I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue, obviously with high quality and cheap generative AI essay writing is meaningless for assessment, which is a shame because crafting an essay is an excellent exercise for thinking through a concept.
In my undergrad I wrote a lot of essays but also had a lot of small group tutorials where our contribution contributed to our grade. In medical school assessment outside of examination was almost entirely based on interaction with professors and supervisors. I’m also aware of verbal examination where a professor effectively interrogates a student to assess their knowledge which I think in undergrad settings is mostly historical but could make a comeback, oral examination is used extensively in postgraduate medical training.
For a degree to mean anything assessment needs to be not easily cheated. There are assessment methods that are available although they are less efficient.
If I were running an undergrad humanities degree I’d have essays be 10-20% of the total grade, have a brief 15-20min oral examination and tutorial participation make up the bulk of the grade. I don’t know how else a degree can mean anything.
The writing classes I took in college were about MLA formatting and not effective transmission of ideas. It’s a real rot in the system, the people who become English professors are the ones who like English class enough to teach it, so English is just a semester of sitting through a pointless middle age woman’s pet peeves about grammar and document formatting.
College already had plenty of issues. AI is just the gasoline
Professors need to adjust to teaching kids in the Ai world. Relying on take home assignments to gauge how well students understand the material will not work anymore.
Idk, I seem to remember teachers saying ‘you shouldn’t use Wikipedia’ well into the 2010’s. Expecting higher education systems to adapt quickly is… unrealistic.
The issue with Wikipedia is it is not a good source of accurate information. Professors would tell students the references on Wikipedia were where to find reputable information but don’t trust the articles.
Flagging bible verses as plagiarised is hilarious, and shows just how reliable those detectors are.
