AI simplifies many aspects of daily life. However, as artificial intelligences are now being blamed for the decline in educational quality, a professor speaks out.
What did the professor say? The Texas history professor Steven Mintz stated according to Business Insider that today’s college and university teaching needs to change.
He notes that:
AI did not ruin university teaching; it merely highlighted how broken it already was.
Due to many similar essays from his students, he concludes that they would be using AI to write their papers. However, he does not blame them but says that research tasks such as homework and essays have become unnecessary.
Universities have become too “factory-like” and their standardized mass lectures poorly educate students. According to him, AI can do everything students can do, often even better. He sees the issue with the formulaic tasks and teaching methods that need to change. Another problem is the massive tuition fees, which are a prerequisite for studying in many countries and represent a significant burden for students.
How students can be both inventive and shameless can be seen in the following video:
Professor’s Suggestions for Improving Education
What would the professor do differently? The professor also makes concrete suggestions for improving the “broken education system.” He wants to focus more on alternative educational concepts such as oral examinations and discussion rounds.
For example, he believes that more emphasis should be placed on writing exercises during lectures to better assess the students’ abilities in person. He suggests that there should be no assignments outside of the lecture rooms. Why the study system is also becoming less popular among Generation Z can be discovered on MeinMMO.
AI should not disappear but should primarily be used for basic facts, chronology, and context. Students should be trained for “research-based learning.” This means: asking questions, analyzing results, and engaging deeply with a subject (via Business Insider).
Universities Respond with Bans and Rules on AI
How do colleges and universities respond to AI? Universities are generally aware of AI’s capabilities and are already responding with bans, adjustments, and alternative teaching methods.
Many universities have already established uniform rules for writing homework and essays. For example, it is rarely allowed to have texts and sections generated by AI. This often leads to a falsification and failure of the respective examination (via thesify).
Additionally, some colleges, such as Wilhelm Büchner Hochschule in Darmstadt, have introduced their own AI models to help students learn how to handle AI (via wb-fernstudium.de).
The university’s AI model is supposed to always be available, answering subject-related questions and indicating from which study materials the information was taken. This is intended to ensure proper sourcing. Employees and professors should also use the AI system. However, this would not please a certain American student: A student demanded 7,000 Euros from her university because she caught her professor using AI
