| ▲ | 0xkvyb 7 hours ago |
| I think that universities just have to adapt to deal with slop, or think of new ways to challenge people to learn the essence of their studies. I wouldn’t want to be a uni teacher in these times though. |
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| ▲ | singpolyma3 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| It's not hard, just unpopular. End credentialism, stop giving out grades or administering exams. |
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| ▲ | StableAlkyne 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | The (Western) educational system still does this for PhDs. Grades barely matter, and in most places you have two oral exams in your entire 5 years: your qualifying exam, and your final defense. The reason it doesn't happen for the rest of the system is scaling. The US awards about 60k PhDs per year, compared to about 2M bachelors. There simply are not enough faculty and it is not realistic to hire enough (if there are even enough qualified people in existence) And that's ignoring all of the problems with "not giving out grades" or "ending credentialism" - I guess people are supposed to just get hired on vibes? | | |
| ▲ | singpolyma3 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | Since everyone has a meaningless degree already the degree absolutely does not get you hired for over a decade already. Interview outcome, which sure you could call vibes | | |
| ▲ | StableAlkyne 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | Degrees don't get you hired, they get you interviewed in your first couple of jobs. I'm not going to interview some guy with no work experience and no credentials for an engineering position. I will gladly interview someone with no work experience but a relevant degree or bootcamp. |
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| ▲ | jsoaoxhd 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The solution is obvious. Teaching must be no-tech—just go back to 1950s. The other problem of course is attention span due to social-media erosion. The big tech has really done a number on society already and they’re just getting started. |
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| ▲ | Morromist 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I agree with you that no-tech parts of universities would work - obviously you can't avoid tech when teaching some things like coding, but mostly I think it would be a good idea. There are problems: Having students attend lectures is great but they have to work with the material and prove they understand it - how to do that without homework? I'm sure there are ways. Have them work in a building full of computers cut-off from the internet maybe, but how to keep them from using their phones? Another option is just severe comprehensive testing in heavily inviglated rooms long after they finished the class involving the material to prove they know it. Perhaps you could do this for the first few years of knowledge in a discipline and then assume the student actually is serious and take the leash off after they passed the tests. I know some disciplines already do this kind of thing, even before AI. Basically everyone has to pass a bar-exam type thing, even if they're studying art - but things like art can't really be condensed into an exam and it would certainly restrict and narrow what can be taught and learned, that's a big problem in my mind. Also what if there are new ideas in the study of physics and they can't really be taught because the exam is too difficult to change quickly? What if there's a big split in the philosophy of buisness, but the exam only asks about one side of the split? What if you have an ingenious professor who wishes to talk about a new branch of philosophy he's created - not on the exam though. Edit: I guess if professors designed their own exams, instead of some distant exam-comittee it would alleviate most of my concerns about them. | | |
| ▲ | jsoaoxhd 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | For coding you can actually teach students on commodore 64s. It’s actually better because they have a BASIC shell and assembly language. Most importantly, no internet. :) Actually, give them internet why not. But they have to use a 56k modem. Mwhaaha | | | |
| ▲ | simoncion 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > ...how to do that without homework? Tests. Many of my university courses only graded on tests. They strongly encouraged you to do the homework to better understand the material, but didn't consider homework completion when calculating your grade. Consider that universities are educating adults who are -often- paying to be there. If we assume competent course design and instruction, if an adult chooses to not work on the material until they understand it, then the only person they're harming is themselves... which -as an adult- is a thing that they're usually fully entitled to do. | | |
| ▲ | SAI_Peregrinus 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | I liked the classes I had with a "reverse" format: the "homework" was done in-class, checked for correctness but not part of the grade, and the lecture was a recording watched at home. | | |
| ▲ | Morromist 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | Huh. I never took a class like that, but that seems like a great idea. |
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| ▲ | 0xkvyb 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | but how would you do that? what about homework and coursework? students will just transcribe claude slop on paper and submit that. | | |
