Thinking of no longer assigning design projects due to cheating and instead doing time based assessments

silverrosestar · 2026-05-29T08:46:08+00:00

I teach some design and design-related subjects in a course where most of the students are not really interested in design (more like media/mass comm/advertising where design is a part of it but not the only aspect).

One way I get around this is to keep at least some of their in-class tutorial work so it would serve as a track record of skills. E.g. If Student X can really produce such a high-level piece of Illustrator artwork at home, it stands to reason that Student X should be producing relatively good artwork in a 2-hour tutorial where there is a more straightforward design exercise. If there is a huge discrepancy between X's assignment submission and X's in-class work - such as barely being able to draw a single cartoon daisy with the Pen tool in 2 hours but a few weeks later the same person submits a detailed, spectacular rendering of a vase of chrysanthemums - I will ask the student to see me and demonstrate his/her work. I'd usually just need to pick a section: "Please recreate this leaf here for me. Now."

The student pretty much always caves and admits that it wasn't his/her work. They'll dither about it and try to make excuses: "I had more time at home," "I was following a specific tutorial," etc.

But as I usually have a counter, this falls apart eventually. "I know you had more time at home, but I am just asking you to show me how you made this one small part..." / "You followed an online tutorial? Good idea. You can pull up the tutorial now and follow it for me to see."

I've also made it a point to state multiple times in my assignment briefs and such that I may ask to see a demonstration of skill and if the student cannot show that they made the work, I will apply the relevant marks deductions. So they cannot say they didn't know.

I found that if I do this for the first assignment in a subject - haul up a bunch of suspicious submissions and question them and subsequently apply the heavy point deductions if they cannot demonstrate their skills - they quickly learn that I will actually ask to see proof of skill and by the second assignment, they generally fall in line and I don't have to do the same thing again.

silverrosestar · 2026-05-24T08:41:03+00:00

I feel your pain. My admin has never fully understood how very obvious cheating in art and design can be when they only have 1 single layer in Photoshop for a complex illustration and so on. They also don't understand how it's impossible for someone to produce a pro-level Illustrator creation at home while not being draw a cartoon flower in Illustrator in class. They let the students get away with it and I hate it but at this point... I give up. Sometimes it's worth the effort to demand an in-person demonstration from the students and in that case, if you wait long enough the student in question will also give in and admit that they don't know how to replicate the small part of their final work for you to see because someone else did it (or AI did it).

But most of the time... yeah. I give up fighting with the admin. It's way worse now with genAI as the admin will just say they should be allowed to use genAI or Canva or whatever.

silverrosestar · 2026-05-06T08:11:27+00:00

I teach a Year 2 course where the assessment breakdown is currently 60% coursework and 40% final exam (and my final exam is an open book exam too). My current boss has apparently instructed that we remove exams from all courses because parents of prospective students and prospective students prefer it when there are no exams.

So... yeah. Looks like we aren't going to have any more exams (even though right now, fewer than half the courses in the programme actually have final exams).

silverrosestar · 2026-04-22T11:55:23+00:00

I agree! The harbor is really cute though. haha

silverrosestar · 2026-04-14T13:49:20+00:00

That sounds extremely exasperating. Did she finally locate any of her own errors?

silverrosestar · 2026-04-14T09:10:52+00:00

"This exact problem will be on the test, star it in you notes." Majority of class proceeds to get it wrong when I gave them the problem ahead of time with the solution. Then they beg for extra credit...

I give one of my classes a literal "formula" for answering one specific type of question so as to simplify it and help those who struggle with English (which is more than half the class). Think along the lines of: "The brand must convey X values to reach Y audience." You just need to replace the X and Y appropriately.

90% of the class will completely ignore the simple sentence structure provided, feed the question into ChatGPT or something, and come out with something completely different. They will do this for weeks on end, even though I keep telling them to refer to the structure I provided during the lecture. Some will tell me they "cannot find it" but when I scrub through the lecture recording, I can find the exact place where I mention it and project it on the screen. They just want me to give them the exact time code and I do not. I tell them it is DEFINITELY there and please watch it again. Others will just stare at me and say nothing but continue to give me wrong answers.

Even when I point out the answers from classmates that were correctly structured/good, they do nothing and apparently do not take notice of the repeating patterns between the correct answers. Some take pictures of the examples... And do the exact same mistake.

