professional and a more fully developed person.
Great working being a mentor, your impact there was larger than the subject matter at hand.
This seems pretty fair and reasonable, although, we should ask why people do this in the first place? Why is there so much pressure to get good or decent grades? If you are just going to college to get a degree and all you want to do is pass, then why go at all?
College is a broken system right now. If things continue the way they are going, people will just learn how to use AI tools and go find a job. They don’t even need to think for themselves, they can just have a computer do it for them.
While I’m about a decade older than the current attendees, “go to college or your life will be terrible” was a persistent and unified message we were forcefed from a very young age. A college degree was billed as a checkpoint to entetr real adult life.
With that in mind, and another 13 years of compulsory education behind us, why would anybody see college as an opportunity instead of a barrier?
which is funny because reality makes that idea complete bullshit
leadership doesn’t want professionals, it wants low paid worker drones and ‘good enough’ ai
10% of your students might go on to be skilled enough to demand a job that respects their abilities, the rest are gonna be employed by tech illiterate boomers (lord these guys don’t want to retire) and will likely be dealing with being forced to use ai
thankfully i can’t use ai in my work so it’ll be decades before it is even a concern for me directly but i have multiple friends dealing with this issue now
they are intelligent, well educated, had top grades, their boss is some nepo baby with grand ideas of being the next elon
*edit
just read this
https://mander.xyz/post/42542367
That’s a very capitalist view of education. Some people just want to learn, and that’s the point of an education, to enable learning. You might need that piece of paper to get a job in the field you want, and the field you want might prefer a mindless worker drone, but that doesn’t mean that education should cut corners and teach to the job.
sadly yea, i’m not happy about it but pretending education is above it all is doing no one any favors
i’d love if we had free education and a culture valuing learning for the joy of it in the us but we can’t even manage to agree feeding starving kids is important
and we just shat all over skilled nurses and the like as non-professional
https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/11/25/nx-s1-5619731/medical-nursing-school-loan-limits
hard to not hold a bleak outlook on all of it
This is one of those moments I glad to be in one of the states who’re doing the work to get better. I’m in New Mexico, where we are currently 49th (iirc) in education. BUT the state also recently made up to a bachelor’s degree free*. I’m talking advantage of that program and at least at my school it seems like the culture is focused on teaching, not on churning out worker bees.
I came for the queer safety but I’m staying for the social programs.
* Free to residents of the state who maintain a GPA of above 2.5 with an upper limit on covered credit hours which is reasonable enough to accomodate a single change in major halfway through at no additional cost to students. Return students are in charge of their tuition for the first semester if they lack a recent GPA (last 10 years iirc) but are otherwise covered.
what an odd thing to hear about new mexico but good, i’m happy for you and i hope improves life for more in your state
We don’t have to agree. We essentially live in post democratic times. Some people just have to do it.
Education can be above it all and make it possible.
i too want star treck but we’re getting children of men
Because people don’t enact the values of Star Trek. People could create a Starfleet Academy and an organisation with Star Trek values but it seems that all fans are eager for WW3 because that is scripture.
us: sorry best we can do is elysium
What about you? What do you need to make a change?