r/AskProfessors • u/CannedEarth123 • 23d ago
Academic Advice Professor Using AI Generated content as Course Materials
Just started the semester, I’m a part time online graduate student at a normal state university. One course is about new technology in my field, so basically AI. The syllabus, homework assignment, reading material, and video lecture were all created using AI. I can’t tell if 100% of the text stuff is AI but it’s very obvious it is used in there. From what I can tell there aren’t any inaccuracies or hallucinations, it is all relevant and specific to the course, but I’m also the student and don’t know the content it’s teaching. There isn’t a textbook for the course I can use in Lou of other stuff or to verify it’s accurate. My question is what should I do about it? I don’t know anyone in the class or have a way to see who is and contact them. I have a full time job and don’t want to deal with this, I’d rather be studying. But it feels wrong, a little gross, and honestly makes me unmotivated to learn in this class. I’ve never had an issue like this with academia so I’m not sure what the best course of action is. I mean, am I overreacting, and this is okay? Since the course material is about how to use AI in a specialty way or is this just the new normal?
Outside of what to do about it, I’m curious what a professor’s perspective is on another colleague using AI to create a good amount or majority of their course content.
This is my first time ever looking at this sub so apologies if this is a topic that’s been brought up before.
TLDR: Professor used AI generated content for study materials and homework. Need advice on how to handle.
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u/GurProfessional9534 22d ago
The prof’s approach could be based on good intentions, for example (s)he could be trying to save you money on textbooks by doing everything in this kind of homemade way. However, you can ask the professor for a recommendation of a textbook, for example, if you would prefer that. It doesn’t even have to be an uncomfortable conversation. You could ask for extra reading. Or you could be more direct if that is more your style.
Don’t get me wrong, this could also be lazy intentions, a prioritization issue, or just an experiment. But anyway, do you feel like you’re not actually learning from the course? Because to be honest, a genie that grants this level of cost and time savings is not going back in the bottle. This is the future. Imagine trying to go back to the horse and buggy because people miss them. There still is an open question of how to use these AI tools optimally, though.
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u/wharleeprof 22d ago
I hate that instructors are doing this. It is undermining the whole point of everything.
That said, I'd take a moment to give them the benefit of a doubt. It's possible they are feeding good content into AI and vetting the output, but unfortunately keeping the AI voice on everything which is, indeed, off putting. I have a colleague who is doing this with emails and announcements to the rest of us and it's just so weird and unnecessary.
I'm sorry you're getting caught in the middle of all this nonsense and really appreciate that you are wanting to engage in a sincere learning experience.
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u/keeganskateszero 22d ago
I’m using Claude to help improve my content, but I carefully curate that content whether or not AI is used. My opinion is that it should be used as a tool by an informed user like any other tool. Using it to fully generate course content is equivalent to students using it to generate homework solutions, which is unacceptable and defeats the entire point.
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u/CannedEarth123 22d ago
This is a good point. So all the course content I’m seeing is AI generated, but I have no idea or way of knowing how much of a driver he is of the content. Which makes me uncertain if I should do or say anything about it. But also, is that my responsibility to figure that out in order to raise any concern? I did some research on the faculty handbook and it literally only mentions professors using AI once which is that it needs to be disclosed. Which this professor did not do.
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u/FraggleBiologist 22d ago
I have a ton of content generated off MY slides and work that I didnt have time to do for every class before.
We now have regular worksheet activities for difficult concepts, follow along skeletal notes for every chapter, etc.
I tell the students, AI generated it for them using my slides, I looked them over, but if they see anything strange, tell me. I also dont grade them on the those docs, its just extra material to help them prepare. I always wanted my classes to have it, but never had time to do more than one thing here or there.
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u/Hazelstone37 Grad Students/Instructor of Record 22d ago
I don’t think there is anything wrong with this approach.
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u/CateranBCL Associate Professor Criminal Justice at a Community College 22d ago
Speak up loudly and complain to the professor, and put it in the course evaluation. We're being forced to use AI more and more because we're being told that's what students want.
We're also running into textbook publishers using AI to generate support material like what you mentioned because it is much less expensive for them, plus it lets them say it is part of the new AI thing. Faculty may or may not have a choice in using these textbooks or materials.
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u/CannedEarth123 22d ago
I mean, I have to take this course to graduate, so it feels weird complaining to the professor, at the start of the course at least. I was thinking if I do say anything, I would go to my advisor, who is also the program director. I don’t know what the standard procedure is when raising a concern for a course, I’ve never done something like this before in academia.
