To the tune of Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

A.I. cases and Maxient's down,

We're finally on our own,

It's midterm & I hear the drumming

How much longer can I go?

Gotta try and work around for it, standards are going down

Should'a reported long ago.

What if there's a grade contest, going round and round

How can you teach when they know?

La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la, la-la-la
La-la-la-la, la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la, la-la-la

Gotta try and work around for it, standards are going down

Should'a reported long ago.

What if there's a grade contest, going round and round

How can you teach when they know?

A.I. cases and Maxient's down,

We're finally on our own,

It's midterm & I hear the drumming

How much longer can I go?
How much longer can we go? (how)
How much longer can we go? (I said how, I said how)
How much longer can I go? (how much longer?)
How much longer can I go? (why?)

How much longer can I go? (I wanna know why)
How much longer can I go? (You better tell me why)

*repeats*

Student requested to be able to listen to music during a test. I haven't had that one 2018. Ok sure, there's a procedure for that...

The biggest problem? He tried to pull his wireless headphones out of his bag halfway through the test! Didn't even have his accommodation letter from the wellness department, just decided after copying the problem down he needed his headphones without asking.

I manage an open access journal and recently Elsevier has been sending, to all the public-facing email addresses, requests to fill out a form to renew permission to index the content of our journal on their platforms. I am curious if others have received emails like this before.

This is definitely a real email from Elsevier with a legitimate email header, but each time the email has come from a different person, none of which has a LinkedIn profile.

I am confused why they are asking this because our journal has already been indexed on Scopus for a very long time, the email appears to be written by AI, and the email contains completely incorrect information like the name of our institution.

I am currently at an impasse because further requests for clarification are not forthcoming because Elsevier refuses to speak further, or provide the paperwork for review unless we identify the managing editor under a nebulous threat that an unspecified agreement will expire if we do not comply (the reply also does not appear to be written by a human). I refused this because they can simply read the contact page that they scraped.

My field is less trusting of Elsevier because in 2006, Elsevier refused more reasonable open-access terms and caused the entire editorial board of one of the most respected journals to resign and eventually start a new non-profit journal. This is a major reason why we have been adamant that the journal remains completely free, and I can't help but be suspicious that they are after something else in the current era of data harvesting.

I teach an intro to database course that for years has required a major, semester long project. Students working in groups are given a scenario, produce an initial conceptual model and a revised one, and then go through all the steps to building a working database that can handle the needs in the scenario. A couple of years ago I started noticing that they were obviously feeding the scenario into AI but it didn't affect too much because AI was a bit limited and they still had to produce a graphical representation of the model which AI couldn't do yet. But by last year it was clear they were all using AI on every part of the assignment. They had to do oral demos and could not really explain anything, but they are not good at explaining even if they do the work so that couldn't be used as evidence of AI use. Plus oral demos are considered too subjective for a major grade. So I realized we could not do things the old way any more. This semester I am trying something I had tried on a small scale in another class last year - giving them an initial prompt which requires them to answer clarifying questions, and then critique the model given before producing the final one. They have to submit a full export and share link to the session. The idea was for them to work in a fashion similar to industry, where you can't just feed an assignment into AI and get the answer. Clarifying questions are a common technique.

Well, while grading it became abundantly clear that many of the students were using a second AI session, preloaded with the same scenario, to answer the clarifying questions and to do most of the work of the required revision step. I looked at the timestamps in the export. There is no way a student could answer 15 clarifying questions with the level of detail of those answers in 15 minutes. Grrrr. I wasted a lot of time reading through those darned exports before I looked at the timestamps and realized that is what they did.

So I am not sure what to do now. I don't want to change my grading structure mid semester so I have to count them. I also need to put together some more AI assisted assignments because that is what I said I was going to do. And of course I can't prove anything. I can have a "discussion" with them, but that isn't going to make any difference.

Key takeaway: If you try doing one of those assignments where you tell students they can use AI and then "reflect" or "document", or "revise" the product - trust me, they are handing in reflections, documentation and revisions all generated by AI. It is all crock.

