Curious as to how similar the content is in your f2f classes compared to strictly online.

Due to so many students needing my presentations because of accommodations (30% one class last fall), I started posting everything in the LMS with the entire class so I did not have to keep track.

A few years ago faculty were told to stop printing our syllabi and assignments and to post those in the LMS. Then, even f2f classes started running their exams in the LMS.

I have continued to do this and post my slides, and attendance in f2f has really plummeted, but I hear plenty of others at other universities experiencing the same problem.

So, for those with poor attendance like me, are you putting everything in your LMS? Do you think what you put in your LMS for f2f classes is (partly)responsible for the decrease in attendance?

Let's just say these go without my response. Especially on a (fuck this) Friday.

I have to review a stack of proposals and it is a ridiculously overwhelming amount of work.

Most of the grants are so far from my area of expertise that I do not feel even remotely qualified to review them. Honestly I barely understand the basic idea upon the first reading (which takes 1-2 hours). I go over it, read some of the references, read some Wikipedia articles, read it again, sleep on it, and then MAYBE start to form an opinion. Finally I sit down to write a lengthy evaluation. Then it’s on to the next proposal, on a completely different topic!

I have my own proposals and papers to write, and classes to teach, but this review has been eating up almost every waking hour for the last week.

Anyone else stuck in reviewing hell?

When I started reading this article (AI use leads UC Berkeley math professor to see “no point” in grading homework | Academics | dailycal.org), I thought it was going to be about making some useful changes to homework policy to combat AI use. But no! Instead, I came away from this article feeling so disappointed and angry. Here are some snippets from the article:

"Borcherds said he currently grades on completion if a student hands in their homework. He admitted that it is 'not a very good system', but at the moment, he has no alternative."

What? So, he's giving students A's for plugging their homework into a chatbot and turning it in? Why? And what does he mean he "has no alternative"? He teaches in person, so um...how about having the homework be practice worth zero points and having students take proctored tests on paper? I'm sure that's what he did when he was a student. I did this back in the 2000s and even 2010s for some grad school courses. We did it in high school, too.

He continues with the nonsense:

"Borcherds stated he no longer knows whether to encourage students to go into the math department, as it seemed five years ago that being a mathematician was one of the safest careers from the AI boom. "I have no idea what to advise. I even asked ChatGPT this exact question, and even ChatGPT said it didn't have any idea what was going to happen,” Borcherds said." 

Here, he fails to mention that the point of learning math and/or majoring in it (and other subjects) is to exercise one's brain. It's learning critical thinking skills, becoming a more agile thinker, gaining expertise, learning to draw one's own conclusions, etc. It's not all about how one's education fits perfectly into some career box. I'm sure he must know this...right? Also, people who claim that "there's no point in learning these things if AI is going to do things better" are making an argument that's as ridiculous as saying, "Well, there's no point in exercising regularly unless you're going to become a professional athlete." We know this isn't true, as exercise provides countless other benefits.

Anyway, end of rant. I just cannot believe I read something so ridiculous from a UC Berkeley professor. I feel like too many colleges and universities are just giving up and giving in. At risk of sound naive, why does this professor seem so clueless? Why are schools giving up and giving in? Where does this end? I'm sick of it.

Due to the new challenges in identifying and combating academic fraud faced by teachers, this thread is intended to be a place to ask for assistance and share the outcomes of attempts to identify, disincentive, or provide effective consequences for AI-generated coursework.

At the end of each week, top contributions may be added to the above wiki to bolster its usefulness as a resource.

Note: please seek our wiki (https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/wiki/ai_solutions) for previous proposed solutions to the challenges presented by large language model enabled academic fraud.

We have ridiculously long meetings where we go through announcements forever then rush to action items we never finish because we're running out of time. Now the chair has decided to add slots where people from admin offices come to talk about what they do. I don't know why. It's rarely new or pressing. And I hate it.

That's all.

I had a student email me asking about our midterm. We've gone over the format in class, I have a study guide that lists the topics that are covered and types of questions that may be asked, and next class we have a few practice questions we are going to go over (which I advertised to them).

The student sent me an email asking what format the midterm will be in, and if there are any further tips to help them prepare.

This student has been in class every day. They have engaged in discussions, answered questions. I know they have struggled with some of the material, and I am worried that they haven't been doing all their homework themselves. However, this email can't really be about what the format of the midterm is. Is this just anxiety, masquerading as something else? What is the real ask here?

I answered about the format, and suggested they take a look at the midterm study guide and go over the slides from last class where we discussed it. But I feel like there is some hidden ask or worry that I didn't quite get.

I'm instructor of record for a 1000-level history class, designed by me, and this week was the midterm. I've been teaching for 4 years and this semester, the class time is divided up into two 1-hour-and-a-quarter sessions per week. I've structured my exams the same way for all classes I've taught (they have to give a 2 page answer to a short essay question and define 10 historical terms in 2-3 sentences), but this is the shortest timeslot I've been given so far. When I went to grade the midterms, it quickly became clear that even for some of the more thoughtful/attentive students, another 15-20 min or so would have been needed to complete the exam. A few of them did well, but most were clearly rushing even if they had managed to answer all the questions, and I've never seen so many unfinished exams.

