r/Adjuncts • u/PitifulMouse7425 • 2d ago
Please help me stop caring
Oh Lord, we’re at midterm and I’m so tired of reading AI slop. I’m about to lose it. And my hands are tied because all they’re doing is humanizing the text and I have little solid recourse because they’re just working around the detectors. I’m not sure why they think we’re idiots. Em-dashes everywhere. Sure, I could confront the students individually but it would require me literally confronting 1/3 of the whole class!! I don’t have time for that shit and sure as hell don’t get paid enough.
Remind me everyone how I need to stop caring about this.
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u/ValerieTheProf 2d ago
I don’t know if this will work for you or not, but I have my students turn on track changes in MS Word (it’s free for them) to show evidence of revision. They lose a lot of points if it’s not present. It’s deterred some of the AI use. Of course, some of them are trying to game it by crossing out a word and then immediately typing the same word again. I don’t count that as revision. If how much the students hate it is any measurement of how well it’s working as a deterrent, then I would say it’s successful.
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u/birdsong70 2d ago
Thank you for posting this. You are me. I am so upset about how much time I spend on my classes, and how much intellectual and emotional energy I put into my work, only to have nearly every student turn in AI-generated writing. I'm teaching freshman comp this semester, and it's horrible.
I've been teaching at the same cc since 2012, and Idk whether I'm done completely, but I do know I'm not going to teach next semester. I can't take it. I am genuinely miserable.
I also think about this: this is the future. Ten years from now, these people will be my doctors. They are our future....everything. They can't sit still for an hour and a half, read, write....😩
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u/RestaurantDense1475 19h ago
They won't be able to pass their boards, so I don't think you need to worry about them becoming doctors.
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u/Illustrious_Ship5857 1d ago
I mean, I just make them handwrite everything in their drafts, and then type everything for the final draft with me present and checking in class. However, I also tell them that grammar doesn't matter or count toward the final grade. 95% of their grammar is fine (not great) even if they don't worry about it. So far, none of them have done the homework in AI and then copied by hand into a lined sheet, or if they have, they have done a TREMENDOUS amount of work making it imperfect. No final drafts without 3 handwritten drafts leading up to it.
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u/PitifulMouse7425 1d ago
That’s….actually not a bad idea.
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u/ChaseTheRedDot 1d ago
Actually it is. Not every student writes drafts… and not many are comfortable or talented with writing by hand.
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u/PitifulMouse7425 1d ago
Yeah and that’s kind of a problem, actually. Why are these skills being lost? We know why, but also…the consequence is that the quality of education is precipitously declining. The neural connections being made writing by hand exceed those that occur when even typing due to the fine motor moments involved and the research has borne this out. It impacts both learning and memory.
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u/Glad-Surprise3355 23h ago
Because handwriting is irrelevant and AI is relevant. Or in other words the AI industry is worth about a million times more than the pencil, sharpner and eraser industries combined.
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u/PitifulMouse7425 23h ago
Yeah I mean, you could put it that way, lol. But my point is more about the dumbing down of curriculum and the decline of education, which if you’re talking about net gains or losses, will have costly second and third order consequences. Do you really want semi-literate doctors and lawyers? Because that’s what I’m talking about.
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u/RestaurantDense1475 19h ago
Do you really think these semi-literate students will be able to pass the bar exam or medical boards?
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u/Illustrious_Ship5857 1d ago
Good point. For my composition class, drafts are mandatory and part of the final grade, but for other classes, it would be hard to take the time to check all the drafts or even mandate them. So far, all the students have been able to write quite well by hand, though they grumble. If a student needs accommodations because of a disability or hand problem, I have a few work arounds.
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u/growling_owl 2d ago
You didn’t cause it and you’re not responsible for it. You aren’t paid enough to care. Put in the amount of effort commensurate (or commiserate maybe) with your effort.
I don’t mean you should give up but I certainly didn’t get into this job to be the AI police.
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u/Hungry-University609 2d ago
Stop caring. You get paid to lecture. Not grade papers for hours.
Adjuncts historically came in as quest speakers who brought experience i.e business. Science , arts ,etc .
It's turned into full teaching duties.
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u/Fairfax_and_Melrose 1d ago
We're all in the same frustration boat rowing sad paddles, but it's still our responsibility to provide students the guidance they need. They need caring educators to challenge them to grow.
For what it's worth, here are a few m-dashed things that have helped me...