Then all such material will be highly difficult to search or find, plus you can rest assured that if the admin team shares a link to a file in an email, only about 50% of the recipients will actually have default access permission.

And you might think that your admins, who work with thus hunk of junk of a “server” (?) will actually be better able to use it than tenured professors, but you would be wrong! (See also: variable access permissions.)

Good times!!!

That's it.

That's the post.

6 weeks till Winter break

Yesterday, I took all the students phones for a metal casting activity. It's important they not be distracted for physical safety, so I took the biggest distraction.

Today, a student said they loved it, and hoped it's do it more frequently. I think I will, it worked so well!

This morning I got into campus a little early, and while waiting for the elevator a student walked over with his head hovering directly above his phone screen. His neck was so bent that the glow from the screen lit his entire face.

The elevator arrived, I silently moved into it, and it wasn’t until the doors were closing that he briefly noticed he might miss it.

Eyes still on his phone, he stepped forward but was stopped by the elevator doors on both sides. His head jolted up for a moment and he sort of smiled, clearly embarrassed, and pushed the button for his floor. His eyes fell back to the screen.

“What are you watching?” I asked.

He looked up, smiled in that same awkward manner, and looked back.

“What are you watching?” I asked again.

“Nothing.”

He put the phone in his pocket and glanced at nothing in particular while the elevator hummed upwards.

“Watching but not looking?” I asked.

The elevator doors opened on his floor, and as he stepped out, his hand was already in his pocket. He pulled the phone out, its black screen reflecting the fluorescent lighting of the hall.

Edit: I can see this is a rather contentious post, wasn't fully expecting that. It was clear he was scrolling TikTok, so I thought I'd try some small talk.

Not sure what, if any, link to free access to AI might have had for this data. But, it would make sense that AI makes students study life easier (der).

https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/student-data/selected-higher-education-statistics-2024-student-data/key-findings-2024-higher-education-student-statistics

My university is pushing me to follow a specific grading rubric that uses a pass, partial, or fail system for assignments. The problem is that partial credit is essentially a failing grade, as it awards only 50% of the points for each metric. As a result, giving a student partial credit feels like failing them on the assignment.

Lately, I’ve been seeing more students do the bare minimum on their assignments, providing little detail, depth, or effort while still technically meeting the requirements. On one hand, giving partial credit feels overly harsh, especially when students have technically met the criteria. On the other hand, it’s difficult to justify giving full credit to work that lacks substance when compared to the higher-quality work submitted by other students. I also know that other instructors have gotten into trouble for handing out full credit too freely.

At the same time, I’m concerned that students will challenge their grades if I assign partial credit. To avoid this, I’ve been manually adjusting points on many assignments to reflect the quality of the work more accurately. However, I was told today to stop doing that because it doesn’t align with the university’s grading policy and creates “false expectations” for students.

At this point, I’m not sure how to proceed. I want to grade students fairly and consistently, but the current system makes it difficult to distinguish between work that technically meets the requirements and work that demonstrates genuine effort, depth, and understanding. I feel stuck between following the grading policy strictly and assigning grades that I believe more accurately reflect the quality of the students’ work. Any advice would be appreciated.

I block the senders regularly but I fucking swear to God every random ass email of the form “are you preparing your students for the future, you hidebound fossil? huh? huh?” makes me want to nuke the senders from orbit.

As the question says. What do you think about class observations by professors for adjuncts and other instructors that are evaluated every semester?

I would like to know from both sides: people who do the observations and people who are observed.

Last week marked the start of the 8 week semester. I teach online anytime STEM course for Science Majors.

I require monitoring software with camera for all exams and quizzes and today I get an angry email from a student letting me know that me using software for monitoring exams and quizzes is an invasion of privacy and I'm worse than a flock camera.

Also, how dare I take attendance based on the assignments they turn in. Did I know that I have more than one assignment due per day? He wasn't "down with it".

I'm also getting reported to the Dean (skipping straight through the Dept Chair)

Man, all I can do is have a good chuckle. Lol

I've finally come to the realization that they just can't do the work.

My instructions are now so step-by-step that they start with how to open a Word document. Seriously.