| ▲ | whyenot 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | You give exams in person, in class, on blue books, no phones. This part isn't hard. Instructors have been doing it for generations. It's only in the post COVID era that some have moved to having exams take home and on Canvas or similar platforms. This is great for instructors -- less work! but I am not convinced it actually helps students. The part that is more difficult is take-home work, and I think the solution is that instead of being something that you turn in for credit, it needs to move to being more of a chance to practice for in-person exams. What about essays? I've taught classes where students had to write essays in class, in person. On paper, with a pen (this may no longer be allowed on many campuses because of access and perceived fairness reasons, which IMO is a shame, but it is what it is). I think the traditional assignment of "write a 15 page paper on XYZ" is probably done. Instead students will have to prepare to write an essay in class by reading the source material (books, papers, etc) and converse with AIs that are hopefully not hallucinating, to get an understanding of the material and then come to class and be prepared to write about it. It's a new world, but one we can adapt to. | |
| ▲ | harshalizee 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Assignments, sure. But if tests/exams are proctored in-person with pen and paper, the students may quickly pivot to traditional learning methods if they want to pass their courses. | |
| ▲ | joseda-hg an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I thought it was widely agreed that most homework was literal busywork Do it on the classroom or it doesn't count | |
| ▲ | jnovek 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Requiring them to write it in longhand at least removes the instant gratification. I think that will work for some students. | | |
| ▲ | nradov 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Oh how I hated having to write in longhand throughout my schooling. It was always so slow and painful no matter what I tried in terms of pens or techniques. Typing is much faster and more fluent. In the real world no one writes longhand any more: it's all keyboards, swiping, and dictation. | |
| ▲ | zozbot234 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | It would be fun trying to draw all those emojis in longhand. You could probably do the bullet points as tiny manicules. |
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| ▲ | threetonesun 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It would actually be interesting to see what people do attempting to transcribe AI generated material to paper. At the very least it's another layer of learning in writing it out. | |
| ▲ | jsoaoxhd 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I dunno think outside the box. One option… They can do homework just test them every week in class. Homework doesn’t count for grade anymore. But test questions based upon homework. Another… kids do reading at home in textbook, then work together in class to finish. Adjust hours accordingly. There’s a very interesting problem space here though, to “disrupt” education by going back in time and applying a modern spin on education. | |
| ▲ | frangonf 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Engineering at my EU uni, homework and coursework were at most a tiny part of the total grade, and never enough on their own to pass. If they were relatively bigger projects, you'll pass an interview or similar review after delivering it. This all were just nudges study and to check ourselves and they were seen as a "gift" of the Bologne Process (restructuring/standardizing of unis in the EU). The only thing that mattered were the exams, be it pen and paper or coding/electronics labs, in person and proctored. No matter how much slop I could have access to back in the day I would have failed the same subjects I did. | |
| ▲ | cyberax 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | In-person tests and workshops, including oral exams. Like we'd been doing for literally hundreds of years. |
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| ▲ | bartvk 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This is already being done. I teach computer science at bachelor-level and all exams are in-person. We talk through the code. |
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| ▲ | cmrdporcupine 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| More in class, in discussion, and less "assignments" Unfortunately that's way more expensive to do. |
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| ▲ | achenet 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | for STEM topics, I feel like some amount of "personal study time" is kind of needed to really grok stuff, at least for a percentage of students. I studied maths, and spending time alone trying to solve problems and redoing the proofs from memory was important for my learning. I don't think I'd have learned as much had those moments been replaced with more in class discussion. | | |
| ▲ | singpolyma3 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Yes but AI doesn't prevent you from doing that learning. What is makes harder is the old broken ways of credentialing your learning. The way you do the learning has no need to change. | |
| ▲ | cmrdporcupine 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I personally feel like the software engineering profession may have to start moving more towards an apprenticeship model than a theoretical CS-gradate-then-work model. Internship / coop programs at places like Waterloo already look a bit like this. |
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| ▲ | mold_aid 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yes you would. Trust me, you would |
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| ▲ | PunchyHamster 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Slop made by students is one thing, but slop generated by facilities and fed at extreme premium to students just asks a question "why someone would pay for this instead of buying some LLM tokens, taking curriculum and teaching themselves". If we want to teach students to use AI, it should just be a separate course, not shoving it in every possible nook and cranny to the point it is teacher AI talking with student AI with light supervision from both AI handlers |