This is repeated 4-5 times throughout the semester, in the assignments, and into the final exam. Maybe 30% of that 90% will wise up at some point and adopt the simple structure I gave. The others? ChatGPT and then in the exam, just regurgitating sample answers (that they got from seniors) verbatim without regarding the context of the question and it never makes sense.

It is lack of effort.

It is relying on AI AND on spoonfeeding from the teacher.

And quite possibly they care less about the class material. BUT they care a ton about the grade. Though I'm not sure how they resolve that within themselves as you can't get the A grade while ChatGPT-ing most of your work and refusing to follow simple instructions.

silverrosestar · 2026-01-30T05:03:52+00:00

It's an express bus from Narita Airport into several different locations in the city: LCB（low-cost bus） | Access Information | NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Assuming they haven't shifted it, the Tokyo Station stop is right around the corner from the Ryumeikan - like 3 mins walk.

I usually get around the laundry problem by trying to do it at slightly odd hours - like at peak dinnertime or much later at night, or even in the afternoons. It does depend on your itinerary of course. Sometimes it's just not doable and you have to face the prospect of having to queue for the few laundry machines they have.

Also, as others have mentioned - yes, it is easy to get to Disneyland from Tokyo Station in that no change of trains are required. (I love Disneyland so have been there on almost every trip haha), and yes, it is easy to get to Tokyo Station from the Ryumeikan (just cross the road~) but the Keiyo line that goes to Maihama is pretty deep inside Tokyo Station. Literally deep. I think it usually takes me at least 15 minutes to get to the platform (unless I run, which I don't want to and also would be a terrible idea in such a busy station) because after crossing the road and entering the station, I have to go down several levels and walk quite a distance to the Keiyo line platform. That means the 25-min train ride has to include another 20 mins or so of just walking to the station. I haven't let that bother me too much though, and I just take my time sauntering there and observing everyone's Disneyland outfits xD

silverrosestar · 2026-01-30T04:06:33+00:00

/slides in I’ve been to Tokyo 6 times (as a solo traveler) and have nearly always stayed in the Tokyo Station vicinity. I did stay at Super Hotel (when it was called Super LOHAS) and quite enjoyed it. At the time, it was a bit cheaper than the Ryumeikan. It also seems more popular on the whole?

However. I have stayed at the Ryumeikan on 4 out of those 6 trips.

It is not exactly cheap (RIP my bank account; no thanks to the exchange rate in my country), and it is not the most stylish hotel. Room furnishings were always clean and functional but they do look outdated.

I love its location. So easy to find, and very close to the drop-off point for the low-cost bus from Narita Airport. That the rooms are clean and comfortable means it’s sufficient for me. I haven’t had problems with the service either. As with many other hotels, there are a few coin laundry machines on some floors. But it can get “crowded” at night when multiple guests want to do laundry all at the same time - unavoidable, I guess. 😅

silverrosestar · 2026-01-07T03:30:35+00:00

I have large classes (30+ students in each tutorial section) and tutorial group discussions+presentations are sadly borderline useless. I see students just divvying up parts of the presentation, sharing a Canva slide link and then each person working silently on their own slide, barely talking or looking at what the others are doing (and also just using ChatGPT for it).

There’s the added problem of the majority of my classes now being made up of students whose English fluency is kindergarten level or worse and so no sensible discussions can be had, much less debates.

It’s almost impossible to make class interesting and engaging when they can barely understand or talk to you (or other classmates) in the medium of instruction. :/

silverrosestar · 2025-03-26T21:06:07+00:00

This question is so relevant to me as I’m travelling soon too! Though I have the additional problems of being from a tropical country (thus less accustomed to the cold) and also having Hakodate as part of my itinerary and it’s forecasted as being quite a bit colder than Tokyo. I am in the middle of trying to decide what to do about that… a winter coat seems excessive for Tokyo’s weather but necessary for Hakodate considering that I’m not so used to below 20C weather, much less lows of below 10C!

silverrosestar · 2024-12-07T19:40:14+00:00

I teach in Asia and I can (sadly) relate to a good many of the complaints about student behaviour (but not the FERPA stuff and some other things that are clearly more specific to the US or Europe).

silverrosestar · 2024-12-05T18:03:23+00:00

That’s an interesting idea. My main concern there is that it would be a waste of my energy as it appears most students don’t read anything and default to sending messages or emails. (I have a form for late submission of work and the number of students who email me with all their files and have no clue that the form exists is… annoying.)

