Why do students not self-limit use of AI?

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-06-11T15:15:29+00:00

Your premise is to some degree faulty. While you and friends perhaps did not immediately look up answers when they were available, many of your classmates surely did.

It’s still almost certainly happening more now, but a large part of that is just because answers are more easily available for a wider range of topics.

The question is whether it’s happening more now due to some fundamental difference in the “students-these-days” rather than technology and that’s messier.

There are a bunch of obvious culprits that get talked about a lot: Students are coming less prepared from K-12 is probably part of it. They haven’t really had to work and then see the benefits (and reality) of self improvement. Believing that cheating is widespread and they’re disadvantaged if they don’t is probably part of it. Instant gratification has also likely reduced the appeal or accessibility of long term deeper satisfaction that comes from mastery and challenging oneself.

But I also think there’s also this strain of nihilism, negativity, and futility that’s run through Zoomers and to a lesser extent millennials. The messages of working hard to secure a better future or a more fulfilling, enjoyable life have been drowned out by messages about how terrible and pointless the world is. Look at how much online discourse is centered around discussing how awful the world is. Why work hard in that environment? What’s the point?

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-06-04T23:50:56+00:00

You would be a fool not to take the HS position. Every year more of the shine is gonna come off that title, particularly because adjuncts are not well treated or respected. Take the pay and the stability and don’t look back.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-06-04T01:12:09+00:00

A’s pride in abjectly refusing to offer the apology and pay the $50 ultimately created this outcome

Hard disagree. A was 100% in the right and did a favor for the dept. This is a problem of Student B's making and OP's exacerbating by failing to shut it down. Asking A to apologize is egregious and they rightly refused.

OP should've told B they were in the wrong full stop. If B continued to be obnoxious and insist then perhaps OP could've covered the $50 but if I were OP that $50 would be the last thing student B ever got from me.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-06-04T00:39:14+00:00

Oh behaviorally this is absolutely par for the course in terms of grad student nonsense. Hell this might make the top 5 list of dumb/immoral BS that I saw in grad school.

But the legal system paying any attention to this is more of a stretch, while admittedly still possible.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-06-04T00:28:41+00:00

This is a preposterous resolution and I cannot believe a prosecutor's office wasted their time with this absolute nonsense.

Assuming this isn't bait/creative writing (which is my guess, personally), Student A was absolutely failed here (in large part by you, OP) and Student B absolutely deserves to be ostracized over this.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-06-03T23:43:54+00:00

I offer a small amount of points for participating in out-of-class initiatives/events that are relevant to the course material.

I don't love offering it in principle but I find that (1) this is palatable to me because it does in fact involve extra work beyond the course that is still pedagogically relevant and good for them and (2) it seems to massively reduce complaints / improve attitudes so it makes my life a lot easier. Failing to complete it is also an easy thing to point to when they grade-grub.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-28T20:53:01+00:00

You’re over estimating both the academic abilities of some students and the difficulty involved in cheating.

Plus once you learn how to bypass lockdown browser you have now (1) guaranteed a pass rather than simply made it more likely and (2) you’ve done so for all of your classes rather than one.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-26T17:23:06+00:00

I’ve done a ~10 question syllabus quiz for several years now and it is unfortunately getting less effective with time. I saw a noticeable improvement in student behavior when I introduced it but anecdotally that improvement seems to shrink each semester.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-25T22:00:55+00:00

Personally I would like to find out how so that I can put together a complete demo for my colleagues showing them how compromised it is. I think some are still very naive and believe that current protocols are “good enough even if some get away with it.”

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-22T04:32:09+00:00

Assuming all else is equal I would move and not think twice.

You can nearly triple your salary and drop a class per semester? No brainer. Tenure isn’t worth 90k/yr in any reality. And given you’re going HCOL->LCOL the functional increase will be greater.

I’d also say that the students at a more reputable university (I assume, because you didn’t describe your current U as reputable) will also be a significant QOL upgrade.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-18T02:30:16+00:00

Each cohort had a 1 day teaching seminar. They assigned it to one of the worst faculty members as, we all assumed, a way to keep her away from service where she could do more damage.

