College professors are going back to paper exams and handwritten essays to fight students using ChatGPT::The growing number of students using the AI program ChatGPT as a shortcut in their coursework has led some college professors to reconsider their lesson plans for the upcoming fall semester.
I recently finished my degree, and exam-heavy courses were the bane of my existence. I could sit down with the homework, work out every problem completely with everything documented, and then sit to an exam and suddenly it’s “what’s a fluid? What’s energy? Is this a pencil?”
The worst example was a course with three exams worth 30% of the grade, attendance 5% and homework 5%. I had to take the course twice; 100% on HW each time, but barely scraped by with a 70.4% after exams on the second attempt. Courses like that took years off my life in stress. :(
If you don’t mind me asking - what kind of degree was it, and what format were the exams?
Sure; it was Mechanical Engineering. The class was “Vibrations & Controls;” the first half of the course was vibrations / oscillatory systems, and then the second half was theory of feedback & control systems (classic “PID” controllers for the most part). The exams were pencil-and-paper, in-person, time-limited.
The first attempt we were allowed nothing except the exam and paper for answers; honestly I’m not sure what that professor was expecting.
In my second attempt the professor provided a formula sheet, but he was of the mindset of “If you know F=ma, you can derive anything you need!” so the formula sheets were sparse to put it mildly. It was just enough to keep me from fully collapsing in panic and bombing, but it was close.
Thanks for the info!
If you’d been able to take 4 sides (A4) of written notes in, would this have helped mitigate the stress?
What do you feel would have been a better method of assessment?
Being able to bring my own formula sheet (or notes) definitely helped. Two full pages of notes would be great, though I would still get some bad nerves even in those cases (the very idea that the next 60 minutes of class time decides a full 30% of the course grade just rattled me bad).
For me the ideal type of course would be the Thermodynamics of Mechanical Systems course I took. The exams were in-person but open-note and straightforward with relatively simple conceptual questions. Credit was split between the exams and bi-monthly “mini projects.” These would ask you to apply the class concepts to some larger set of related problems; parameters were provided and you would have to determine the answers using what was learned in class (for example, one project was to design a steam turbine power plant with a target output of 50MW, ambient temperature was 30C, cooling water is available at 25C. Determine the heat input needed from the boiler, choose an appropriate number of turbine stages with reheat if possible, size the condenser appropriately and add economizers if they can be used. You’d lay it all out and indicate the temperatures, pressures, power inputs and outputs, exergy of the system, etc.)
I did stellar in that class. I would have loved that format everywhere (simple concept exams + application projects).
The true engineering experience is exams that ask you derive God after your homework was just 2+2. I remember hearing a rumor once that the exams were to find students who would be good to help with the professor’s research.
Now that I’m on the other side of the degree with a couple years, I do think those tests were the crucible that turned us into engineers. Working through daunting, impossible questions under stress is how we developed our problem solving capability.
I do think though there’s vast improvements to still be made. It’s highlighted in just how many of us have anxiety and depression and become nervous wrecks. Make sure to take care of yourself and see professionals to help with that, if you need it.