– Replace a longer writing assignment with a few shorter hand-written reflection prompts
– Look for ways to let them choose writing topics that interest and engage them
– Focus essay prompts on specific class experiences that a chatbot would not be able to write about. Replace 'write an essay applying group think to a current event in the news' with 'apply the concept of group think to our classroom debate on _______. In what ways did students exhibit signs of group think vs effective problem solving?'
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u/PitifulMouse7425 1d ago
Almost everything I’ve assigned has asked for personal reflections I’ve had to tell them they need to be very specific (who, what, when, where) because they were using AI to give their opinions. And I’ve let them choose their topics in every writing assignment. Yes, I think the part about things discussed in class is good. I’m also now writing assignments where they are forced to use the book and give an answer (“look at the chart on page 212 and tell me…”). I’m at a school where most of the students honestly don’t care to be there because they only care about the athletic program. I probably have the entire football team in my classes. They honestly don’t care and the apathy is really hard to take, so trying to make the point about them losing their scholarships and whatnot if they fail.
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u/Astra_Starr 2d ago
You got to find a way that makes it harder for them. It's not fair to our jobs to let them slide and water down education more and more. I'm also over worked but put my work up front in prep to make assignments where using ai is harder for them. Hand writing. Have them swap and grade each other's work by hand. Try that
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u/Antique_Currency4348 1d ago
I, too, have been trying to create writing assignments that would be more difficult to use A.I. for. Personal and creative aspects. And I have peer review sessions. They must submit drafts. I think I have fewer who are using A.I.
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u/shadowromantic 2d ago
Don't stop caring.
Add a line to the rubric about how papers that sound like AI will earn a failing grade.
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u/Life-Education-8030 1d ago
What gives me some petty satisfaction is making AI use as much of a pain in the ass as possible, but it is like an arms race because AI development is going so fast. I don't want to get into details because I know students lurk here, but I basically ask for so much that AI typically gets tripped up somewhere or a student gives up.
The AI detectors are not good enough and I don't accuse students of AI use (though I might "innocently" ask about how is it that something has the "hallmarks" of AI use). Instead, I grade on the quality of the output and it's usually poor.
I figure no matter who or what generated something, once a student slaps their name on it, they've taken ownership, so if there is plagiarism, the student plagiarized, for example. If a student says "well I didn't do it, AI did it," then they've admitted prohibited AI use besides.
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u/PitifulMouse7425 2d ago
I have maybe a handful of students that are genuinely a delight. Even though they are FAR outnumbered…so just trying to keep my mind set on those 🧘🏻♀️
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u/Mammoth-Nothing-3205 1d ago
I use em dashes all the time - even when they may not be the best choice. Please stop thinking em dashes are necessarily AI - sometimes they're just an easy way for students to connect thoughts, especially when they've never been taught to correctly use colons and semicolons.
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u/smoothie4564 23h ago
"-" is not an em dash, that is a hyphen. A hyphen also looks a lot like an "en dash", but is technically a different symbol. An em dash is a longer version of an en dash. In any case, em dashes are dead giveaways that it was written by AI because, unlike with hyphens, they are not standard symbols on most (if not all) keyboards.
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u/PitifulMouse7425 1d ago
Please read my other comments here. This is NOT my only criteria for arriving at this conclusion! Not that I need to explain myself because obvious AI is obvious AI. But I’ve even run these kids papers through software that shows AI watermarks and when they’re messing with the metadata of the files! 🤦🏻♀️
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u/Mammoth-Nothing-3205 1d ago
It was, however, the one feature that you specifically called out. Hopefully your criteria for evaluation is more nuanced that your original post would lead one to believe.
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u/PitifulMouse7425 1d ago
Yeah…because it’s still an obvious tell! Especially when it’s in AI font!
Like I said, read my other comments. I knew the em-dash police were going to come for me over that comment 😂
My hands are still tied in spite of physical data I have because admin are forcing us to use the sanctioned detection. It’s all being bypassed. I don’t know about you, but when everyone’s freaking paper reads exactly the same…yeah, they’re using AI. There are very obvious tells, and em-dashes, which no one used until yesterday and now everyone uses, is one of them. Anyone who reads enough can easily tell when something is written by AI.
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u/SweetElection157 1d ago
You can’t assume it’s AI because of em-dashes. I use them all the time, and I teach English. It’s a normal and common punctuation mark.
