Jenn | Reappropriate

I have been learning over the last few weeks about how my students are relying on generative AI for their studying, and I am genuinely frustrated.

To bottle the question (and students who may have insights please chime in): why have AI do graded work that can fail spectacularly? Why use AI when there is almost no penalty for just trying it yourself? Why have AI create crappy study materials when better ones are already provided? Legit why?

I have been learning over the last few weeks about how my students are relying on generative AI for their studying, and I am genuinely frustrated.

Like this isn’t a rant about needing to police AI. I don’t police it other than to establish a policy at the start of the semester. I think AI can potentially be helpful if there is a concept students didn’t get in class and want to query ChatGPT for more information or a second explanation.

I have been learning over the last few weeks about how my students are relying on generative AI for their studying, and I am genuinely frustrated.

Let’s just say the AI-generated questions weren’t great. They weren’t wrong, but there is an art to writing application-based multiple choice questions in which the incorrect distractors are still plausible and ChatGPT does not have any of those skills.

I have been learning over the last few weeks about how my students are relying on generative AI for their studying, and I am genuinely frustrated.

I heard about students using AI to generate practice exam questions for my course, even though I already provide students with numerous study questions and a full-length practice exam.

I have been learning over the last few weeks about how my students are relying on generative AI for their studying, and I am genuinely frustrated.

Separately, I have learned about how many AI-based tools students are using as part of their studying strategy - which like fine, I guess, as long as it’s not being turned in for a grade.

I have been learning over the last few weeks about how my students are relying on generative AI for their studying, and I am genuinely frustrated.

I have done everything in my power to mitigate reasons a student might turn to ChatGPT to do this work, such as running out of time or not wanting to be wrong. I have also forewarned students of the high likelihood that ChatGPT will hallucinate.

I have been learning over the last few weeks about how my students are relying on generative AI for their studying, and I am genuinely frustrated.

I have identified two disallowed uses of AI in submissions for grading. In both cases, students were challenged to read, summarize, and analyze a figure from a primary research articles, and in both cases the chatgpt hallucination was so bad it summarized unrelated experiments or invented them.

I have been learning over the last few weeks about how my students are relying on generative AI for their studying, and I am genuinely frustrated.

For context, I teach a class in which assessments are very application-based. Rote memorization will not be sufficient. I tell students this upfront and provide lots of practice materials so they can learn these skills.

Everyone trying to defend that Converse ad apparently missed the part about how the viewer is also an active participant in the meaning of any art or media piece. If the art piece evokes a racist image for the viewer regardless of the actual subject matter, that is in and of itself meaningful.

Trump went on a rant today that supposedly because the Kennedy Center needs repairs and the government would subsidize that, the Trump administration should get credit. What a load of horseshit and also JFC I’m so frustrated that we have totally lost the definition of a non-profit.

Saw a social media post somewhere complaining that students these days want a lot of class material pre-processed for them. And a lot of those complaints are valid bc students are looking to shortcut doing the active learning and synthesis that will lead to better understanding. But…

And if that results in them doing better on the exam because they kind of knew what to expect? Cool. They learned it. That was the whole point. The practice exam prompts them to learn it. The actual exam only exists to show what they learned in the process.

Saw a social media post somewhere complaining that students these days want a lot of class material pre-processed for them. And a lot of those complaints are valid bc students are looking to shortcut doing the active learning and synthesis that will lead to better understanding. But…

This. Is. Where. The. Learning. Happens. This is where they are being encouraged to actively engage material, question and probe what they know, and hopefully achieve a deeper understanding that they will carry beyond my class.

Saw a social media post somewhere complaining that students these days want a lot of class material pre-processed for them. And a lot of those complaints are valid bc students are looking to shortcut doing the active learning and synthesis that will lead to better understanding. But…

This. Is. Where. The. Learning. Happens. This is where they are being encouraged to actively engage material, question and probe what they know, and hopefully achieve a deeper understanding that they will carry beyond my class.

Saw a social media post somewhere complaining that students these days want a lot of class material pre-processed for them. And a lot of those complaints are valid bc students are looking to shortcut doing the active learning and synthesis that will lead to better understanding. But…

If the goal is about reinforcing and checking student learning and understanding, then that goal is undermined when students are unprepared for the question formats, when they don’t know what’s important, or how to prepare themselves.

Saw a social media post somewhere complaining that students these days want a lot of class material pre-processed for them. And a lot of those complaints are valid bc students are looking to shortcut doing the active learning and synthesis that will lead to better understanding. But…

Exams and tests are a learning and teaching mechanism like any other. If my goal is for students to learn material by the end of the semester, exams can be just another tool - like homeworks and lectures - in my toolbox.

Saw a social media post somewhere complaining that students these days want a lot of class material pre-processed for them. And a lot of those complaints are valid bc students are looking to shortcut doing the active learning and synthesis that will lead to better understanding. But…

I saw someone complaining that students want practice tests with questions in the same format as the actual test. And like, respectfully, I don’t understand this to be the same issue at all.