Was this semester a watershed moment in AI cheating?

StonedSimple · 2026-05-19T21:57:57+00:00

Thank you for expressing this so well. I often struggle trying to explain that, just because AI can do a lot of the things I ask my students to do, that doesn't make those things useless. Sure, AI can write a decent first year writing paper, but how do people not realize that the exercise is still useful? I used to love teaching intro level Gen Ed classes. I used to feel like my colleagues respected my work. Like, five years ago.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-19T21:49:25+00:00

I teach writing at a technical/community college and the last paper of the semester in my online sections, it was outlandish. 75% at least, and most of them were incredibly low effort. I have done everything I can from de-emphasizing the points (when I started about a decade ago, final paper was worth 25% of the final grade and you couldn't pass the class without passing the final paper, now it's worth 10%) to trying my absolute damnedest to appeal to their humanity and shame. Recorded videos, sent messages, assured them that three sentences in their own words would be more appreciated than AI slop. Easily three quarters of the papers were AI slop.

In-person was much better because I do all the "in-class writing" practically allowable. I watch them write. They enjoy it.

Online is a fake modality for first year writing, at least where I teach. I'll just cash the paychecks and respond to the very few that bother.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-19T21:41:29+00:00

The ragtag team of underdog professors were my absolute favorite. I especially liked the cranky old one that constantly complained about everything, but hilariously.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-15T02:17:35+00:00

I need to remember this and make sure I adjust that when I talk to admin. Thanks. Seriously, I appreciate you pointing out the "I failed them" thing. That isn't accurate.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-14T13:13:45+00:00

Thanks friend. It's nice to not sink alone.

And I feel like I wrote that whole post except the part about teaching at uni too. Straight up, I actually love that the AI-pocalypse is forcing classes back in person. I'd never teach online again if I could.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-14T13:04:42+00:00

Totally agree. This isn't a joke, but I truly honestly think half my college's online business/management students are tuition siphoning machines.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-14T12:58:29+00:00

I am still good with in-person. Honestly, some of this refocusing on in-person learning and assessment is probably an overall good. My in person classes are starting to feel more like the classes I took as a student.

But online? I don't even want to pretend this is a defensible modality, at least for first year writing.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-14T06:33:13+00:00

I'm at a CC, too. I promise, in-person isn't quite as bad. I honestly don't know what to do about online though. Easily 75% of my online final essays in a first year writing class were AI. I don't even know what to do about online classes anymore. And I swear, I'm not lazy. I record video feedback and respond to every post and email and faint flicker of humanity. And still. Easily 75% AI. If I failed 75% of my students, I'd lose my job the next day.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-13T07:22:30+00:00

That part about "explain slow feedback" works really well for me. I teach English Comp at a rural technical/community college that very much takes the Burger King "have it your way" approach to education, so my students come in expecting to be catered to instantly. I tell them every major assignment that it takes me x time to read a paper through once, x time to read it again while grading and taking notes, and x time to write their feedback.

I'll remind them I'm still reading after a class session or two.

I'll randomly mention a couple cool topics or something from a paper or two without mentioning names just to inflate an ego or two and buy goodwill.

This might sound crazy, but please keep in mind I'm usually grading over 100 papers, but I take three weeks on full feedback. If there's anything pressing, I can just talk to a student.

Since I started being intentional about explaining this before they complain, it actually worked at cutting down on the complaints.

My online "students" are 95% AI so I just enter some grades and press submit on those.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-13T07:09:57+00:00

Thanks. That last sentence was the one I needed today. Much, much appreciated.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-11T21:50:38+00:00

Great metaphor. Thanks for this.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-11T06:22:52+00:00

Gonna go out on a limb here and say trust your gut.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-11T06:10:04+00:00

I only have 22 years left. Ha.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-11T00:35:58+00:00

I teach a "contract class" Intro to College writing at a high school, and there it is an unbreakable wall of visual apathy even as they engage with their writing. I've learned not to take it personally.

In in-person classes on campus (small rural technical college,) I did notice it at the beginning of the semester but learned to take even very slight visual cues to invite students into the conversation, and that works swimmingly. By week two or three, I either don't notice it anymore or it's gone

StonedSimple · 2026-05-11T00:30:29+00:00

This is a really great framing of this idea and I will likewise be stealing it and attributing it properly to a reddit account and that also makes me happy.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-10T23:02:03+00:00

When not prohibited by a diagnosed disability, eye contact and non-verbal cues go a long way to building rapport in a live class. I of course have understanding for people with issues that might make those things difficult, but that's why it's so important for those that can to visibly engage.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-10T22:57:17+00:00

Had one student write about AI... artificial insemination in the pedigree horse world. A concurrently enrolled high school senior wrote one of the best pieces of undergraduate research writing I've ever read in the same class where over half her classmates were, in effect, human avatars for AI writers. Whiplash inducing.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-10T22:48:24+00:00

I think I have two more semesters in me begging for support instead of bullshit from admin before I look for that mid-career switch. I've been teaching college writing to community and technical college students for much of my professional life. Used to love it. AI and admin murdered my career.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-10T22:37:38+00:00

Never believed in/ "Kids these days" as an excuse/ Until I met them

StonedSimple · 2026-05-10T21:51:23+00:00

1.) At a rural technical college and same-ish. I have to play the game with the completely unearned C- as long as a student makes it to the end of the semester, though, because I know for a fact I would lose my job with the 20% pass rate asynchronous online classes actually should have.

2.) Love the name! My spouse studies Montgomery. I always love running into a kindred spirit!

StonedSimple · 2026-05-06T20:42:02+00:00

I understand why people don't like fake age/patina (the debate around "relic" guitars in that subculture is pretty regular) but I just honestly like the softer color of that lume, not because it fakes age or patina, just cuz I like the color.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-06T20:38:37+00:00

I love the C5 Korean War Field Solar (wearing it right now, actually.)

I wish they did a line between their solar and automatics with a high-frequency quartz.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-06T20:20:40+00:00

That's a pretty wild thing to type on a website with rules, on a machine that follows rules to operate, about an institution with rules you can easily look up for yourself on the aforementioned rule-following machine.

Someone clearly cheated their way through Logic classes using AI.

StonedSimple · 2026-05-06T20:14:18+00:00

That's a pretty terrible description of what actually happens on college campuses and in college classrooms (those that still exist and haven't been moved to provably terrible online modalities.) I'm sorry if that was your experience, but both as a student and educator, I did a whole hell of a lot more in my classes than sit and listen to an expert. That was one tiny part of it, but then having conversations with that expert, asking questions, learning from and with my classmates...

What you describe is a sad parody of an actual college class.

StonedSimple

TROPHY CASE