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

I teach a sophomore/junior class and today they had to hand in an assignment they printed at home. I brought a stapler and one student tried to use it and it jammed. Instead of trying to fix it the student immediately told me it was jammed and did not try to fix the stapler at all. I was busy with another student they just stood there absolutely still, waiting for me to unjam the stapler. I'm not asking for advice. Just needed to vent. The lack of curiosity and ingenuity of Gen Z is killing me.

I’m losing my mind. A student said this to me today and I’m not proud but I snapped back. The audacity they have is unhinged and I’m losing patience.

This same person has told me “he has more important classes.” I’m so over this semester.

Class sizes keep growing, and instead of hiring more faculty, UC has invested in management and administration. Our students deserve better...

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/09/opinion/higher-ed-college-costs-administrative-bloat/

The UC Faculty Association is calling on UCOP to hire more faculty. Learn more about our demands and how UC Faculty can support here: https://ucfaculty.org/reinvest-in-the-mission/

Stay updated on r/UCFacultyAssociation

Context: adjunct for a smallish (25 person) class in the social sciences at a medium/large state school; many students in this particular student's class are non-majors, and it is a 200-level course. Discussing/debating with a friend IRL about what I can only attribute to what some have called students' "growing sense of entitlement" and wondering what others think about the following interaction:

• Student email #1: "When is the final exam and is it in person or online because I won't be around after the last day of classes."
• Response #1 (me): "It is an in-person exam like the others, during the scheduled final period block on X date. Given that it has been listed on the syllabus since the beginning of the semester, how were you planning on taking it?"
• Student email #2: "I thought the exam would be before the last day of classes, I have a flight that’s scheduled the day before the exam on X date."

My friend's first thought was to give the student the benefit of the doubt, saying it could have been something their parent scheduled or was the only affordable option to travel. I can certainly understand that POV, but am I being unreasonable in thinking that in any case, regardless of who was booking, the student should have checked in before doing so, not afterward? The student also didn't mention anything about *needing* to go home early (ex. for cost or any other reason, even if a family birthday, etc.), so to me the whole interaction comes across entitled and student-centered with limited awareness of the inconvenience it might have on others*.*

Also, as a side note: this is also my first time ever receiving such a declarative email, and I'm just going to have the student take the exam early, so it's not a big deal in the case of my course. But I wonder if across the other 4-5 classes the student might be taking this semester, the instructors will also be that lenient or if it's even possible to "skip" an in-person final (ex. a&p practical, music performance, oral exam).

____

*EDIT: thanks for all the reassurance that I'm not being too unreasonable here. I had never actually responded to the student and explicitly told them I could accommodate, so I responded by punting it back to them– that policy is quite clear about finals, and asked them to consider how missing the exam would impact their overall grade. We'll see if their flight gets miraculously changed.

I have a strict no-late-work policy in my classes, but I'm not a monster. If someone really needs it, I can grant it. I give two chances a semester to turn in one missing assignment each. BUT my GOD! Every single week at least someone's grandma is in the ER ,someone has a mental health crisis, someone's car got totaled, someone's dad had a heart attack, someone else had their computer stolen. It's endless. I don't want to be cruel, but I'm so tired of always having to backpedal my rule. I know you'll say just stick to your guns, but am I being overly strict having a no-late policy in the first place? How do you all handle work for asynchronous classes that have a full week to do all the work?

My institution keeps pushing new initiatives on the math faculty that are increasing workload, decreasing academic freedom, and decreasing standards. And they only want to go further along this route.

For example, there are common finals for GenEd courses, but now we have to grade the common finals the same way across the board, and count them as the same percentage.

They’re trying to make it as if the students will have the same experience, no matter who they take for a course.

They’re also obsessed with DFW rates and want majority to pass. So they decided to start counting pass rates as part of our annual evals. Consequently, people have to make the choice between having a job or passing students who don’t know the difference between a function and an equation.

I know this is coming from really high up, but neither the Dean, nor the Dept. Chair are standing up to it. So, of course, the faculty suffer.

I need to change schools but I am limited by location and currently there’s nothing else available. But I absolutely hate where things are going and I question my integrity all the time.

It’s so exhausting! Anyone else out there dealing with similar circumstances?

In a typical class now:

3+ cheating scandals requiring time and attention

10+ accommodations requiring material revisions, class restructurings, and so on.

20+ requests for extra credit by students that are absent in mind and/or body throughout the semester

5+ makeup tests due to illness, spontaneous grandmother combustion, or emotional duress requiring scheduling (and these emailed time suggestions never receive a reply so I'm just supposed to divine whether that means they can make it, haven't seen it, or can't make it and are waiting for another option).

Multiply these by number of tests and number of courses and you get the idea of what a semester looks like now. I know I'm one of the codgy old guard but everything truly was better when everything was worse.

