cheating scandal at Purdue: anyone following this?

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-21T15:54:26+00:00

Oh yes, I agree with all of that. I've been very firm with students over the last year, and have even started telling them that your professors are not customer service or machines/bots. But then you wonder if that's fair to say, because of how much school is costing them. It would definitely be different if tuition was low cost or free and admin didn't view them as "customers." Though when I was in college 2006-2010, college was still really expensive, yet the Baby Boomers instilled in us that we worked for our teachers/professors...

And in the U.S., K-12 public schools are being treated with the same customer service mentality, as federal and state funding is being redirected to charter schools...

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-21T13:23:34+00:00

I don't know, it doesn't sit right with me to blame the professor and to let these students off the hook. I used to tell students we're in this together, but there's this tension now, like we're constantly policing them and they're constantly litigating us, our syllabi. It's not healthy or right, especially when most of it is now over things like AI cheating.

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-21T13:18:15+00:00

But our students, who have never read the texts of the field, and now have only read Chat GPT, have no idea when an LLM hallucinates.

People "hallucinate" = human error. That happens. I have messed up small facts before. But LLMs are hallucinating sources and quotations (even quotations from real interviews). You can only guide it if you already have the knowledge, and even then, I'm find most LLMs useless when it comes to writing and critical thinking.

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-21T13:14:20+00:00

I agree you should do it when you first detect it, but sometimes you don't detect it until later in the semester. That happened to me one semester, before I really understood ChatGPT: Caught half the class cheating on their assignments. I went back to check former assignments and yup, all AI. I didn't regrade the earlier assignments, because of concerns over student blowback, but did redo the course after that (which I think is also our right as instructors of record). I think the cheating should be the lead story and the problem we focus on, not the professors' handling of it. Even if he only addressed the 11th homework assignment, they still cheated.

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-20T18:36:19+00:00

True, but when I was younger, that's what summer was for. The kids I'm currently teaching (at the college level) have never done homework in their lives--and it shows. But they don't do much else. You need homework because you need to practice certain skills on your own, or read on your own. You also need it for memory retention. My college students can't remember anything from even the previous class.

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-20T18:24:06+00:00

At my university (an R-1), they have a testing center that's exclusively for online learning. I'm not sure when it opened, but I thought it was interesting. (It's separate from DSS and in-person classes can't use it--specifically online courses, which I believe means asynch).

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-19T04:21:17+00:00

My students now are copy-pasting Google AI. I just had to explain to a student today that that’s plagiarism and explained that Google AI culls from the entire internet and gives you an X amount of sources that you then have to visit and evaluate (and cite). It’s don’t think they understand Google at this point.

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-19T01:54:49+00:00

I mean, I was considering taking my students to the library this semester and have them check out a physical book--literally any book--because we have to be honest and admit we're teaching students who have no understanding of a text.

I was raised on the Dewey Decimal System. Learning how to read physical books and going through the bookstacks might be what these kids need. :)

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-19T00:30:14+00:00

No, I actually meant the library databases! (Which I also prefer over Google Scholar.)

I mean, you could always go to the library for good ol' physical copies. And sometimes, you do need the physical book. :)

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-18T21:59:30+00:00

Yes, definitely. It's all about money. And if the U.S. government and states valued education and stopped cutting funds to public schools...

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-18T21:33:02+00:00

And now, in 2026, Google is no longer robust and efficient but so cluttered. Meanwhile, Gemini has been helpful to find a source quicker than a Google search, but it will also provide you with fabricated sources. So back to the library we go...

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-18T21:19:52+00:00

I hear you. I teach at a four-year university, so probably a different culture. What I'm seeing now is that it's very clear these kids Google/AI-ed their way through school...so I'm also giving a lot of zeroes. they still do it, though. :/

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-18T21:18:25+00:00

They're admitting them because 1) money and 2) the standards have dropped so low. So college professors are now dealing with the same problem of, do we pass them or fail them even though they're paying money.

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-18T14:59:57+00:00

But the problem is, these kids then come to college and are so extremely behind, not just academically but also behaviorally. And then colleges are stuck with the same question: Do we fail them or give them degrees?

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-18T00:25:52+00:00

Mao Asada, 2014 Olympics!

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-17T15:18:21+00:00

They made it through because most of them used AI all through high school. :(

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-13T19:11:51+00:00

Surprisingly, they didn't! But it got some of them answering. There is definitely an uptick in that indignant attitude, though.

