Students often carry misconceptions about coursework. They may view an instructor as an opponent standing in the way of the grade they want. And they see “getting the right answers” as the goal of education because that’s how you secure that grade.
… The process of doing the work was what you needed to walk away with something.
Sadly, this isn’t true.
Economically, a degree has conferred better employment opportunities and consequent better pay and quality of life—even better partner selection possibilities. Given this reality, education for its own sake is not the median student’s objective; the goal is an impressive degree as a door wedge to greater economic outcomes.
Given this reality, it is wholly unsurprising that students are adopting LLMs wholesale to accelerate the process, and from a personal profit maximization perspective, they’re not even wrong to. The problem is macro, in our systemic incentives and rewards, and we just leave schools and teachers to be buffeted in the middle.
Because I think the issue is systemic, I also don’t think the solution lies in changing the nature of assessments or classwork. No amount of oral examination will resolve this, in the same way that ready electronic reference and calculation machines made rote memorization less valuable than integrative thinking and a mental map of the domain.
