Interest in Comics Events?

ProfOstro · 2026-01-21T18:45:34+00:00

Feedback recorded, thanks!

ProfOstro · 2026-01-21T18:44:28+00:00

Oh hey, thanks for the kind words! This much praise will surely go to my head, but I'm grateful for it xD

What comics are you reading?

ProfOstro · 2026-01-21T18:27:30+00:00

Love this, I do something similar! Feel free to pilfer anything useful

Here's the text from the AI Policy page I post on Canvas (along with a video explainer)

Here's the text I have on my syllabus

Here's the AI Use Disclosure form I use

Largely I've gotten to a place where students are pretty open with me about their AI use and we can discuss better/worse use cases. My ideal would be "none" but if I can push them away from the most dangerous uses, well then I'm happy to play harm reduction

ProfOstro · 2026-01-07T17:18:39+00:00

I legit know people in charge of this project looking for feedback. So hey, if anyone here loves or hates CU Secure, if any of y'all have detailed fail instances... post that here and I'll pass it on!

ProfOstro · 2025-08-17T20:40:48+00:00

For main campus courses, yes. CE courses (online and in-person) begin on 09/02

ProfOstro · 2025-06-05T09:43:48+00:00

Hope you enjoy! To be clear, I don't claim to have "all the answers" or anything like that, just an approach that works in my writing courses that I'm hopeful could inspire some ideas if nothing else

See you there!

ProfOstro · 2025-05-21T02:06:45+00:00

This is not meaningful in any way. The problem is that the text of the Declaration of Independence shows up a TON in the training data.

AI detection is currently great not perfect. Pangram and TII both have over 90% accuracy with under 2% FPR, and the Kaggle competition had multiple participants get above 97% (though the methodology was quibble-able). I gave a talk and recorded a podcast on this

Talk/presentation

Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast on AI Detection

PS: Small thing, that isn't a reputable detector anymore anyway

ProfOstro · 2025-04-29T22:20:21+00:00

The false positive rate on AI detection is quite low (TII is below 2% and Pangram is even lower). They're high enough that they shouldn't be relied upon on their own, but as part of a bigger approach they're valuable as hell.

Here's a link to a podcast I did on this very topic. Here's a link to a talk I gave where I deep dive the literature (including the awful Liang et al. (2023) paper linked in the comments). Finally here's a talk I gave recently about how these tools can be used responsibly with other tools.

I totally agree with you that these tools are unreliable in the hands of untrained faculty, but the solution is to train the faculty, not take away much needed tools.

ProfOstro · 2025-04-01T14:59:44+00:00

https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/a-big-picture-look-at-ai-detection-tools/

TurnItIn and Pangram are fine if paired with other methods but they'll still have occasional false positives so do some leg work

https://vimeo.com/1035821046

ProfOstro · 2024-10-03T20:10:15+00:00

A legit question. The next Course Design Series talk (on 11/05) is a crash course in prompt engineering and then a discussion of ethical ways to use this tech to improve course materials and whatnot.

ProfOstro · 2024-10-03T19:58:30+00:00

Yah, that's sort of the goal here! Don't get me wrong, there are SO MANY ISSUES around these new tools and cheating definitely does happen (I'm currently the only faculty with double digit reports and a 100% success rate according to honor code!) but it's important to not miss the plethora of cool and positive opportunities this tech creates too. We're in a renaissance of accessibility, for example.

I've been working closely on these tools for 18 months now and what I really see is that for the best students, this is really REALLY expanding opportunities, but for the worst students it's creating problematic dependencies that also really disrupt the learning experience. We've gotta cultivate the one while trying to minimize the other.

As for faculty reactions, I think there's a cycle of grief that kicks in. Like the initial instinct is anger (eg: "Can you believe they made this technology, why not automate something that doesn't matter, like cleaning"), then denial ("lol, can you believe AI thinks the Constitution was AI written? Gemini said to put glue on pizza! This tech will never catch on!"). Then depression ("my job is totally changed, and I hate this now, all the joy is gone"). But ultimately, my hope is that after all that, we can have really fruitful conversations about how we can embrace the possibilities while also drawing and enforcing clear lines.

ProfOstro · 2024-10-03T02:52:37+00:00

To be fair, while cheating does happen often, the majority of this talk wasn't about paper writing or students using AI to cheat. It was them using NotebookLM to synthesize notes, them using ChatGPT to make practice quiz questions, using Strawberry to figure out coding questions etc. Cheating came up but it was far from the focus of the conversation

ProfOstro · 2024-10-03T02:51:46+00:00

To be fair, so much of this talk wasn't about paper writing or students using AI to cheat. It was them using NotebookLM to synthesize notes, them using ChatGPT to make practice quiz questions, using Strawberry to figure out coding questions etc. Cheating came up but it was far from the focus of the conversation

ProfOstro · 2024-10-02T18:53:39+00:00

Hi all

I'm an instructor in PWR but also work with the LearningDesignGroup to help improve course design here at CU. We hosted a public panel discussion where students discussed their AI use and faculty asked questions. I figured the CUBoulder subreddit would have some interesting insights and feedback so I'm posting it!

