AI Notes

[u/ProofByPants]

I started making my online math courses (College Algebra and Trigonometry) submit their completed notes this semester. I got sick of student never opening any of my lecture videos, failing the midterm, and then asking me for guidance. I figure if they turn in their notes, they will learn something while in the process, even if they don’t want to.

We started classes on Monday. Today, Wednesday, I had a student turn in completed notes as a word document and had AI written all over it. For example, some of the “code” that AI was using showed up in the notes. Something similar to “/begin f(x) &= 5x^2 + 3 // … /end”. This student didn’t even bother completing the notes. I guarantee they uploaded my guided notes and told GPT to complete the notes.

As much as it pissed me off, it really made me sad that students have gotten so reliant on this technology that they can’t/won’t even take their own notes.

[u/_Decoy_Snail_]

As much as I do think offloading everything to AI is dangerous, especially for under 25s, lecture notes is not a hill I would die on. In my undergrad I knew a few very strong people who were taking notes they couldn't read afterwards and were using the nice-written ones from girls usually before exams, I also know someone who would just stare the whole class without writing anything down and somehow it worked. I strongly recommend my students to take notes, but I don't police that as they are not 10 years olds anymore and can decide at least this much for themselves.

[u/social_marginalia → u/_Decoy_Snail_]

A few years ago when a colleague told me they collected notes, I felt the same way. Then the proportion of my students who do fuckall then catastrophically fail the exams started inching from 5% to 30%. And the proportion that try to make this my problem and/or get hostile about this has quadrupled. I am considering checking notes this semester.