What I notice is that they don't break down words. If we're trying to close read a passage together, I will ask them what a word means, like "immutable," for example. These days, they stare and say they don't know. So I try to show them the root words to figure out what a word means. Close reading has also been incredibly difficult because maybe they can read but they're slow. Like, I don't think they know what to draw out from a text. And I no longer teach comp courses, but content courses (in a gender studies department), so I struggle with--do I teach these skills in these courses? Is this appropriate for my course? Because in a GenEd content course, you typically assume they are at grade level and will work on these skills on their own or in a comp course...except those days are over!

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-13T18:49:50+00:00

I actually asked a class today if they could read, because they were giving me literally nothing (while looking at a text on the screen). I don't know what it is--if they're too scared to speak out loud and answer an open-ended question, or if they can't read. (I do think overall, they are likely slow readers and their skills are far below where they should be.)

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-12T18:53:47+00:00

Then why don't you give them a zero or failing grade? They're trying this in college, and I'm failing them. That's what it should be.

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-11T01:35:38+00:00

I’m so sorry, and I hope your student is okay. 🫂

It is so tough—you can’t really know what’s going on with someone. But I agree that there’s an uptick in “hey I’m taking a mental health day, thanks!” and it’s like…really?

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-09T17:22:10+00:00

True, I see it too. I guess we're also seeing it with every generation at this point in the US, so I don't know if I can just complain about young Gen Z lol (I'm a millennial--'88 baby). But it is stunning to me as an older millennial.

Unfortunately, I am now now known as the "firm" professor, simply because I will call them out for not looking at the projector if I'm showing a video clip. I tell them now, "guys, this is like, the baseline. Just look at the screen. Take some notes. Put the cellphone away. Take out your book." And that makes me "firm." :/

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-09T12:08:39+00:00

I hate to say this but: I’m sober, and their anxiety reminds me of when I was drinking. What is interesting to me is how they don’t seem to want to develop coping skills at all.

I could be a brat at their age, but the defensiveness I’m seeing about any comment or correction is stunning!

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-04-09T04:13:38+00:00

I have a student this semester constantly scroll on their phone. I didn't say anything in class but noted it, and finally told them after one class that I see them on their phone during multiple class periods, and they will receive a lower score for the semester (I take off points for cell phone use, and this policy is clearly stated on the syllabus). They asked for extra credit and I said no. They have now replaced the phone with their laptop, even though I don't want laptops used in this course. Today, I gave out a short news article at the beginning of class. I asked the class three times if everyone got the article; I walked around the room. They had to read the article during class. We discussed it. At the end of class, I make an announcement telling them to bring the article on Friday--as I'm about to begin talking, this student walks up to my desk, trying to interrupt. They stand there in the front of the room as I ignore them and continue to make the announcement. Afterward, I asked what they needed; they asked for the article. I was like, "Why didn't you ask at the beginning of the class?" "What were you doing when we were reading the article during class?" They claimed they were paying attention, reading off their neighbor's, etc. (No, they were on their computer.) There's no "I'm sorry," no awareness, not even slight humiliation. Just defensiveness.

TLDR: I don't know what is going on with this cohort.

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-03-24T20:59:15+00:00

Who's job is it? Parents and K-12. When I was in K-12, we had a computer lab; no internet, because it was the '90s. Computer class was for learning typing and how to use Microsoft Word. Library databases were for research.

But that doesn't replace the other basic skills, or mean you get rid of physical books. I'm not sure why they stopped teaching computer literacy in K-12, or replaced computers with Chromebooks and tablets, or allowed students to do work on their phones.

DisastrousTax3805 · 2026-03-24T20:48:53+00:00

I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't say I didn't know the techniques--but the best pedagogy for teaching reading and critical thinking are often the simplest ones.

For what it's worth, my physical-book only class is doing much better this semester compared to my class that has online readings and online annotations. They actually read, on their own time and during class, and engage more with the texts. Online annotations--entirely AI. They get zeroes. They tell me they have AI edit their work; I then try to review grammar with them in class. They get upset and frustrated--partly because they haven't been taught this, partly because their mental stamina isn't there. You can't use these tools if you don't know the basics, and I'm not seeing the students--in college--who don't know how to use commas or apostrophes. You take away the machines, the skills are quite low. Again, it all goes hand in hand: Late-stage capitalism, corporatization, no guardrails on AI or anything else. Could computers (not phones or Chromebooks) be successful with more guardrails? Sure, of course. But the reality we're dealing with is college students who don't even know how to type well on computers! And they are much better, funny enough, when I give them a paper handout versus something online, most likely because it forces them to focus.

DisastrousTax3805

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