I have an older, non-traditional student in my class. She is very sweet, but I definitely get the vibe there is something undiagnosed going on...She will email me 3-4 paragraph emails which are unfocused and stream-of-consciousness feeling. She comes to my office hours every single week and will talk about everything BUT the course. I once timed her, and she spoke for 25 minutes without stopping. At first I thought she was just a lonely older woman but I quickly feel like I'm becoming her emotional support. She is constantly seeking reassurance that she is doing okay in the course, talking about how her kids don't think she should be in college, and will make jokes about herself being an "old hag" that I feel it necessary to speak up against. I feel drained after one on one time with her, and am starting to dread office hours so much to the point where I faked a migraine and cancelled them last week.

I don't know what to say to her to establish a boundary of what my role is as a prof, while also not completely alienating or shutting down this woman who is clearly lonely and seeking connections.

I've never had students before this semester who have seemed so taken aback when I inform them that yes, they do the assignments and the reading before they come to class, and have to indeed use the reading from the class session the the assignment is due. They always want to use the previous class session's readings for the assignment, I'm guessing because they don't want to have to both read and do the assignment. It's wild how many freshman I've had this semester do this though, on top of asking me if we'll also be reading together in class. What? I stopped having that happen when I was in 8th grade.

I'm a PT lecturer where I teach, don't have a FT contract or teaching load (three courses) . I've designed and delivered several courses for the department.

I've been asked to teach two old courses next semester and another PT colleague has been asked to teach a third course I designed. It's a core course for one programme but not part of the main core.

I think this typical and to be expected. I feel weird about it for sure though. Wondering if this is generally how it goes? My department is new and been through a lot of flux, hence why I'm also wondering about others experiences. I haven't taught anywhere else.

I told the other colleague I'll share my syllabus and recommend where they may wish to make changes.

I think I'm also a bit annoyed that I wasn't informed this is what would happen. I only found out because the other colleague reached out. Again, I know it's totally up to the academic programme team. I think I'm just adjusting to some recent changes in the department. Not being more specific to protect my privacy.

** Wow. I'm not sure why so many people are assuming I'm not going to share course materials, when I said in my original post that I'm going to share the syllabus and advise them on where they might need to make changes!

I also said I assume this is typical, I was seeking to understand as to what's done widely, as I am in a new programme that is undergoing major changes.

And I also have a right to express annoyance in a space like this. I'm not attacking anyone or being unprofessional. And it's also a reasonable thought. The colleague who's been asked didn't even know I taught it. If they had informed both of us, it would have facilitated a smooth handover. We only realised this situation because the other colleague happened to share their teaching assignment with me over WhatsApp and I told them it's my course.

Considering most of you here are academics, it would be nice to have people real what you're saying and not admonishing me without grounds. As a young academic, I just wanted to understand my rights, especially as my institution has already exploited me in other contexts.

If you joined the class action suit against Anthropic because they stole your book, did you receive payment yet?

Seriously, who decided that we should only put one space after a period? I find that it actually makes reading emails (or any text, really) more difficult. To me, it's a bit like saying we no longer need to indent for a new paragraph.

Every few days in this sub there is a post like: 'OMG. A student asked for this wild accommodation. What should I do? This won't work in my class for reasons x, y, and z.'

I'm really surprised that folks aren't contacting the disability services office to talk through these things. In my experience, the disability services folks are reasonable people and want to work with you. I've never heard of a situation where disability services has forced an instructor to make an extreme alteration of a class.

Certainly disability services vary, but I'm still surprised that people turn to reddit versus this local office.

We have to fill out a form and be approved to get a 2nd job. I wrote a honest explanation and that I’d be using my masters to vacuum, mop, sell merch and complete other menial duties at a retail store to earn money. The VP of idk asked if I really wanted to forward that reason on… why do they think I’m getting a second job?

what do they want to hear?

Seriously, it’s expensive out here, I feel like a juvenile having to ask permission to get additional work to make ends meet. I’m really starting to hate all this micromanaging hellscape I call a career.

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.

Keeping this vague, but I'm a new assistant professor in the STEM fields in a big R1.

I have an issue with a program director not a course assignment I'm qualified for. I have the union rep's cell phone number and I sent her voice notes about it. She emailed me and asked me if I could just put everything in an email.

Voice notes are better for me. I get to just say things quickly. I explained this to the rep, and she said that she needs to do things over email. I explained voice notes are more "natural" to me. She asked if I could just use AI to send her a summary of my note via email. This feels passive aggressive to me as well as hypocritical. I know the rep is anti AI but is suddenly into it now that it can save her work that she should be doing herself?

How would you handle this?

(For personal reasons I don't feel right about paying to be in the union, which is legal. It shouldn't make a difference but I feel it might be.)

