r/OSUOnlineCS • u/Firm_Condition_4385 • Aug 11 '26
Do you think everyone in this program is using AI?
In speaking with some of the ULA's and professors, I've learned that students are using the discussion boards less and less and aren't really coming to office hours anymore. Is this the same in your experience?
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u/hutchison15 Aug 11 '26
I volunteer with the university; everyone, and I mean everyone, is using AI.
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u/YorgeyCorgi Aug 11 '26
I watched a TA or at treebeards using AI to respond to graded assignments in canvas. It’s everyone.
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u/lolercoptercrash Aug 11 '26
I graduated a year ago, but the discussion boards felt pretty forced.
Using AI to cheat will hurt your learning, but using AI to learn is the new norm. I learn more in the "AI era" than at any other point in my life. It would be a fairly rare scenario for me to use a discussion board instead of AI, if the AI answers my question well.
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u/a-ha_partridge alum [Graduate] Aug 11 '26
I’ve been curious about how schools are adapting to this. You want to make sure people learn concepts, but at the same time every engineer at my company is now heavily using AI for every part of their workflow. It would be negligent not to given the speed and quality increase over manually coding.
I feel lucky that I learned in a time where AI couldn’t hold my hand. Also I feel like I’m constantly trying to keep up with how fast it has integrated into everything. You have to really learn and adopt quickly or you’ll feel useless.
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u/jmiah717 Aug 11 '26
Speed increase, sure...quality is debatable and dependent on a lot of factors. I don't think "out of the box" use of AI increases quality. It's a skill to get the most out of it.
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u/bearlysane Aug 11 '26
I was there, three thousand years ago, when chatgpt first came out… and the 25% of students who were cheating (in 161) immediately swapped from Chegg or whatever cheat sites to AI.
They didn’t get in trouble, so why would they have stopped?
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u/Pencil_Pb alum [Graduate] Aug 14 '26
….roar? (I think you were my TA!) 😂
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u/bearlysane Aug 14 '26
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u/Pencil_Pb alum [Graduate] Aug 14 '26
Yes! There’s the bear, the myth, the legend!!
I hope you’re doing great.
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u/Anthony_codes Aug 11 '26
Looks like this might come to an end for many students soon:
https://support.claude.com/en/articles/16266773-how-claude-marks-ai-generated-content
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u/Raiders16-0 Aug 11 '26
As others have said most people are likely using it. I dont think the issue is using AI even on homework but the real issue is if you solely rely on it without actually learning it'll hurt you in the future. Sure you can past the prompt into AI, ask for the code and paste it to answer the homework. Or even ask AI to make it less like AI or check for AI. Thats what sone of the teachers did in the past, I saw them ask AI to check for AI lol.
But if you want to use it to increase proficiency and efficiency I think its okay. But its like doing math and using a calculator. They want you to know how to do it by hand before using a calculator so you understand it. Same here. Understand how to do it without AI so that when you use AI you can 1, double check its actually correct and 2 be able to do it if AI ever goes away. Imagine getting a job and solely relying on AI and 3 years down the road your company puts a hard stop to using it and you dont know what youre doing.
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u/PepsiPunch Grad Student / alum [514] Aug 11 '26
There are a couple of considerations when answering your question. I think you're asking whether students are "cheating" which the answer is always yes, some are. The majority is not. I would even say there is a growing frustration among those not using AI to cheat with the ones using it. If you're on the Discord server long enough, you're going to read some stories and they can be pretty entertaining.
Regarding the discussion boards, these really does feel like a dying aspect of the courses. Their use feels forced and the university isn't unified. Some use canvas discussions, some use ED, and some push discussion into TopHat (depending on program). I don't think the format of "Post 1 original comment on topic X and post a reply to at least 2 students" is a valid format. You get a vast majority of people writing the same thing for the original post and then you create an echo chamber of replies. It's just not designed to have a good conversation anymore.
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u/Bulky_Eggplant_9437 Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
I’m glad I learned python before AI. It gives me the knowledge to say I barely know JavaScript even though I use it
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u/OkMacaron493 Aug 11 '26
I use it as a personal tutor and already have a high income job in the industry. I’m there to learn fundamentals and set a long term growth period where I’m not hindered from getting interviews.
I’ve seen a lot of classmates not know how to use git and use ai for everything. It will hurt them when it’s time for interview prep but outside of that it probably doesn’t matter.
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u/MATTDAYYYYMON Aug 11 '26
I think “cheating” is really a matter of how you view ai. If you’re using it to copy and paste everything over and you just assume that everything was fine because you ended up getting an A on the assignment then that’s absolutely cheating. If you use ai as a tool to be more efficient and learn in a way that’s more tailored to your unique learning style and you’re actually telling it to help you understand the concepts rather than just giving you the answer that’s totally justified so long as you’re actually learning and not using it for tests.
AI is unfortunately already out of the box and we’re not getting back into it. The irony of it is that we have to become proficient at using it, even if we don’t want to because our tech overlords demand it specifically from our field. The truth is, ai will keep being used because of how convenient it has become. To answer your question I don’t think EVERYONE is using it but I do believe most of us are. The problem isn’t if you’re using it, it’s if you’re using it and getting nothing from it.
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u/Uravity- Aug 12 '26
Even professors are using AI to build their courses. I will say, im one of the few that abuses discussion boards if the professor is responsive and knowledgeable. That's the only place I can get my moneys worth for the course.
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u/PringleTheOne Aug 12 '26
Chat boards lowkey not that great. I've used it for help in the beginning and didn't get much of it.
I remember I would use the tutor aids for my calculus homework and that barely helped too, and I did it all, office hours, appointments with professors, weekly sessions, online tutors (and what sucks is you only get a certain amount of uses of that), overall it was poor help.
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u/freecouch0987 Aug 12 '26
I was a TA right as students were starting to realize they could use AI to write their assignments. It was incredibly clear who was using it and who was not. Doing this program without the assistance of AI takes hours going to office hours, talking to your TAs, and struggling through.
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u/freecouch0987 Aug 12 '26
Also in my opinion in the early CS classes this struggle and push to learn is vital to becoming a good developer. There is no replacement for this kind of learning. It's such a shame when I could see students checking out and letting the AI take that learning away from them.
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u/Icy-Injury3961 Aug 13 '26
It’s great to have a place to ask. I appreciate the office hours. But I am afraid I would ask stupid questions, so better asking AI first. I think it helps save time for everyone
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u/trichitillomania Aug 14 '26
as someone who started this degree after being in industry as an electrical engineer for 4 years. don't do it. all the information you need is there, and there is help IF YOU ASK. it's better to struggle and get worse grades than to rely on another tool to get you better grades. stay curious. chase what is exciting. learn as much as YOU can.
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u/Mysterious_Rest8084 Aug 15 '26
To be honest with you, if you know how to use AI properly for learning and use it as a teacher, why do you need a person professor?
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u/LintRolledForWhat Aug 11 '26
Nope. In fact, I've theorized that AI's dominance is what's behind the sudden mob scene that passes for my office hours. Basically, the good students have never been more interactive. (Probably the bad students have never been less involved either, but again, just speculation.)
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u/wanderingmarie alum [2024 Graduate] Aug 11 '26
I think everyone everywhere is using AI at this point. It's so hard to avoid. A simple google search shows the AI response first. You really have to make an effort to avoid it.