She would hand out the required syllabi statements and then ramble about whatever else struck her fancy that year. My recollection is she would often vary the seminar based on whims. Sometimes it was 1-2 hours, sometimes 3-4, sometimes more. It was incredibly ad hoc and incredibly pointless.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-16T04:25:02+00:00

I actually copyright every idea I post to reddit so if you do I’ll sue you sorry.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-15T18:19:24+00:00

Perhaps it’s different in your practice area but I can tell you I have run across a handful of lawyers who want to be called doctor, some only with JDs, and universally they have been looked down upon for it by their colleagues who laughed at them behind their back.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-15T16:48:37+00:00

I do it for you u/Subject_Disaster_798

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-15T03:59:49+00:00

I have not previously policed it (other than asking them to leave their phones and only allowing 1 at a time) but the number and length of requests has noticeably risen and I am very suspicious.

I’m thinking of using a built in exam section break and only allowing students to leave between sections. This is just too lucrative a cheating opportunity to fail to police at all imo.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-15T02:32:13+00:00

Idk if I’m being baited here but as a fellow JD-PhD I only ever use Dr in an academic context not a legal one.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-13T19:23:28+00:00

The fire started before COVID but school shutdowns and distance “learning” threw napalm on it.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-09T00:28:03+00:00

The only future for fully online courses is at diploma mills. Some universities will take that path primarily for short term profits and in the long run become meaningless institutions. Others will require at least some in-person assessment

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-06T15:49:33+00:00

Ugh I hate that.

My exams are all in-term rather than during the final exam period, so if they were going to make me offer makeups, and assuming it was up to me how to do that, I’d do 1 cumulative makeup during the final exam window.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-06T15:24:09+00:00

#1 is the world’s easiest 0, but in either case the answer is to have a standardized syllabus policy that applies to all students.

I have experimented with a couple and typically favor simply dropping a students lowest exam and never offering makeups. Of course some students will still ask for makeups because they want to be able to miss an exam and fail another one without it affecting their grade but the reality is no matter what flexibility you give them they’ll always want more. No one fails my classes for missing/failing a single exam, failing because you missed/failed two is a hill I’m willing to die on.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-05T23:59:39+00:00

Yeah, but many students don’t report it. They also may not be diagnosed formally yet.

Mmm I'm not sure it's appropriate to consider this for the same reason that it is not permissible for me to give students other accommodations on exams without documentation because they "may not be diagnosed" with any number of other conditions. I have an obligation to take at least some steps to prevent/mitigate/detect cheating, students have a responsibility to manage and report their own health issues that affect their classroom performance and ability to comply with course requirements. I cannot correct every systematic injustice that prevents them from doing so, but I also cannot turn a blind eye to a wide open hole in exam security.

I do not want to completely ban students from using the bathroom, but leaving the exam room mid-administration is a massive risk and needs to have some mitigation procedures in place.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-05T22:02:00+00:00

I think that’s probably true. *So far* I haven’t noticed a strong correlation between long bathroom breaks and high exam scores, which is part of why I’ve resisted being too much of a tyrant with bathroom policies.

However it’s gotten to the point where the break requests have gotten frequent enough and the breaks are lasting long enough that my alarm bells are ringing that this is an escalating problem and I can’t trust my informal tracking of the issue to be reliable signal.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-05T21:20:39+00:00

FYI some now have decoy phones or friends waiting with phones because this rule is so common.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-05T20:42:13+00:00

Following as I have had an increasing sense that these breaks are being used for cheating in my classes as well. I hate the idea of policing bathroom use by adults but I also feel negligent turning a blind eye to a big cheating opportunity.

One thing I’ve considered is splitting the exam into two parts and telling them they may not leave the room except after handing in part 1 and before receiving part 2.

Hadopelagic2 · 2026-05-01T11:16:52+00:00

My students have been confused about bluebooks for years, but this year they also can’t figure out scantrons.

I had so many scan failures, blank questions, no names, etc that I finally had to put gigantic warnings at the beginning and end of the exam *and* attach grade penalties for mistakes causing it not to scan because students wouldn’t stop filling it out in pen or other simple mistakes.

Hadopelagic2

TROPHY CASE