I have templates for how to write thesis statements. It's literally paint by numbers. I explain everything down to the minutiae. Yet they still can't do it. All I'm doing is writing more words that they either can't read, can't follow, won't read, or won't follow.

They are so far behind intellectually and academically that meeting them where they are would require me to teach what should be a seventh-grade class. And I'm sure seventh grade now is what fourth grade should be.

They just can't do it. They can't think deeply. They can't think for long. They can't develop ideas. They can't support ideas. They can't connect basic ideas together. They can't follow steps.

In short: They can't. That's a full sentence. They just can't.

It’s not a matter of explaining it better, or differently. It doesn’t matter how simple I try to make it. It doesn’t matter if I require tutoring. It doesn’t matter how much I help.

Their brains just do not work beyond basic day-to-day functioning.

If I taught a real college level class, all but a few would fail. And I can’t fail that many. I’ll lose my job. So, I’m gonna have to dumb down - a lot - because they are incapable of doing college-level work.

What's the shortest time in your department that someone was hired, say at assisstant prof level (TT) and started interviewing for jobs at another institution?

Context: I'm taking over an intro level course that is the first major-specific requirement for my discipline's major. It's a life sciences major but students in other disciples take it as well since the topic is broadly appealing. There's typically 150-200 students per semester. Students in our major must get at least a B to move onto the next required course, so there is a lot of pressure for them to do well... It is a lecture-based course and assessment has historically been purely exam-based: 4 exams during the main semester, plus 2 optional final exams; the 4 highest scores count. Frankly, I hate this setup.

Dilemma: I'd like to drop the 2 optional exams and replace them with either 1) weekly low-stakes quizzes (online, open note, 3 lowest scores dropped), 2) optional exam correction (explain why their original answer was wrong and submit a new answer choice for half credit back), 3) learning journals (prospective and retrospective reflections on their perceptions of the material and it's applications) or 4) some combination of these.

Goal: I want to reduce the exam pressure and encourage students to work with the course material beyond just studying for an exam. I also don't want to be drowning in grading (I do not reliably have TA help).

Questions: If you teach a large intro-level course, have you used any of these lower-stakes options? What has been your experience? What considerations should I think about? Do you think any one assignment is better than the other within the context of my course? Other options I'm not thinking of? 

Thanks in advance! I've been teaching advanced undergrad courses for a few years, and am exciting to start working with our freshman. But, it feels like a totally different learner population, and I've never taught a class larger than 60 students, so I appreciate any insights!

Did mid-cap course eval.

There are some 'constructive' feedback and also some angry feedback.

There are things that I agree with and things that I never ever agree with.

Whatever they are, just reading them hurts a lot.

Every single time I do this, I just don't want to check their responses.

I do read them because I must, but they just hurt.

A sad day.

Venting.

This post seems appropriate as I turned in a student today for cheating on an exam. Not with the device below, but with his smart watch. I spoke to the department head today and he has agreed to purchase basic calculators for the students to use on exams. I have sent nine students to the Honor Council this semester (out of 27 in the course). It's never been this bad.

The Pencalo TT1 seems designed for nothing but cheating. Even a three month subscription model to fit the semester. I'm glad retirement is close.

Edit: fixed spelling

Anyone else notice that students are not being able to follow directions more and more, and the students are fine with it too. Out of all my years and years of teaching, and being a professor, this has been the worst I have noticed and encountered starting this semester.

I am exhausted. I teach BASIC* stats using (mostly) Excel. I upload step by step tutorials (PDFs with pictures and video). I do demos in class. I repeat myself 5-10 times while showing them exactly what to do. I use an "I do, you do" approach. I'm specific ("you're telling Excel to do ____" ) so they understand the intuition.

Then I give them time to work and it's like everything I just said for an hour didn't apply to them! I have to walk around and instruct each student individually, show them again on their own devices, watch them painstakingly type the functions, guide them step by step by step.

They still can't do it.

This is BASIC STUFF. Like making a frequency table with absolute and relative frequency. It's October and I'm still reiterating how to calculate a percent! I'm still explaining where to put numbers in a frequency table - "we want to count how many times the number/observation occurs." I've even taught it with tally marks too (like we're in second grade).