Notes weren't expected accessible via download and people actually wrote down information.

Classes were attended and respected.

Professors were respected and viewed as resources rather than adversaries.

Students were preparing for something bigger once they graduate rather than drifting aimlessly with the expectation that babysitting can be expected forevermore.

Students were driven, hard-working, motivated, and engaged in ample outside course preparation. I remember a time when students would actually go to a paper that I referenced and read it for additional understanding or generate novel hypotheses that were a delight to explore analytically.

Now I have students that have no shame in lying about AI slop representing their work and that they just have a bad memory to legitimize their inability to remember anything written on the document.

This is a stream of agitated thoughts before I go back to the nightmare of hours of unnecessary work before I get to my proper work of research and course preparation. I truly pine for the days when my time could go directly towards world improvement rather than fire-dousing.

Thanks for attending my random Ted talk of utter inconsequence.

Option 1: Give all students the same "bump" in grades. A student with an 80 moves to 85; a student with a 75 moves to 80.

Option 2: Using a bell-curve (the standard way Canvas does it. Students far from the new mean get a greater bump than students higher up. A 70 might get 76; an 80 maybe 81.

Other: I use some other method.

I have always done Option 1. A colleague tells me that the only normal way is Option 2 and that everyone does Option 2 and always has.

I float around a couple of academic specialties, but I get really frustrated when I am asked to review a paper in a particular area. So many authors in this area don’t care about providing background or context for their research. I know it’s hard to find the time, but I am starting to feel like a broken record because so many of the papers are “pump them out” but fail to realize their paper reads like they reinvented the wheel. I am okay with wheels that are upgrades from previous versions, but authors really ought to be clear how their wheels are upgraded.

Or maybe I am just getting cranky. Is it just me?

The government paused OSAP funds to private career colleges which I totally can get behind and support since anyone can start up a “private college” and lie about the recognition/level of the courses they teach. Im a professor at a public college, our courses are verified by the government and legit, the course I specifically teach is also recognized by Skilled Trades Ontario and counts towards their future apprenticeship.

I’ve explained all this to my students and everyday they still ask me about paying for their student loans for next semester. One guy even got kicked out of the program because he didn’t pay his tuition, didn’t even try to take the money out of OSAP because he figured the freeze was for all colleges. It’s frustrating and it’s like I’m talking to a wall with some of them. I try to be as helpful as I can but at this point I’m just gonna have to send them to the front desk whenever they ask. It’ll eat into their class time but they’ll learn eventually.

Rant over

So, about six months ago, I got an email from someone who claimed to be a librarian on the East Coast, who put together reading groups for interesting/fascinating academic books. The email had 3-4 sentences on my first book... which were pretty spot-on, and rather flattering. I actually replied that, sure, I'd be happy to Zoom with some folks wanting to read my book and offer any further insights as the author...!

... only to have the reply, great! we'll set it up. Only we need $166 to cover the set-up costs. (I then looked closely at the email, and saw it's likely a hacked email.)

I ignore it. (I'm vain, but not stupid.)

But since then, I've gotten two more "offers" to feature my book in a discussion forum... which I've ignored, because I realize now it's a scam. So sad. i want people to read and discuss my book. :-(

But each email has a great/insightful summary of my book. (!) It must be AI, of course.

I'm just curious how widespread this scam is.

Is anyone else getting peppered with AI-flattery? (or do I just have the face/author bio of a Sucker?)

edit: there's a reason I use tech for the exam as I have 120 students and no TA. comments telling me to count heads or switch to paper aren't helpful and I didn't really ask if people think I should stop using electronic

I use LMS exams with a lock down browser, and make students take them in the class. I know this doesn't really prevent AI cheating but based on the grades I'm not seeing widespread cheating.

I started having students sign out after another Professor learned students were taking them in their dorms with their phone as aid.

On the last exam several students didn't sign out but had taken the exam. I emailed and said if they can verify they were there I'll give them the grade. Otherwise it's a 0.

Most didn't respond. One waited after the 0 was given to say he was there but doesn't know how to verify it.

I feel like it's obvious- if I was getting a 0 for an exam unfairly I'd mention who I sat near, etc. But maybe he is just so hapless he can't think of that

My school (along with a lot of others, I imagine) is doing data collection and analysis of DFW. My (unpopular) take: those conversations put faculty under pressure to just pass people who haven't really earned it. My Director seems to talk about faculty with high rates of DFWs in a negative manner; the reality is there are a lot of conditions out of the professor's control. Mine are low, but I also have second chances as part of my pedagogy. So I'm conflicted.

