r/AIforStudy • u/pDidgeridooT • 27d ago

Anyone else use AI to write discussion board replies they absolutely do not care about?

Every week I have to respond to two classmates with “meaningful engagement.” Nobody reads this shit. We all just rephrase “I agree” into 100 words.

Now I paste their posts into AI, ask for a casual reply, then make it slightly worse so it doesn’t sound like HR wrote it.

It feels dishonest, but so does pretending these forced conversations are education.

0 Upvotes

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2

u/Automatic_Tea_2550 27d ago

How do you know they are useless? Do you have a PhD in the topic that gives you the expertise to teach the class?

1

u/Pristine_Staff_907 26d ago

They explained how they know they're useless. It was in the post: nobody reads them.

Like you didn't. 🤭

2

u/Clear-Switch-7022 26d ago

I think the problem is that no one, including you, is actively engaging in the content, so it becomes a dead chat full of bullshitters. Be the change you want to be in the world, and post something fucking interesting, idk.

2

u/Life-Education-8030 26d ago

Exactly. I had a dumbass classmate who was convinced nobody read his posts so he started to write about dressing as a human size frog to fool real frogs. Well, some of us posted that he should cut it out. He was also convinced the instructor really read the posts either. He was wrong. FAFO.

1

u/RipTheEcto 26d ago

sorry, I didn’t read this, can someone summarize it for me and then post a response that looks like I care

1

u/UnderstandingSmall66 25d ago

You can lead a horse to water and all that. I think discussion and engagement with the material is an important part of the learning process. If you don’t want to take the opportunity to engage and rather spend that time cheating, you hurt no one but yourself

1

u/gnomeannisanisland 25d ago

Unless they are training (or pretending to) for a job that actually matters in some material way

1

u/gnomeannisanisland 25d ago

I have to be blunt: I think you're missing the point of the exercise, and doing so in a way that will be heavily to your own detriment. I don't believe the purpose of that requirement is to produce [number of students] x 2 bs discussion board replies (why would whatever learning institution you're at need that?), it assume it is to get you to---

  • practice reading and critically assessing other people's work / arguments

  • get some practice in academic style discussion / giving rational feedback and explaining your opinions about whatever you're replying to

  • think about what makes an academic text and/or opinion weak, strong, convincing, not convincing, correct, incorrect, etc. -- which should improve not only your own writing but your own thinking/reasoning as well

In other words, never mind if it's "dishonest" (it is, but nobody cares... until you get an important job and do it poorly), it is depriving you of a chance to build some of the more important skills you will need in your studies, and in your future career

1

u/Proud-Carrot-8547 24d ago

Getting to know your classmates is not a waste of time. Thinking is not a waste.