Are discussion questions becoming irrelevant with AI??

[Vle045]

Something weird seems to be going on in my current class.  Usually our weekly discussion question is filled with personal anecdotes or stories to connect with the weekly topic.  This week, I feel like I am reading posts generated by ChatGPT.  One student’s post was tripled and at the end of each instance was a sentence that said “Is this conversation helpful so far?”.  And the formatting seems outside of what you might see in Canvas unless it was copy/pasted elsewhere.  Then someone replied to my post.  There was no direct reference to anything I wrote and it read like a textbook.  Even the instructor seems to be “phoning it in”.  His reply to every student is exactly the same.  This is so unusual for this program.

[ltw900rr]

That sounds really strange! It definitely warrants some investigation. Here are some ideas:

Talk to a classmate: Casually ask someone else in the class if they've noticed anything odd about the discussion board. There's a good chance they'll share your observations.

Reach out to the instructor: Maybe the instructor is having some technical difficulties or maybe they're just swamped. A quick email mentioning the repetitive posts and impersonal replies might be enough to jog their memory and get things back on track.

Check the syllabus: The syllabus might have some guidelines for discussion board participation. If the repetitive posts or textbook-like replies violate those guidelines, you could politely point that out to the class (or the instructor).

Report it (if necessary): If you suspect something fishy is going on, like someone using ChatGPT to cheat, some universities have reporting procedures for academic dishonesty. You can usually find these on the university website.

Hopefully, it's all just a misunderstanding and things will get back to normal soon. But it's definitely worth looking into!


That post above was my AI response... Below is my actual response....

Unfortunately, I think this is becoming more common, with people trying to use AI for everything they can. It is the laziness of not even copying and pasting the response without including the “Is this conversation helpful so far?” that really gets me.

Luckily I teach a hands on automotive course, so I can change my exams to identifying components, or performing a task if necessary. I don't know how the core class teachers will overcome AI.

[Vle045]

That sounds really strange! It definitely warrants some investigation. Here are some ideas:

Talk to a classmate:  Casually ask someone else in the class if they've noticed anything odd about the discussion board. There's a good chance they'll share your observations.

Reach out to the instructor: Maybe the instructor is having some technical difficulties or maybe they're just swamped.  A quick email mentioning the repetitive posts and impersonal replies might be enough to jog their memory and get things back on track.

Check the syllabus:  The syllabus might have some guidelines for discussion board participation. If the repetitive posts or textbook-like replies violate those guidelines, you could politely point that out to the class (or the instructor).

Report it (if necessary):  If you suspect something fishy is going on, like someone using ChatGPT to cheat, some universities have reporting procedures for academic dishonesty.  You can usually find these on the university website.

Hopefully, it's all just a misunderstanding and things will get back to normal soon. But it's definitely worth looking into!


That post above was my AI response...  Below is my actual response....

Unfortunately, I think this is becoming more common, with people trying to use AI for everything they can. It is the laziness of not even copying and pasting the response without including the “Is this conversation helpful so far?” that really gets me.

Luckily I teach a hands on automotive course, so I can change my exams to identifying components, or performing a task if necessary. I don't know how the core class teachers will overcome 

ChatGPT is so “extra” sometimes.  Like, dude, that’s WAY more than I needed.
But it is really awesome - most of the time - at helping me come up with just the right Excel or Google Sheet formulas when I need it.  

[bluebooger]

they've ALWAYS been irrelevant

if people are using chatgpt to answer them then that is a good thing

---

That sounds really strange! It definitely warrants some investigation. Here are some ideas:
...

everyone one of those ideas is horrible

discussion questions are a COMPLETE waste of time              
about time courses stopped using them                
in person courses make no such requirement               
its just dumb

OP, if people want to use chatgpt to answer questions that serve absolutely no purpose then let them

[ReyMysterioso]

they've ALWAYS been irrelevant

if people are using chatgpt to answer them then that is a good thing

---

That's the REAL answer right there.

[Vle045]

I have not found them to be irrelevant most of the time. They are usually structured in a way that lays the groundwork for the next assignment or pulls out the most important points of the readings. I’d prefer it to a bunch of quizzes.

[davewill]

Reminds me of a fellow student in one of my TESU courses, who plagiarized their discussion posts. They did such a poor job that the result was gibberish. Just disjoint sentences that you could Google and find on various websites. Their problem was that they had zero understanding of the material, and couldn't even understand what they were copying.

At least with AI, she might have been coherent.

[withrown]

TBH, when I was COSC it was pretty apparent that students copied and pasted Course Hero (the cheat site). The formating was wierd and you could google search their posts.

TBF, the only reason you see discussion board assignments is because accreditors require it. I love when courses give 1 or two DB's just to say their there.

[LevelUP]

At TESU, people were actively engaging in the Capstone and Critical Thinking course forums.

However, they didn't seem to care much about the other classes.

I like the forums, if for nothing else, to show that someone else is out there experiencing the same things I'm going through.

[ss20ts]

Discussions are something that I either enjoy or despise. It all depends on what the requirements are and how active the classmates are. Some professors don't require others to respond or crazy citations. Citations in discussions are just bizarre because when you're having a conversation in a classroom no one cites an author or research. They're fluid in person. Online they're anything but fluid. I am seeing a lot of my classmates clearly use AI to write their discussion posts. Many make absolutely no sense, are not on topic, completely irrelevant, not cited, etc. This is one reason I refuse to take any classes with group work. No more team projects for me. They're difficult enough in person and almost impossible in online courses based on my past experiences. If discussions went away, I'd be ok with that. I also find few professors participate in them which is kind of annoying. Many online professors do not participate in their courses which is just pathetic. They get paid to do very little. I had one professor not grade a single assignment or post anything in our class for over 3 weeks. I was beginning to wonder if he died!