rspoerri
It's only cheating if it's not allowed.

My Students are allowed to do theyr homework with ai. But it's not theoretical assignments, but doing projects. I assume that being able to use AI in the future work is a important part, so they should use it early and experiment with it during study. Just because calculators got invented math didnt just vanish, they had to adapt what to teach and how to do assignments.

The ones who struggle the most are the ones that do the same assignments since 20 years and now are confronted with a new tool that makes theyr tests obsolete.

talldayo
Higher education is destroyed by standardized testing. If you force every square peg to fill a round hole, there are going to be some people that go to absurd lengths to get a passing or perfect grade. It's been like this for a while now.

AI cheating is really the tip of the iceberg, here. High school and college educations heavily rely on cookie-cutter assessment programs that aren't just unreliable but also easily cheated on. The cynic in me says that it's the College Board's fault for doubling-down on bubbling tests and SAT scores when today's graduates all cheat their way through them anyways.

xnx
On the one hand, "good". Higher education needs a rethinking. ROI is all out of whack for too many students. On the other hand, calculators didn't destroy math education. We're probably not more than 3 years away from some form of AI being better than 80 percent of teachers for most grade levels and subjects.
tzs
A lot of people seem to misunderstand the purpose of tests in school.

When a test for a calculus class asks you to find a particular integral or a test for a music theory class gives you a melody and asks you to add two more voices to produce a three voice fugue following the voice leading and counterpoint rules that would be used by typical Baroque composers the professor is not asking because the calculus professor actually wants to know value of the integral or the music theory professor actually needs to have a fugue written around that melody.

They are asking because they were supposed to have taught you how to evaluate such integrals or apply the rules of Baroque fugue composition, respectively, and they want you to demonstrate that you have learned that.

Doing this requires that you solve the problem, not that you get some tool to do it.

Yes, after school you will use such tools to do most such problems that come up but that's completely irrelevant because at work you are not being asked to solve those problems to demonstrate you know how to solve those problems manually. You are being asked to solve them because you actually need the solution.

aurareturn
Isn't it obvious that the way students are taught will have to change in the age of AI?

Schools should account for LLM use. In fact, schools should have an official LLM or sanctioned 3rd party LLMs that they allow students to use.

eesmith
An op-ed piece by someone who isn't a teacher or educator or other background in pedagogy.

Why should we believe any of it?

> There are a number of platforms that, when used effectively, can give instructors a clear view of how students are using available AI tools.

I can't help but think his company's product is one of those.

And that it requires installing spyware on the computers students use for their assignments.

smarm52
An easy way to address it just project based grading. But of course, this needs a lot more graders than just a single professor to work with large class sizes. Which means more money. And it's hard to get money for education in the US.

So, it's not really AI that's at fault, as with any new technology, it disrupts; That's what new things do. It's just that the status quo is this lazy approach to education that hamstrings teachers by denying them the resources they need to do the work well, in the name of saving money.

An ironic twist on this "saving money" is that spending more on people, nets more returns. Educate someone well, and they can do high quality work, which makes a lot more money than minimal investment. Spend money on healthcare and prevention, and medical costs overall go down, as large problems are addressed when they're still small.

But I guess the lure of "lower taxes" is enough for this sort of thing to persist.

morninglight
Is the primary purpose of higher education to develop the skills needed in the workforce?

If that is the case, then the employers dependent on that workforce need to support it.

Perhaps AI is teaching industry that they can no longer depend on a free lunch.

davesque
My intuition is that there must be some relatively simple ways to tweak the format of assignments or classes so that it's harder to use tools like ChatGPT to cheat.
RecycledEle
Online question-and-answer sites like Quizlet did more to damage education than generative AI.

Any teacher who is letting students cheat with ChatGPT is lazy.

Source: I teach for a living.

TheLoafOfBread
If your so called higher education can be done using AI model, which is just better intelli-sense, you should consider if it is high at all.
wumeow
All assignments should be done in class with paper and pencil or locked-down Chromebooks. No phones. Lectures can be put on youtube for viewing outside of class. I had a couple math classes like this and it worked well.
mankypro
What’s destroying higher education is educators that do nothing but read publisher provided PowerPoint presentations.
aworks
"destroying" seems hyperbolic.