We approach the end of term thinking about the next one

As we approach the end of yet another semester, I am reminded of several things. 

One is that there is no clear logic to choosing 16 weeks as just the right number of weeks to study a particular subject. With writing, for instance, becoming better at it is never-ending... or maybe it's just time to stop studying in favor of doing more of it.

Another is that I can never find the right balance between praising student work and being compelled to point out obvious errors and silly typos. I know that I mostly focus on what can be fixed or improved and don't do much with "oh, that opening personal anecdote you used really set up the transition to your wider thesis." It's not that I never type that in a response, but it's not common. 

Or maybe students just don't provide me with enough examples of great thinking and writing?

And another is that grades are mostly bogus. Honestly, if my college students simply read the material, submitted their assignments on time, and demonstrated that they understand the need to always provide support for their claims... well, that would be an A for the vast majority. 

I have never had a student who "earned" a failing grade through consistently turning in low-quality work. This probably says more about my grading philosophy than anything else, but the several Ds and Fs I will be awarding in a couple weeks are due to students simply not completing assignments... and usually quite a few assignments. 

Every person has a different story, I assume, and I have personally bombed college classes in my misspent youth. I hope things turn out OK for the 2025 version of the doofus I was at age 18. Hey, they did for me.

I have many other thoughts as a semester ends, from wondering why my course structure is so clunky to promising myself that I will do much better next time around. NEXT semester will be the one where I figure out how to write and edit compelling videos that inspire people I will never meet in person... when I will unlock the secret to inspiring student writers to value spell check or complete sentences. 

But one final worry nags at me, and I assume this will just get worse. It's been a slow build, but more and more students are clearly choosing to submit essays that have been heavily influenced by AI, if not entirely generated by the robots. 

On-campus instructors can ask for hand-written, in-class essays to avoid all the em-dashes, excessive use of "delves," etc., that AI churns out. They can create insightful seminar discussions, complete with Socratic dialog and engaging presentations.

But online-only courses are sort of stuck with those typed essays and discussions and memos, all of which can be created by the robots... and most of the work could be characterized as OK. 

If I were a scheming undergrad looking to do the least possible work today, the key would be to fully commit to relying on AI, right from the start. Then the instructor would not be surprised to suddenly encounter an organized essay, with tightly written paragraphs, and lots of triplets for examples. See what I did there? Used my own triplet of examples. 

As it is, students seem to start out the term wanting to express themselves, warts and all, and only when the work starts piling up and time is slipping away do they resort to the AI shortcuts that are waiting for them, patiently.

But when mid-January rolls around, I am certain I will have recharged, with optimism and some updated class readings and clever and appealing assignments for those new courses.

You could argue that I'm a slow learner.