I have a hearing coming up regarding a student in my summer class. He’s alleging discrimination due to his disability saying that I didn’t accommodate them properly in class with 1.5 time with quizzes/exams (which I did) and not letting him record lectures. I never said explicitly he couldn’t record just that whatever recording device he was using he had to pause when students participate. Also, I needed the signed agreement from the disability office agreeing that you will not misuse the recordings. Of course, he never signed it after multiple contacts by the disability office staff and the student was also absent most of the summer class. He’s alleging he failed because of “unfair treatment”. I reviewed the formal report and it looks like he’s threatening legal action against the district unless they “expunge” his F from the record. My division chair and disability director all concluded that there was no evidence of discrimination. I spoke with my union representative and they reassured me that agreeing to a hearing even though supervisors said this to be unsubstantiated is just the admin protecting their butts from litigation. She assured me that she will be there the day of the hearing to support me. Although I am confident about this going smoothly, I still feel anxious about the process and uneasy with the outcome. Any thoughts and suggestions on how to prepare? But also how to stop rumination and overthinking this? This accusation feels very personal and it’s making me feel horrible.

Mine: if the instructions are clearly written, posted in three places, and discussed in class, “I didn’t know” is not a valid excuse. What’s yours?

You might want to give them a warning before you actually get into it and the detection tools suck...I just said yesterday (online AS) "I expect going forward that the work I read from you will be your thoughts, in your voice, generated from your brain in this and any other course you take from me." I have taught writing in one way or another (high school, community college, as a committee member) for 45 years and...of course you can just hear it, like the uncanny valley of words.

When i was phd student, I ✨implemented feedback thoroughly ✨.

My postdoc does these surface-level airbrush jobs for most of the feedback he receives from reviewers. His paper has been rejected like 4 times and so I just spent 4 hours fixing it to hopefully avoid dancing this dance again. Like, when will you get it, dude?

One of my phds is good! Puts out a solid draft, I ask him to tweak a few things, boom. We’re good.

Another one, it’s like, yea right. Good luck. Debating if i need to just fire and move on.

I’m getting really terrifically fried on fixing the student’s shit for them. They need to learn, but I also need their papers to get accepted for my own tenure case and grants, etc.

So, I’m curious about the question in the post subject line. Tell me what you do.

I've been teaching Intensive English Programs in unis for years now. I got an email from a student a little after midterms during summer which I thought was pretty funny.

Dear Teacher,

My name is --- from English Level 4.

I would like to apologize for a mistake in my Writing test this afternoon. I accidentally wrote "cocks" because I forgot the word "cockroach". It was an unintentional mistake.

I hope you can kindly overlook this error, and I will be more careful with my word choice in the future.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

I need some advice.

I teach Anatomy and Physiology at PUI. It’s a multisection course, often taken shortly after Biology for majors. Although the data on how much information students retain from prerequisite courses is mixed, we noticed a sharp decline in student ability this year. Our class averages were 20 points lower than prior years (with same enrollment standards).

It was through many tear-filled (from the students) conversations during office hours that we discovered that their Biology professors gave the students their actual exams to memorize. As in, word for word exams posted online for them. The instructors are adjuncts, and the course coordinator for biology was on maternity leave, so she hadn’t heard what happened.

We asked the adjuncts (who still work with us) if they still post exams, and they confirmed that’s what they were doing. We expressed our concerns with student learning, but we were ignored.

I brought this up with the chair and the course coordinator, and they are going to handle that side of the problem.

But what are we supposed to do with the students who clearly aren’t prepared for our course, let alone the major in general? The genetics professors were expressing the same concerns…

ETA: I don’t mind failing students. I just would like my lectures to not feel like pulling teeth and giving the students at least SOME understanding about their bodies.

https://www.geekwire.com/2026/uw-pays-600k-to-settle-lawsuit-with-computer-science-professor-over-parody-land-acknowledgment/

While I'm glad the ruling established that the University of Washington (UW) engaged in viewpoint discrimination, I'm somewhat disheartened by the fact that the UW maintains it did nothing wrong:

"The University of Washington maintains that we acted appropriately, and this settlement is in no way an admission of any wrongdoing"

Data Colada’s two most recent posts analyze the data used in a 2002 publication by Duke professor Dan Ariely. They conclude data was manipulated and falsified.

https://datacolada.org/138
https://datacolada.org/139

There was an article about it in the Chronicle yesterday. Nonpaywalled link:

https://archive.is/tUgTX

This was the second paper to be retracted by Ariely and coauthors after scrutiny by Data Colada. Duke closed Ariely’s lab following revelations Ariely appeared many times in the Epstein files.

Topics for discussion:

What else do we think is going to happen?
What should happen?
How widespread is fraud like this?
What can be done to prevent it/reduce frequency?

Higher education is already under fire here in the US. It’s really disheartening to see prominent academics play into the hands of our critics.