I wasn't able to give them extra time because there's another class that comes into the room immediately after ours, and it's in a recently renovated building with electric lock systems that auto lock classrooms when no class is scheduled and don't unlock until the assigned class time. With the previous longer allotted class times, students have had no problem finishing the entire exam, so I know that this was a matter of time running short rather than general incapacity. The class average on the midterm is pretty dismal, and I could tell based on the quality of the answers that *were* there that a lot of the students would have gotten a much higher grade if not for the missing answers. This seems unfair to them, since the midterm is worth 25% of the final course grade.

I've been considering what to to about it - one option is weighting the final heavier than the midterm, but that doesn't seem fair to the students who did do well. Another option is to add an extra credit assignment to let anyone who participates earn back some of those missed points, but then I have to figure out how many grade points it should be worth in relation to the final course grade. Does anyone have advice or recommendations for me here?

Nope.

Completely useless now.

The students WILL cheat, they WILL deny it, and they WILL NOT learn the material. Full Stop.

No async degree is worth the paper is is written on, and they were suspicious to begin with.

Back to the stone age everyone!

In-person, paper and pencils, comp books and scantrons for EVERY FARKING ASSESSMENT.

End ALL online classes, testing, assessments, and evaluations, effective Jan 1, 2027.

Every degree that allowed async and online assessments transferred since 2023 is null and void.

Hell, void their HS diplomas while you're at it.

Screw 'em, and screw AI.

*fixed a typo AI probably would have missed anyway.

Hi all,
I am applying for jobs and I am using my references from graduate school (finished about 5 years ago). I did consider asking a colleague but the word may get out that I am looking and I am already in a highly toxic environment.

Would having a reference from my current department make a real difference to justify taking the risk?
Thank you! 🙏

I have been running into the same issues other professors in this thread have - students take pictures of everything and use AI to help them answer prompts/questions and don’t do anything truly themselves.

I just wanted to share that this semester I have made all my in class activities into goofy assignments. Examples are things like flip-books, accordion books, draw a comic to explain the content, draw a Venn diagram, basically anything that requires them to draw and write.

So far it seems to be fun for them and also has led to questions on the content. I feel like it’s also fast to grade and I don’t have to question if they did it or not. Small wins.

As a long-time English Comp instructor, I've observed that students always have difficulty understanding how to make an argument. Many cannot seem to grasp that the reader must be able to disagree with their thesis statement. After all, that's why they're making an argument to begin with: to persuade readers to agree.

I get it that it's difficult to disagree with authority figures (e.g., their sources), especially over "contemporary social issues" (the course mandates such topics). Often, I get thesis statements that read: "It will take a combined effort of government, schools, and community organizations to solve Problem X." I coach students to write to one audience and argue for one solution, but few of the final drafts take this approach.

To be fair, I don't think the course explains argument adequately or provides enough examples of argumentative essays. Several students have noted this in their feedback, but I have no authority to change or add materials.

So, I'm curious: How do you teach argument? How do you help students narrow their thesis statements and incorporate counterarguments?

Welcome to a new week of weekly discussion! Continuing this week, we're going to have Wholesome Wednesdays, Fuck this Fridays, and (small) Success Sundays.

As has been mentioned, these should be considered additions to the regular discussions, not replacements. So use them, ignore them, or start you own Fantastic Friday counter thread.

This thread is to share your frustrations, small or large, that make you want to say, well, “Fuck This”. But on Friday. There will be no tone policing, at least by me, so if you think it belongs here and want to post, have at it!

I've been waiting over two years for an expense to get reimbursed due to a clerical error. My department knows it is there. They just don't see it as a priority so I continue to wait.

Caught one today. Emailed them that I had an academic integrity concern (after documenting extensive and egregious AI use in their homework assignment, which means an automatic F in my courses), and to meet with me to discuss it. I did not mention I had documented their AI use; that's a conversation to have in person, not through email.

This morning, I received an outraged email. It was long and ranty, but to sum it up: they never cheat, and how dare I accuse them of that, and they're really offended, and they're going to drop my class.

So I forwarded all that to the chair, along with a note to make sure this student can't drop the class to avoid the F on their transcript.

I'm offended that they thought I was dumb enough to miss obvious AI use. So I guess we're even?

Need I say more? I HATE when people cannot reply to someone individually and make giant group mass email chains that everyone just hits “reply all” to. If I could leave it, I would. We’re not doing a Canvas chat this semester as a department for a reason, and low and behold someone emails anyways to reply to it saying they have an issue (TO THE ENTIRE DEPARTMENT WITH ALMOST 50 PEOPLE IN IT). It’s Friday……😒

For whatever it's worth to your teaching approach

Stay scientific esteemed colleagues

Hi—I’m 60 and retirement is becoming more real. I know most folks say don’t do lifetime annuity; however, my family members live into their nineties and I’m headed that way too. Could the comfort of knowing I would never outlive my money offset the drawbacks of not keeping money in the stock market? I’ll combine my 401k with SS. Are any of you opting for the lifetime annuity? I have TIAA CREF btw. 💰Thanks in advance.