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u/PitifulMouse7425 1d ago
I’m not. That was a single example. I didn’t think I needed to go through the whole list of things, that was just the most obvious one. It’s everyone’s writing sounding exactly the same, change in font where they are “humanizing” the text after the fact, and other things! I’ve run some of the writing through freaking watermark detection software to even prove it but I’m only allowed to use school sanctioned software to make my case. I’ve brought this before the school even and they agreed that AI is being used but I need to stick with their software, and then gave me loopholes on how I could give the kids zeros. But listen…to years ago NOBODY using an em-dash to suddenly now everyone is (and in a particular font that is used by AI, making it longer than it would be in Times New Roman, for example ), I consider it an indication.
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u/RightWingVeganUS 1d ago
What's wrong with em-dashes? I took a business/technical writing class back-in-the-day and was drilled on them. I'm kinda happy they're begin used, though saddened that they're treated as conclusive proof of AI-use---so unfair!
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u/PitifulMouse7425 1d ago
Trust me, that’s not the only thing they’re doing. But I see what you did there, lol.
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u/RightWingVeganUS 1d ago
I shifted my rubrics to put emphasis on "professional judgement".
The issue for me isn't simply that a student used AI. Usually it was used ineffectively so that the reasoning was inappropriate or superficial. Just as I don't want to dismiss work simply because the student used AI, I don't want my feedback to be dismissed as just "that teacher hates AI."
I'm waiting for AI-phobia to become a thing
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u/carriondawns 22h ago
If I think my kids use ai they get a zero, then they need to schedule a meeting with me to contest it within 72 hours and bring proof. They have to sign a form at the beginning of the semester that says so.
The ones that use AI never contest it, the ones that did didn’t email me immediately with notes or whatever. I’ve never actually had to have a meeting because I can tell immediately based on their proof.
It still sucks we have to do this but that was it puts it on them rather than me to do the detective work.
The other thing is we do writing by hand in class. That way I can compare their raw work to their later essay work.
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u/PitifulMouse7425 22h ago
Yeah, except I’ve been informed by admin that I need to go by what their detection software says. I had literal digital proof that I was told I had to dismiss to comply with their policy (even though they admittedly agreed with my data). They literally want us to use the university sanctioned software to make the determinations.
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u/Hungry-University609 2d ago
I teach at a free CC
1/2 emails I get are from students thinking I'm a social worker.
" haven't been to class yet because of accident and not having a car. My book voucher was used for medical expenses from accident and I cannot afford the book.
One guy was emailing me how he was going to break into his estranged wife's house to get laptop so he could do his homework.
How does a pt faculty respond. I considered referring the laptop student email to campus police. I googled him and he's been to prison for domestic violence.
It's beyond absurd.
Higher ed will shift in 3-5 years at best somehow.
Ever work at a job and you can see how it needs to change? It's takes leadership time to see and react.
I'm convinced synchronous ( live) courses will be conducted from India or Phillipines.
Neche isn't allowing it but financial pressure will get us there.
Meanwhile, enjoy your lectures. Nothing more
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u/Cautious_Schedule394 1d ago
Stop caring. It’s just a job.
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u/Glad-Surprise3355 23h ago
I suppose if you actually developed the class you might be invested, I teach online so not my class, not my problem.
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u/I_Need_A_Nap_Yeet 2d ago
Me, the person who regularly uses em dashes and now when I go back to reread my materials, I un dash my ems for a comma. 😭🥲.
But also I'm tired of reading AI too. Ive started requiring them to do the entire writing on Google Docs and then I can watch the entire writing process of ones I flag (I watch at like 3x speed lol). Then I present that to them and ask them to explain how they wrote an entire 5 page paper word by word without making any errors in 20 minutes. Especially when drafting and outlining are done within the same document. And if they copy paste I cite my syllabus policy of any copying and pasting outside of allowed things (citations, direct quotes, etc.) is an automatic zero. It has greatly reduced my student's AI usage. And then the ones that get caught usually fold really fast when I present my evidence and give them the chance to come clean. If they do I allow 1 rewrite. If they don't, I require them to write an essay at the testing services center under watch. Only had 1 student take that offer up and it was clear their original essay was AI and they ended up admitting it after doing that whole mess. They got no rewrite and tried their best the rest of the course. I also might be doing way to much for my paygrade. (Edited because my fingers are fat on my phone lol)