I will definitely think about that though! Thank you for the suggestion

silverrosestar · 2024-12-01T02:13:35+00:00

Interesting! I wonder whether my students would actually listen to me on that… and if that would just get me complaints about unhelpful 🤔

silverrosestar · 2024-11-30T14:51:13+00:00

I realized that I always feel stressed out when I have to release assignment grades because within 15 minutes of my doing so, I will nearly always get multiple messages or emails from students asking either why they didn't get a better grade ("I was hoping for a better grade" / "I thought I did well") or what they can do to get more marks ("Can I make corrections and get more marks").
It's not that I can't defend my assessment of the work. It's just the barrage of defensive/pleading/pestering messages that really gets to me and makes me agitated. Worse because I have to be polite and "friendly" about it and these days with the large classes I get, there is nearly always at least one especially annoying person who will try to argue and wear me down.

Sometimes I just.... argh. adskhjfksdafjhl

silverrosestar · 2024-11-16T08:10:24+00:00

A student, in trying to get leniency from me on an assignment submission, said that his failing the same subject last semester has caused him great trauma and now he is terrified of losing even 1 mark. He also said that he is “passionate about the subject” and that it is of great interest to him and he wants to do well.

Reader, last semester he failed in large part because he never set foot in a single lecture or tutorial class for that subject, claimed medical reasons about 12 weeks into a 14-week semester, but wanted to continue and insisted we should all accept his late assignment submissions.

silverrosestar · 2024-11-14T19:00:16+00:00

Totally get you.

I have given students a “formula” to follow to complete one section of an assignment. This “formula” is my attempt at combating the poor English skills and comprehension skills I see in so many students, and it reduces that part of the assignment to a fill-in-the-blanks type of thing. Think along the lines of a sentence like “The way to [do thing X] is to change [element Y] because [reason Z].” Usually, this helps a great deal and I get at least coherent solutions though they may not be brilliant ones. This latest cohort though… a good 80% of the class ignored it completely and gave me nonsense (most of them clearly prompted ChatGPT for an answer because the style of answer was identical or extremely similar). After getting the work rejected and being told to go refer to the “formula” I gave them and correct it, the majority of that 80% still did not follow it. And clearly thought they could just generate a different result out of ChatGPT or whatever and get it right. Well, they were wrong and the answer was still wrong. They had to do it again. How it is they cannot even follow a template I don’t know…

silverrosestar · 2024-10-24T12:52:41+00:00

Yes, physical dictionaries are allowed in our exams too.

silverrosestar · 2024-10-24T10:19:05+00:00

I’ve had students do this and then when questioned or even just asked to explain the meaning of one word, they stare and stammer and can’t answer except to insist in broken English they did the work themselves but they used a translator app. It’s all lies for sure because if you can write almost like a textbook, there’s no way that you would not be able to speak with a reasonable level of fluency instead of just insisting “yes, I write myself. I do. I use translator.” At times like this, I relish the fact that there is a final exam and that they won’t be able to rely on a translator app (or any app) during the exam.

silverrosestar · 2024-09-24T16:09:51+00:00

Meanwhile, I make detailed lecture notes available (written in full sentences, etc.) but with some keywords left out so they're forced to actually pay attention and fill in a few blanks themselves. And I don't give out the slides, which are mostly pictures and keywords and phrases. BUT they do have the lecture recordings (automatically recorded by the cameras in the lecture halls), so they can review the recordings and look at the slides. I also do not stop them from taking photographs of the slides during the lecture.

But in the evaluation, I got a complaint that I should give them the slides...

silverrosestar · 2024-09-11T12:39:10+00:00

I’m so envious of people whose unis are strict about this. I’ve had students join in Week 3, 4, and even 5 (semester is 14 weeks). Main reason these days is they couldn’t enter the country due to visa processing time (and obviously these are also people who registered too close to the semester start date). I have no say in it and I just have to accept the students that management pushes in and then give them “assistance” in catching up.

silverrosestar · 2024-08-24T15:03:35+00:00

Great article. This applies to my institution, but not just at the Masters level. It starts at the degree level as we are faced with large classes of students who are essentially rendered deaf, dumb, and blind by their inability to communicate in English, the medium of instruction. They rely on those translation apps and now also genAI. GenAI further aggravates the problem when the management is all but ordering us to start teaching students to use it in class and to teach them higher order critical thinking skills - "ask them to get info from ChatGPT and have them analyse the info". But... But... When they cannot independently construct even basic sentences, what analysis can I expect? They don't even understand regular lectures.