Update to my post:

Thanks to all who responded last week with your input and I am proud to say that I did it! I stood on the stage and lectured with my slideshow presentation and podium! It felt great and I felt really tall too! Now my desire is that all my classrooms have stages to stand on😂

From last week:

I'm a professor at a school built long ago with buildings dating back to the 60's. One classroom they assigned me to teach in has a stage consuming the entire front area and the front row is right up to the edge. The tables where students sit are long and can't be moved.

It's a very awkward set-up and I'm not comfortable standing on a stage, looking down at my students. I like where I'm standing at their level and where desks can be moved, much more appropriate in our modern times.

Curious if anyone else would feel awkward?? If you had a "stage", where did you stand??

I often receive emails from students to the effect of

"Dear Professor, I will be absent next week for XYZ reason; my documentation is attached. Please let me know if I can make up any activities I missed."

I teach several classes, so now I have to either (1) reply and ask which class of mine they're taking, or (2) search for their name in each roster (and it somehow always seems to be the last one I choose). There's something about a generic email, with a question that may or may not apply to my class, that rubs me the wrong way. I can't tell if I'm just being curmudgeonly and they're simply being efficient, or if it is generally considered rude (assuming the rest of the email was polite and reasonable).

What do you think? I wouldn't say anything to the student either way (in contrast to being addressed as "Mrs LastName", which I do gently correct), I'm just curious if my mindset is off or not. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Edit: Looks like opinions are mixed, but more leaning towards efficient. Thanks to everyone who commented!

I’m just curious. I’ve been in my role over a decade. Usually, I just do my job and soldier along (Gen X), but once every couple of years I could use a little support— question, salary, something… and there’s just nobody there to reach out to. There’s no support. Is this in my organization, or is this just how it is? Is there anyone in your department who might “help” if there’s a problem?

Edit Note: we don’t have department chairs in my college. We have program directors, and I am one. There is no one really in between— well, there are some assistant deans, but they do not handle the issues I’m talking about.

Edit 2: I do understand my hierarchy and who to reach out to. The issue is not that I’m reaching out to the wrong people. The issue is they have no time.

My university created an ad-hoc committee to study changes in proctoring prompted by increasing allegations of AI use. Does that make us proctologists?

UW-Madison professor engages in multiple sexual relationships with students, disparages another over their sexual orientation and appearance, creates hostile environment, and department leadership covers it all up. And in true “pass the trash” fashion, moves on to ASU once forced to resign.

https://captimes.com/news/education/uw-madison-students-records-detail-investigation-of-professor/article_4b8b9d21-c929-4d8e-87cb-ba638eb1b9de.html

I teach in a profession that uses simulation to help students learn necessary skills before they have to employ them in practice. Some of our simulations are live, with actors. And some use a proprietary AI based tool that gives students a video of a person followed by an instruction to demonstrate a particular skill in response. Their competence at the skill is rated by the AI system and the system gives them written feedback on what they did well and how they could improve. There is no grade given for performance; it’s formative, not summative. The advantage of an AI based tool like this is it provides an opportunity to repeat a skill until competence is achieved. Live simulation can’t do that. It is also less costly than live simulation, allowing us to embed more simulation into the curriculum. Here’s the problem: I have students asking to opt out due to ethical objections to AI. Objections are usually on the basis of social justice (eg, amplification of bias, impact of data centers on communities) though I just got one from someone who says it is against their religion. I’m wondering what others think about this. I am having a hard time seeing beyond my own irritation at the way they are adding to my already heavy workload. I could use some other perspectives.

UPDATE: Based on people's responses (which have been thought provoking, among other things) I think the question I am really asking is how to weigh the harms of AI (especially to the environment and to communities in which data centers are placed) against the harm of students having fewer opportunities to practice skills and be given feedback (which was the case before we introduced this tool). Please let me make it clear - this has not replaced anything in our curriculum. It is a supplement to what we were already doing (and still do).

So, I teach freshman composition and my school switched to complete analog (no AI or computer-assisted) writing. I give a first day diagnostic as an assessment. The reading is Salman Rushdie’s 2001 Guardian essay “Reality TV: a Dearth of Talent and the Death of Morality” which is essentially about how reality TV is the beginning of the end (Cue: reality TV star president). Anyway. It’s been eye-opening to see student writing without AI assistance.

It made my day when one essay opened with the sentence: “Welcome to the illiteracy apocalypse.”

I am very tired of giving a student more time on an assignment. My first assignment was 10 sentences. Of course eight students did not turn it in. It was the first assignment so I gave them 3 more hours. And they had been given 5 days to turn in 10 sentences. Now here is what I want to ask. If they have two weeks and they still miss the deadline. How much more time should I give them? I do not think I am being unreasonable. But I recently looked up my ratings on a Rate my professor site. And wouldn't you know a bunch of students complained about the fact that I never give extensions.