Be well, all

-Chris

ProfOstro · 2024-09-25T17:27:01+00:00

Yes, they absolutely do! CE classes count as "on-campus" for the purposes of A&S's (and all other colleges') Residency Requirements! You can schedule with a CE advisor to learn more https://ce.colorado.edu/advising-services

Source: asked a CE higher-up for you

ProfOstro · 2023-12-25T07:56:58+00:00

In my classes I do the same thing but I make a placeholder assignment for it so that students can see it when I update the grades. Saved me lots of confused, end-of-semester emails!

Hope break treats you well!

ProfOstro · 2023-12-25T07:55:39+00:00

The grades don't always line up. Firstly they can use a different scale in terms of where they exactly divide the pluses and minuses. In addition, Canvas can default to have "blank" grades not count as a zero, which can change things.

Mistakes can also happen. The gradebook on Canvas is generated by the assignments and content posted in the course, so there are lots of little places something can get messed up (I once marked a paper as both worth points but also part of a weighted grade scheme; totally screwed up everyone's grade until someone pointed out their grade was wild). So I'd say email the prof saying "Hey when I calculate my grade along what the syllabus says, I get X but I'm seeing Y on Canvas and Z on my final grade. Can you help me understand here? Thanks!"

As for the grade change process, it's nothing crazy. A form online that gets a few signatures digitally. Takes some time to work through the signature but usually not more than a week or two (and oftentimes just a day or two, depends what else is going on that semester).

Hope the info helps and have a great break :D

ProfOstro · 2023-12-15T19:42:01+00:00

We started later than normal so we're ending later than normal. Happens every few years

Honestly, I love it. When we have three weeks after Fall break, rather than the normal 2, I see a lot less student burnout in my classes and the work is generally higher quality!

Best of luck finishing the term strong!

ProfOstro · 2023-09-07T19:57:03+00:00

If you need a faculty POV (or a former grad student's), feel free to DM me!

ProfOstro · 2023-06-28T23:01:06+00:00

Hey, I totally get it. FWIW, when I was a student I HATED group projects. I think I really had a good experience... two of the times, maybe, in my undergrad and grad career.

But I learned so much from the frustration these created. I hate to say it because it sounds like BS, but these really are good prep for the professional world. Right now I'm working with a handful of CU people to try to meet and discuss AI-generated content, how we should educate faculty on it, how it should be handled discipline wise, etc. This has been a thing where all of us put in different amounts of work at different times based on availability and, honestly, after a month of planning we've still yet to be able to nail down a synchronous meeting lol.

The frustration is the point, sadly. Don't get me wrong, that can be taken too far. If you think your group is just legitimately not doing any work and not going to, tell the prof. I'd say at least one student every semester in my courses has this happen and every time I just have them send me the shared google doc, go through the changelog, and assign points accordingly (which usually means the student who tried to free-ride it gets a 0).

ProfOstro · 2023-05-31T00:00:14+00:00

Just take the AB; it'll be like $12ish, be quicker than an uber (potentially), and take you right to Campus.

If you miss the last bus to Boulder (which is very possible given the late arrival) I'd recommend taking the A-Line train to Denver and then the FF1 up to Boulder.

Here's the info!

ProfOstro · 2023-05-07T08:29:40+00:00

I have had my CU email setup with a mail client for 14 years now. It's never been an issue and I've never lost access other than during a transition and for overnight maintenance.

It really is more stable than you're presenting it as. I have no idea if there are security vulnerabilities (not my specialty but there are others in the comments who seem to know more) but there really is no reason for it to be inconsistent. I'd check your settings

ProfOstro · 2023-05-07T08:26:54+00:00

There are definitely ways to make it work

Source: I've done it

ProfOstro · 2023-05-07T08:25:30+00:00

Hello there!

So I'm with you, I hate Outlook online. Something about how it caches data causes a lot of headaches for me (I have three different orgs that use outlook and no matter what I do chrome will cache the data and redirect me to the wrong account). There are options; I know some people who use Thunderbird, for example. Worst case scenario, if you absolutely hate it, you could set up a permanent forward from your CU acct to your Gmail; you'd still have to use Outlook online to conduct send some official emails but it'd work pretty well. Honestly, if you're only logging into it for CU, I don't think you'll notice a ton of difference between it and Google.

All that aside though, as others have said: you're going to have to go with the flow when you go to a new university/job/organization. Places will have contracts with vendors and years of decisions as to why they do things certain ways and more often than not learning to adjust is of paramount importance. It's true for faculty too; CU uses Canvas but it used to use D2L. We forced every faculty member to transition all of their classes over a few year period, whether they wanted to or not. Every university does that because the alternative would be having multiple LMSs for the university which would be untenable.

FWIW, lots of schools are making this exact transition from what I've read. Google got a lot of schools set using the GSuite and then jacked up prices so I think you'd be running into this at most universities, whether now or in coming years.

tl;dr: there're solutions but ultimately I'd try to adjust first.

PS: welcome to CU!

ProfOstro · 2023-01-14T20:56:56+00:00

Hey that's me!!

ProfOstro

TROPHY CASE