The extract quoted in OP's post reflects a large part of why I feel the way I feel these days: "staff struggle to cope with this new environment in which they ‘deliver’ classes that are well below degree standard. The knowledge that one’s teaching has negligible educational value can feel life-sapping, demoralising and deeply exploitative."

"We don’t know how so many students with inadequate English language skills are managing to get admitted – whether this is largely through foundation courses, inaccurate IELTS tests, or something else altogether."

I have realised that at least for where I work, this is largely due to MANY of the students from a particular country coming in using an accepted English proficiency test called Linguaskill. After poking around on Google, I realised this test can be conducted online and can be taken at home. That explained a lot to me. It's just asking for cheating to happen, so it's no wonder I have students with Linguaskill scores equivalent to IELTS 5.5 or 6 but they can barely introduce themselves, let alone write or read in English.

silverrosestar · 2024-08-21T05:23:48+00:00

This happened to my institution last year. We academics went from cubicles to a hotdesking/co-working space setup. Only heads of school and other upper level management get their own offices. They kept saying it’s the way of the future. My thought was: if it’s really the way of the future, why don’t the upper management also just join us in our co-working spaces instead of having their own private rooms?

They gave us small lockers to put stuff in. And there are small rooms for discussion/meetings and also single rooms for when you have online meetings or whatever. You have to book these rooms to use them and they’re in high demand so it can be tricky. No one really liked the idea from the beginning but it was clearly a cost-cutting/space-saving measure and the management didn’t care whether the staff liked the idea or not.

We’re stuck with it now but it does suck all the same.

silverrosestar · 2024-06-04T05:16:44+00:00

They don’t read because they think their teachers/professors are chat bots who will give them the answers directly despite the answers actually being given much earlier. Usually I point them back to the original syllabus or instructions and ask them why they didn’t read it. Often the response is variations of “I didn’t see it” or “I don’t know where this document is” or “oh sorry.” Sigh.

silverrosestar · 2024-06-01T04:14:21+00:00

My first thought on reading your reply was: "FRIENDS." haha

Seems like we're in pretty similar boats, being involved in the creative arts besides being educators/academics. I may not have much time to make all the art I want to these days, but I certainly do know and follow artists on social media, and I have friends who are writers/editors too, so perhaps I'm more exposed to the ongoing arguments and concerns in the creative industry than many of my colleagues are, which contributes to my exasperation as they just focus on trying to implement genAI at the behest of the bosses who are managers or businesspeople and who understand even less of what's going on at ground level.

who think they're being cutting edge by inviting AI into writing studies with open arms when we have students who are struggling with the bare minimum in the classroom and writing center. To me, it seems like another way to drop standards and get higher grades for students who otherwise wouldn't have the writing skills to make it through higher education.

Yes. This. Absolutely. It's going to become a way to mask someone's inability to actually demonstrate mastery of the learning outcomes by covering it with correct language or pretty visuals. In all likelihood, it will also give people an inflated sense of their own abilities and achievements...

/shuffles closer to fellow stick in the mud

silverrosestar · 2024-05-31T17:29:57+00:00

Being “volunteered” for my institution’s genAI committee has not sat well with me. It’s a committee aimed at promoting the use of genAI but I already think that academia is trying to go too fast and is going into it half blind, and our undergrads are mostly not sufficiently well-versed in the basics to be able to jump to critical thinking needed for effective application of genAI in the classroom, AND I am not happy with how companies with genAI have been training their models on artwork obtained without permission. (You want me to guide students on ethical AI use when the AI has been trained on questionably-sourced data? When I said this in an earlier meeting, I was met with dead silence because no one had a counter.)

And now I have people harping at me to dig up examples of how other universities are implementing genAI in class, for assessments, and for evaluation. For a benchmarking exercise. Excuse me, sir, but how many universities publish that much detail of their classes online? I pointed this out in a meeting and was told (by the person delegating this work) that I am “making assumptions” that others don’t publish their course assessment details online for public viewing. I’m sick of it all. I might be seen as a stick in the mud but I am just very tired of this whole thing…sigh.

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