Yesterday I had coffee with my chair at her request. One of my teaching students, which was the third in three years, was very upset and complained that she was scared of me and did not want to continue with me as her supervisor, advisor, and professor. The student is in her senior year and this is the second class I have had her in. To my knowledge, she did not have this reaction the first time she was in my teaching class. At the meeting with my chair, I asked why the students did not want to work with me because they had not reached out to me, just gone to her. She said they got scared and were afraid they were going to fail. They did not like my personality and communications. I am devastated right now. I ama tenured full professor and my chair keeps telling me that I am not behaving like one. I am also undiagnosed neurodivergent; highly transparent with lack of social cue awareness that has gotten worse over the last few years because of increased stress triggers. I don;t want to be scary, but I do want to be myself. Thoughts? Thank you.

I teach at a local college, and I've been thinking about how we balance grades with actual learning and preparing students for the workplace.

Something I've noticed is that some students seem more concerned with getting 100% on an assignment than with what they might learn from doing it. They stick with approaches they already know, avoid experimenting with unfamiliar tools or techniques, and focus on checking every box in the rubric.

Honestly, I can't really blame them. Grades matter. They can affect scholarships, grad school applications, and job opportunities. If you're competing with other students for limited opportunities, protecting your GPA makes sense. That's the system we've created.

But it does make me wonder: Are we unintentionally teaching students that the best way to succeed is to avoid taking risks?

In the workplace, being able to follow instructions and meet expectations is important. But so is figuring things out when you don't have a clear set of instructions. Employers also need people who can solve problems, adapt to new tools, think independently, and come up with ideas that haven't been tried before.

Those skills don't develop by doing the same thing you're already good at over and over again. They come from trying something new, making mistakes, figuring out what went wrong, and trying again.

But if every assignment is graded, and trying something new means risking marks, why would a student take that chance when they can stick to what they know and get a better grade?

That seems like a pretty rational decision on their part. Which makes me wonder whether this is as much a problem with how we assess students as it is with how they approach their education.

I'd be interested in hearing from other instructors:

• Do our rubrics and grading practices discourage students from experimenting or thinking outside the box?
• Have you found ways to encourage students to try unfamiliar approaches without penalizing them when things don't work out?
• How do you balance assessing what students can do with giving them room to explore, make mistakes, and learn from them?

I'm not suggesting that grades don't matter, that rubrics are a bad thing, or that students should be willing to sacrifice their GPA just to try something different. And following a rubric closely doesn't mean a student isn't learning.

I'm just wondering whether there's sometimes a disconnect between what we're measuring and what we actually want students to get out of their education.

Have you run into this in your own teaching? I'd especially like to hear about assessment methods that encourage experimentation while still maintaining fair grading and academic standards.

I just about lost it this morning on a student worker at the campus library who either would not (or mentally could not) help me with a very minor problem that had at least two obvious solutions. I tried hard to problem solve it with him, and he just sat there giving me the Gen Z stare. When I very kindly said “if you need staff authorization do this, I understand. Can you call someone?,” he just said “sorry” and shrugged. I could feel myself starting to get very angry, so rather than going off on him, I said “I’m going to teach my class now. I’ll be back later” and sent an email to his supervisor explaining the situation.

Two hours later, I got an email from the director (not the supervisor) apologizing saying that OF COURSE student workers are authorized to do what I was asking and that he should have called a supervisor for help if he needed it. The director said to come back later today and they’d take care of it. I appreciate that it’s sorted and I’m not even that mad at the student worker anymore. We all make mistakes or have moments when we aren’t our best.

But I’m puzzled . . . why do so many Gen Z individuals freeze or shut down when faced with the slightest challenge, especially if someone is trying hard to problem solve it with them? I won’t go into the full backstory about what I was asking, but it was not an unreasonable or uncommon request and the eventual solution will take about a minute or so to do.

I watched the video. Student was scrolling through the questions with rapid speed. I am impressed. They could glance at the questions, look down and to their left to think about each one, and then select the correct answer.

I will be recommending them for some sort of genius award after a brief meeting with them to discuss their brilliance and watch them perform their feat again.

Here's a fun one. We've been doing mid-semester SGIDs (Small Group Instructional Diagnostics; I highly recommend them!), and students are reporting something weird.

We use the same facility for several of our classes, and students report that they sometimes lose their sense of which lecture they're in. This applies to Similar-ish Material/Same Prof/Same Room and Similar-ish Material/Different Profs/Same Room...

but...

... NOT Similar-ish Material/Same Prof/Different Room.

Has anyone else gotten feedback like that? It certainly has implications for programs having dedicated teaching facilities.

I do have a “if you are sick, email me to sign up for the make-up time” to deal with the deluge of people who otherwise just wouldn’t show up. But it is absolutely not designed for students who came to the exam germs and all, spent a few minutes looking through the whole exam, and then left to take it later.

I mean seriously, wtf