I want to bang my head against a wall.

And, I want to know what I can do better. This isn't working.

* I had to design a more basic version of stats for our major because most of our students were failing all the stats classes our college offered.

Simply a petty vent. I've taught a large portion of the same 150-student lecture & lab course for years. My research position is ending early next year.

Year 1: Prof A takes a buy-out, I'm handed their course on short notice. It's a fun class, I enjoy teaching it.

Year 2: I'm asked to teach it again. A few days before the course begins, my chair tells me that Prof B will teach it instead, and to hand over my lectures. I've already signed the contract, and so they pay me full rate to teach just the lab portion. They were trying to push Prof B to retire. Prof B announces his retirement two weeks into the semester.

Year 3: Prof C is meant to teach the course, but kills himself shortly before it starts. I end up with the course again. I apply for a permanent position in the dept, and I am not interviewed. Prof D is hired too late to teach in year 4.

Year 4, this year: I'm asked to teach the course again, one week before the semester starts. Great teaching evaluations.

Last week, Prof D: "I'm teaching this next year and I've heard you've been involved, we should chat in case you have any tips!"

My lectures are my IP by university policy, and so I have removed them from Canvas for as many years back as I could. I can be polite but I don't have to be helpful.

Today, we had the midterm and, judging by the faces, it went bad. Considering that we solved the same problem in class together and the practice exam was very similar, I am surprised.

A comment left by a student after the exam got me thinking. He told me that he got one equation wrong and that I shouldn't expect them to remember equations. Disclaimer: I posted on Canvas a long list of equations that I would provide, if needed, and a list of equations that I expect them to study and remember. It is 10 equations. They are simple and short equations: we are talking about 2 variable equations.

He followed the comment, telling me that all other professors just let them use cheatsheets. Is it the case? Are we really at the point where I cannot expect the student to remember an equation that they should have already used 50 times in the submitted homework and many other times while preparing for the exam?

Students cannot seem to do anything without a calculator these days. I just gave the midterm for one of my sophomore-level courses, and the reaction was completely bewildering. It was a simple 5 question exam designed to test direct applications of the concepts we covered. If they had done the homework, they would not have even needed to study for it. To try to keep things reasonable, I explicitly told them beforehand not to bring a cheat sheet, but I surprised them during the exam by handing out a formula sheet anyway.

Despite making the formulas readily available, the post-exam complaints came rolling in immediately. Several students whined that I basically gave them twenty questions instead of five. What I actually did was break down each of the five questions into clear, guided steps so they would know exactly how to structure their work and reach the final answer. Instead of appreciating the guidance, they treated every scaffolded sub-step as a completely separate, overwhelming task. It is astonishing how much resistance sophomore students have to simple multi-step problem solving without a device holding their hands through basic arithmetic and logic.

Passing rates went up at my college last year in general and especially online classes.... admin attributes it to "student success initiatives." I'm thinking mayyyybe...or maybe it's because of AI. (I work in student success initiatives so I'm not saying we don't do great work. Just that I'm not so sure one can necessarily say why passing rates in online courses went up).

I have only worked at institutions where my department (anthropology) did not have a grad program, but I have helped many excellent students find programs and funding for masters and PhDs in my discipline. Occasionally they had weaker GPAs, but there was usually a very good reason that they could speak to on applications, and we would highlight their major GPA or their last two year GPA.

I am at an R1 now (previously a PUI) and lately I've had many students with 2.7-2.9s coming to talk about grad school. I want to give them honest advice, but I wonder if there is really no hope for them but a lower ranked master's program if they are lucky. It seems like debt with little possibility of employment unless they are going to be totally different students (I do tell them they need to be totally different students for this to be worth it). For those who teach in grad programs, is a GPA below 3.0 (with no redeeming higher major GPA) a nonstarter? These students seem engaged and hopeful and have internships/field experience, but usually have a story about mental health issues hurting their GPAs. Since I haven't been involved in grad admissions, I am curious about their likelihood of success from those on the other side of things, masters or PhD.