How am I dealing with the pain that is the AI threat?

Disclosure: this article has been 100% written by the author without any AI assistance ??

In Portuguese we say “AI” when something hurts, when something goes wrong – the equivalent of “ouch”. But for me, more than ever, AI applies when I slowly and cautiously learn about the other AI, the artificial intelligence one. As it has been brought to our attention recently on the article publish in our university's portal “Ai: (another) game changer voor [sic] testing and assessment”, there are programs out to get us – teachers, particularly the not tech-savvy ones like myself. ChatGPT seems to be the hot one because it can make students’ lives quite easy when it comes to submitting assessments, such as essays. I won’t explain what it does, as you can all read about it online, but I will talk about my concerns as a teacher and for the students, as well as suggest alternative scenarios.

Students sometimes forget that we were in their shoes at some point in time, and we do know that if there are easier short-cuts, why take the scenic route instead? Well, the obvious answer is because one would assume that you are at university to learn. But that Pollyanna in me is slowly fading to the background of my inner-self. In her place, a more Negative Nancy (or a Suspicious Sally) is trying to burst out and the Marcela here is fighting at all costs. I don’t enjoy marking a paper and thinking “umm, this looks too good to be true” and then “what do I know about this particular student? Would they produce such eloquent work?”. "Yes!", says Pollyanna. They learned, they enjoyed the lessons and they put in the work. But let’s be honest, not all of them did enjoy. I for one did not care for any math-oriented class in my life, so I put minimal effort in those assignments, even when I had inspiring teachers – such as Dr. Daniel A. Rascher, Ph.D. in Sports Economics at my master’s degree. AI wasn’t a thing then, but even if it was, I have way too much ethics to even had considered it. Can I say the same about all other students?

Students that have multiple subjects at the same time, exam weeks with hard deadlines? Students who, in many cases, are away from their homes (countries), family and friends? Students who, in order to live in an expensive place such as The Hague and its neighboring areas, must do part time work combined with their full time studies? Students who are here because of pressure to have a degree, but perhaps deep down this wouldn’t have been their choice? I can keep empathizing here, but “should I?” - asks Nancy, or Sally.

What about the teachers? The ones that are working many, many hours, sometimes through difficult times, multiple subjects, to make sure that the students are still getting content for their proper learning? Teachers that try to engage the class by adopting different teaching methodologies that speak more to the new generation, even if that is outside the teacher’s own comfort zone? Teachers who are also away from their home countries, families and friends and are trying to make ends meet to keep living in an expensive area, as it is the Randstad? And on top of it all, with all the responsibilities of full adult lives, which may include spouses, kids (that require tender, love and care, but also cost a lot), but certainly include paying taxes and health insurance? Do these teachers deserve to have their effort invalidated by students looking for the easy way out?

When things like that happen to me, I say “ai”, as in “it hurts me”. Should I start adopting the mentality of “why bother”? Should I just do the minimum that is required? Delivering the exact same content year after year without changing it, adapting, updating it to not go over time? Should I just say, well, if they will cheat on an essay, then here – an exam it is, even if that doesn’t fit the goal of the subject? It would certainly make my life easier – a multiple choice exam which can be marked by a computer, instead of pages of essays to read, mark and provide feedback.

Without wanting to, but fully aware that I am sounding like an old person from the 20th century, young people are losing their ability to write. Sometimes, it is even hard to follow what they are trying to convey in a paper, due to complete lack of structure, cohesion, theoretical context. In the past I found myself having to re-read the same paper over and over until I could make sense of what was written (for the record, I don’t do that anymore. If I can’t understand it, then the student needs to redo it). This lack of ability also comes from the little reading that they do. I get shocked when they complain that they have too much reading assigned. And I think to myself, oh, you haven’t seen what too much reading is.

Another great teacher from the master’s study I took, Dr. Rich Cellini , assigned 3 books from which each week we would need to read whole chapters and then, submit a reflection paper applying the knowledge gained from the reading to our story. Get it? Read a lot and write a paper each week? I loved it! It was probably one of my favorite tasks, even when I got C (the equivalent of a 7). Now, I wonder if he still does that? Rich, are you also worried about AI?

Once one stops reading, stops writing, they will lose their ability to make relevant evidence-based arguments, and that can be bad from a simple discussion with your spouse about house chores, to the reasoning behind decisions made at work. Oh, even worse... your (future) kids will always win the argument battle because, somehow they just have this ability in them, until they eventually lose it with time.

So, the AI does nothing for you, except a quick save from that specific course you just want to pass and move on. But it will hinder your ability in the future of even securing a job in an interview. Therefore, the simplest solution that Pollyanna would give is: don’t do it, please. And how about Negative Nancy, or Suspicious Sally? Ok, they are rubbing their hands, cracking their fingers and, here we go:

Make them write within a specific time and place allocated. Say what, now?! Yes, I did that a few times while taking vestibular (which is the Brazilian entrance system to university): a series of exams spread throughout a week to test the knowledge on subjects learned in high school. And each university you apply has its own set of exams, so it is a grueling period. One of these exams is the essay. The day feared by many: you arrive at the location, sit at the desk and is given a topic and a few hours to write about it. So, yes it can be done, let’s do it as well. Let’s raise the bar! So, for those teachers that still want to assess essay writing here is my version:

Ahead of time: students know the topic and design of the essay, they can search for the sources, print them and even have the reference list already made (see, I am not that bad).

On campus, or on a secure online environment: they bring their sources (so a bit open book), and they do the writing within a certain amount of time.

The smart students will practice beforehand, they will pre-write their essay perhaps. But they won’t be able to copy anything, and nobody can memorize an essay with all the correct in-text citations and then write it again on the spot. Can they still try to bit the system? Perhaps. But they will still have to write in the end. This way, Marcela the teacher can find a balance between Pollyanna and Nancy/Sally and still trust that they are being enriched – even if they don’t realize it at the time.