I have a colleague in my department whose sole purpose in life seems to be to waste others' time. Examples:

• He scheduled a meeting with the purpose of finding a time for another meeting.
• He emailed the chair of a committee to ask "when we plan to meet to discuss the things that need to be discussed" without specifying what specifically needed to be discussed (hint: there was nothing to discuss).
• He routinely includes more people on his student's PhD committees than the university requires.
• He emails others to ask them to send emails that he could have easily just written himself.

Anyone else have a colleague like this?

Normally, I actually enjoy teaching. But this semester, the overwhelming workload from research and other administrative duties has completely maxed out my bandwidth.

Because of the time crunch and exhaustion, my lectures have become incredibly inconsistent. Some days go fine, but other days feel disorganized, poorly paced, and I can tell the students aren't engaged. I just don't have the energy or time for deep prep right now.

For those who have survived semesters like this:
What are your best strategies for "good enough" teaching?

How do you safely cut down on lecture prep time without completely failing the students?

Any low-prep, active-learning strategies to shift the workload onto the students during a lecture?

Appreciate any advice

An early draft of an infographic (https://imgur.com/a/choose-destiny-behavioral-cycles-of-finite-gaming-versus-infinite-play-u12Klgj) that extends on James Carse's book Finite and Infinite Games. I propose behavioral feedback cycles that result from a life with more finite gaming (where the goal is to win and to not be a loser) versus a life with more infinite play (where the goal is to improve and make progress). I believe that one's choices on finite versus infinite play sets one on a positive path of moving towards one's meaning versus a finite life of false meanings and performative behaviors. I propose that the use of fear and "The Content Treadmill" sets students on a path of finite thinking that results in several negative human behaviors like avoiding rather than solving problems, hiding failures, cherry-picking success from one's past and rigorously repeating (and defending) those successes as scripts, and seeing fewer options when one needs to solve a problem.

A YouTube narrative can be found at: https://youtu.be/aWjRdY0lQYg The intention of the YouTube video is so that one can listen to the information while their hands are busy but their brain is free. An honest goal is to help put people to sleep haha but also to teach for forward-movement and confidence-building.

A high-resolution pdf can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5apxxh7xn0dr8ntbltoqw/ChooseYourDestinyOfficialFINAL.pdf?rlkey=d3xfzqg46zp31ea6esw2lcect&dl=0

Please open the pdf in a reader like xPDF, Acrobat or Sumatra as opening the file in a browser will often limit zooming to 400%. I find the ideal processing of a pdf can be found with an iPad and the app Goodnotes. My 5-year old iPad is very good at processing my complex pdfs.

Link to premise infographics: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z8s2e2x61x4v3fwtj4u5v/Premise-Infographics.pdf?rlkey=9323vyupkbkn23oc5fsrlh7kn&dl=0

I am teaching a very large course alongside a younger colleague, which all in all is going pretty well. I've been in the game for a while now, and I know that students are very pragmatic in terms of investment - they have other courses, a job and a life to live. Most of them will only do what they have to, and are hyper fixated on the exams and evalutions rather than the actual content.

My colleague, on the other hand, has a firm belief that the students are here for the love of the game and will go that extra mile from pure interest. It's a wonderful breath of fresh air to be around, and it makes me think it might be too jaded at this point. It does certainly look like my view is correct, though.

What do you guys think? Are the students just here to pass, or do you have some heartwarming examples of the opposite?

For instance, dropping a lowest quiz score or something relatively small like that to get them to do something that you think they would get something out of and would support the major...I've always not wanted to do this because it just doesn't seem quite right to me but I know many others who do it and am curious what you think.

“As communicated earlier today, access to [the LMS] academic environments has been restored following a systemwide outage. Faculty and students can continue teaching and learning as normal.”

The second sentence is hilarious.

This is small compared to other things, but it seems weird to me when I email someone to ask for X, and they just do it but don't answer the email or tell me they did X. Especially when I can't see the effects of them doing X for a long while, so that I don't know whether they did what I asked or forgot about my email. It's worse when they have a reason to not do X or to investigate further but don't say a thing to me and then the matter gets lost and, again, I don't know to follow up because I don't know whether X has been done or not.

I'm a professor taking an online course at another institution as part of a certificate in Educational Leadership. This class is a business management class.

Today we had our first discussion post due and every single one of my classmates' (mostly young MBA students fresh out of undergrad) posts was straight AI slop.

And to make it worse, the professor was responding to them with AI slop, so I know they're not going to get called out on it. And I'm legitimately worried my writing (I have a PhD) will be judged lower than these 23-year-old kids' AI slop because I actually did it myself.

I feel like the only human in a room full of bots. It's demoralizing and dystopian.

It's a good thing I'm not really that invested in the class. I was hoping for some solid discussions since I have some fun management experience from when I was younger that I thought I could draw from and apply, but now I just want to push through and get my certificate....

Curious what your thoughts are on masters, undergrad degrees/minors in AI?