Mastodawn

RE: https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/116397070356098122

In an ideal world courses would have pass/fail grades if they have grades at all. Grades get in the way of learning. (Students turn to LLMs to save their grades.)

So, I think part of this tension goes back to what we grade and why.

I'm lucky that in math I only ever assign grades for in-class tests.

In my CS classes I lean a lot on sharing student work. Fortunately my students like to show off for each other. They are excited to see what I and their peers think of their projects.

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myrmepropagandist 1d ago

Teacher feedback is precious. It takes time to read and write comments and provide guidance. Doing that kind of work on LLM slop is depressing. The teacher could have been writing feedback for a student who did the work and might learn from it.

How can the way we present this feedback emphisize its value?

What about "you may submit 3 essays per term for feedback" the feedback isn't a grade, it's just comments to help you when you write the final essay in class without an LLM?

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myrmepropagandist 1d ago

When I was in school I always wished my teachers would write more comments on my essays. I just wanted someone to read them and be impressed. I don't think that's changed.

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myrmepropagandist 1d ago

Feedback is also a limited resource and students don't understand this since they think teachers have infinite time.

Maybe the way that it's presented needs to make it more clear that this is something of value, not a punishment... which is how younger kids can see it.

eg. "Decide what you want me to read, I only have time to do this two times."

I think fewer students would give LLM content in that context.

It is, frankly, rude to give someone a bunch of LLM text to read.

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Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)1d ago

@futurebird this would have helped me a lot (and also frustrated me to no end, honestly). I did not have that level of empathy developed yet, to my perpetual shame.

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Ana Bollocks / Kristin C.1d ago

@iris @futurebird I didn't either. Maybe it's a development age thing, at least to an extent?

Thinking out loud... maybe spelling out the purpose of the feedback would help, especially if the essays are voluntary. And that it takes time for you to give might also help. I know it seems obvious but... kids (and adults!) are where they are. The comment about not spending more time on feedback than was spent on the task is perfect, but maybe more kids need to hear it.

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Ana Bollocks / Kristin C.

@iris @futurebird Also, granted I was a kid who didn't worry about grades in the first place but - I'm not totally convinced kids use LLMs only to save grades. They want to spend time on other things too. I *liked* learning and even homework. But that homework was perpetually done during the class before it was due, bc I had other things I wanted to do after school. Or I just forgot about it until it was the next day already.