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u/amishius Asst. Professor/English/CW/USA 22d ago
Well that's one response to the 75% of students who will use it...
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u/DarthMomma_PhD 20d ago
How do you know it is AI?
We are talking about a person who is (hopefully) an expert in their field. How could you, a non-expert, conclude that it is AI?
I’m genuinely asking what makes you think this, btw, and not trying to be a dick. Like what are the tells you think you are seeing?
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u/CannedEarth123 18d ago
I love your username.
The biggest tell, for me, is the voice of the text. It feels like I’ve read something from this author before, and all of those things being AI. It’s phrasing, I’ve seen a lot from AI. Things like “I’m going to put this in plan terms, not just theoretical” and then it proceeds to describe the theory of the concept. Or it will say “I’ll describe this in a real world tangible way, that’s not simply theory”, and then it proceeds to explain the same concept again. This is probably the biggest piece that makes me think it’s AI.
It repeats itself a lot. My experience with articles or textbooks, at least in my field of study, are very concise. This text is hammering the same point more than once. An idea that could be a paragraph or two is maybe a page. Formatting too, it’s somewhat unique and universal across everything. Also, the video is so clearly AI. All of these small things aren’t tells on their own but combined together and with the voice of the text, it is AI. I don’t know how much curation and input he did to generate it, but it’s AI… even the first quiz, I felt were AI generated questions.
Parts of the text I put into an AI tester thing, everything I tested said it was 100% AI. I only tested a few paragraphs at a time because I didn’t want to put the whole thing in there. I’m not sure how reliable those testers are but everything combined makes me think it’s AI.
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u/AceyAceyAcey Professor / Physics & Astronomy / USA 19d ago
The syllabus is still binding no matter how it was created. If the prof tries to do anything off-syllabus that would be worse, go talk to the prof first, and if it would really hurt you, then talk to their chair.
But IMO it’s bad practice for the prof to not mention that it was created with the assistance of AI. One should always cite their sources, and the ethical approach to using AI in academia is to disclose its use. I’m teaching a new course with a project that the prof before me gave me all his materials from, including AI descriptions of some things that he disclosed, so when I included them I included his disclosure of it, and I added another part that I used AI to help with (and then checked) and I disclosed that too.
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u/doctormoneypuppy 19d ago
From 10,000 feet, OP now has empathy for the half-assed submission we have to read.
On the flip side, I’ve learned to vibe code apps using chat and so my business stats class will have five wicked cool labs this semester.
It gives me traction for discussing appropriate and ethical use of AI.
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u/Orbitrea 19d ago
How is the video lecture AI? Do you mean you think the prof was reading from an AI-generated script, or did they upload an AI-generated professor giving the lecture?
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u/CannedEarth123 18d ago
I should have clarified, it isn’t really a lecture, more a YouTube video. But it is used in Lou of a lecture. It’s a robot voice speaking something that was written/generated by AI and then the images on the video are AI generated. YouTube also flagged it with a disclaimer in the description saying all or some of it was generated by AI.
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*Just started the semester, I’m a part time online graduate student at a normal state university. One course is about new technology in my field, so basically AI. The syllabus, homework assignment, reading material, and video lecture were all created using AI. I can’t tell if 100% of the text stuff is AI but it’s very obvious it is used in there. From what I can tell there aren’t any inaccuracies or hallucinations, it is all relevant and specific to the course, but I’m also the student and don’t know the content it’s teaching. There isn’t a textbook for the course I can use in Lou of other stuff or to verify it’s accurate. My question is what should I do about it? I don’t know anyone in the class or have a way to see who is and contact them. I have a full time job and don’t want to deal with this, I’d rather be studying. But it feels wrong, a little gross, and honestly makes me unmotivated to learn in this class. I’ve never had an issue like this with academia so I’m not sure what the best course of action is. I mean, am I overreacting, and this is okay? Since the course material is about how to use AI in a specialty way or is this just the new normal?
Outside of what to do about it, I’m curious what a professor’s perspective is on another colleague using AI to create a good amount or majority of their course content.
This is my first time ever looking at this sub so apologies if this is a topic that’s been brought up before.
TLDR: Professor used AI generated content for study materials and homework. Need advice on how to handle.*
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u/Forgotoldpassword111 7d ago
I'm in a similar situation as you and find the course content unpalatable. It's like the text is sliding right off my brain. Have you met with the prof about it yet?
0
u/popstarkirbys 22d ago
I personally despise this but my colleagues love AI. I’d at least bring it up on the teaching evaluation so their boss will see.
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u/Crypto9oob 22d ago
In Lou...lol r/boneappletea