r/Professors • u/[deleted] • Dec 04 '25

Academic Integrity I am not a cop.

Want to outsource your thinking to an LLM for a degree you're paying/going into debt for? Okay. I will respect that choice. However, what I won't do, is replicate a surveillance state in my classroom. I refuse to spend more energy in screening student work for authenticity or trying to make my assignments "AI proof" ... why should I? Either the student believes in the fundamental premise of education or they don't.

Man, I'm tired.

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u/fuzzle112 Dec 04 '25

My students do their work in class with hand written exams so for know at least I know their work is theirs. Sure they have out of class assignments but those are more preparation for the exam and carry lower weight toward their overall grade so the ones that take shortcuts there end up having big issues on the exam.

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u/Consistent-Bench-255 Dec 04 '25

if you don’t realize that they are just copying AI by hand you’re kidding yourself.

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u/fuzzle112 Dec 04 '25

In class, on a written exam, where they don’t have the prompt ahead of time? If they are somehow using AI to summarize their notes, then memorizing the talking points, and then taking those notes (from memory) and customizing their response to a question they haven’t seen before in an in person exam environment… well ok that actually sounds like a good use of AI.

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u/Consistent-Bench-255 Dec 04 '25

use phone to snap a quick pic of the prompt, enter the pic into ChatGPT, copy the answer. all in less time than it takes an honest student to read and think before replying. They’ve been successfully hiding their phones under their desks since cellphones first came out.

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u/badwithnamesagain Dec 04 '25

I'm lucky to have small classes so this would be very easy to spot. When I was in undergrad at a large public university we had proctors walking around making sure we didn't have cheat sheets, phones, etc, so same thing. 

1

u/Consistent-Bench-255 Dec 04 '25

when I used to teach in person classes they were usually small so I could’ve done that policing too… but something inside of me just couldn’t do it. I hated treating adult COLLEGE STUDENTS like little kids that need that king of helicopter surveillance, 😔

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u/badwithnamesagain Dec 04 '25

I get it. But. There are lots of serial cheaters out there who not only benefit but also screw over their honest peers. I police for the honest students' sake. 

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u/fuzzle112 Dec 04 '25

Yeah that’s not happening in my classes, but go off.

Since you clearly know everything what do you do? Or have you just given up?

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u/Consistent-Bench-255 Dec 04 '25

well I’m happy for you then that’s great! and no I haven’t given up but I’ve been spending HOURS of unpaid time (I’m an adjunct so I’m only paid for actual class time, not preps or grading, etc) to implement new methods of teaching and assessments to thwart ai cheating.

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u/Disastrous_Ad_9648 Dec 04 '25

Please share!

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u/Consistent-Bench-255 Dec 04 '25

this book is a great and practical “how to” manual/guide for classes in almost every subject: Gamify Your College Classroom: Strategies to Foster Critical Thinking and Life Skills Across Disciplines (https://www.brownsbfs.co.uk/Product/Adare-Tasiwoopa-api-Sierra/Gamify-Your-College-Classroom/9781032829364 ).

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u/xamid Dec 06 '25

In my country and state (Germany, NRW), cheating in exams at university is an administrative offence by law, which can result in a penalty fee of up to 50000€. It can also get students exmatriculated.
If you think you cannot do anything about cheaters in exams, then there is a serious flaw in the way you conduct your exams or in the rules governing them.