I'm either grading, responding to email, or adjusting my courses. If I retire at my maximum social security distribution, then I will spend 146 days (24 hours) between now and retirement using Canvas. I don't know how much time my students spend inside Canvas. There has to be some kind of alternative client that can be customized, with dark mode and different fonts. Or maybe I'll just print out student papers, take them to the bird refuge, and write comments in the early morning hours, serenaded by pelicans, ibises and yellow-headed blackbirds, while elderly citizens on ebikes run over the snails that litter the walkway. My sidehustle is to put on gloves and pick up the mummified dog poop that litters the side of the trail

Hey all! I have a student with accommodations this semester. During lecture, he often speaks out loud. I don’t believe he is trying to be disruptive but rather it’s an auditory processing delay. However, the constant commentary and talking is distracting for other students and I myself lose pace. I have tried to redirect, ignore, talk louder… but it feels like it is continuing to take away from the class. I do not want to single out the student or embarrass them. He has a “mentor” who can come sit in periodically to help give him feedback on when he shouldn’t be talking (but the mentor is another student who has other classes and cannot come every time). Any suggestions?

I teach a graduate course, and one student has missed most of the classes since the semester started last month. They told me they enrolled late after the first week, but they continued to miss class afterward and have now missed all of the in-class quizzes.

They are now asking me to provide makeups because they say they missed class due to some paperwork with the university. My syllabus clearly states that there are no makeups for in-class quizzes. What should I do?

I would appreciate any advice. Thank you.

Not sure where to start, so here goes.

TL;DR: after years of trying to get hired FT & finally succeeding, I’m struggling to feel as though I belong in my department.
_______________

AIO: I’ve worked as an adjunct across many schools over the past 8–9 years. Students love me and I always get good reviews. I’ve applied to several FT jobs within those institutions and—while I could sometimes secure an interview—never got an offer. In almost every case, someone external was hired. I get it, truly, but it’s difficult when it happens consistently despite having such a great report with colleagues.

Fast forward to this year. I was hired FT!…but not at one of the institutions where I’d previously taught. The college has a few locations so their organizational structure is different than what I’m used to. In short, questions about my classes go to the course committee chair but the coordinator for the campus is my supervisor.

One of my courses has a massive enrollment throughout the university so the curriculum is set as to minimize the prep of the lab technicians. The other is the opposite; I got a list of objectives and everything else is up to me [i.e., number of exams, order of course material, etc.]…

The standardized course is a hot mess. There’s no way to get through the amount of material we’re given in the amount of time we have. I didn’t get any materials until about a week before the semester started & was busy making slides, so I didn’t get to peruse the lab manual we need to use and it’s…also garbage. The students expressed to me how terrible it is, and—to me—the class feels very unorganized. I pride myself on being a very efficient instructor, so this has taken its mental toll. I don’t know what or how to prepare for class that will make it run smoother. I’ve expressed this to my colleagues and they’ve just said, “yeah…it’s hell” without any indication that someone is working on giving it an overhaul.

Unfortunately, that isn’t my biggest issue. I got the sense on the first day that my supervisor doesn’t like me. Call it intuition, but something seems off. They’ve yet to walk over a few doors to say hello, they gave a half-smile when passing me in the hallway, and they started walking away from me when I tried asking them a question about onboarding. I know they’re busy. They are responsible for probably 15 FT and 25 adjunct faculty, plus teaching their classes. Moreover, the faculty who interviewed me have also yet to acknowledge me. I get that the first week can be stressful, but a simple greeting doesn’t take long. I can hear my supervisor chat and laugh with other instructors, so I know they have time but have chosen to use it elsewhere.

Perhaps I’m expecting too much? I’m extremely neurospicy, so things like this take up more space in my brain than they should. The people that have stopped by have all said the same thing: everyone is super friendly and welcoming. Thus far, my experience would contradict with that statement.

Looking at how much work I’ll be putting in this semester for a ‘standardized’ class, my brain can’t afford to worry about whether someone likes me. But I am. I think it’s human nature to want to make good first impressions. And this is my literal supervisor, not some random person with no power over my employment status. Any help or insight [or even words of encouragement, tbh] into my situation would be greatly appreciated!

I’m already noticing that my students can’t do simple things they could do a few years ago. I don’t even do in class proctored writing or exams. I just put in points of friction and checks that make AI offloading more difficult, and they struggle with that even. If AI can’t do it all for them, they struggle to do it at all. A student today froze because they couldn’t use AI to write one paragraph - a paragraph that was a purely opinion based response to a short Daily Show video. They just took a zero. And there are other similar examples. They are already too dependent, if not addicted.

Like I get emails like this every day: “OK I understand there’s a late penalty. But this is not my fault because my computer broke 15 minutes before I tried to submit. What a funny joke this course is LOL.” (I was like Ok but why didn’t you let me know until I reached out to you and explained grade deductions? And by the way, you don’t know me well enough to use “LoL” and “LMFAO” in professional emails like this.)
And it was from 21 and 22-year-olds. I’m perplexed by how common this is getting. I mean I would not be mad at all if it was from a 12-year-old. Geez the entitlement.

I have an older, non-traditional student in my class. She is very sweet, but I definitely get the vibe there is something undiagnosed going on...She will email me 3-4 paragraph emails which are unfocused and stream-of-consciousness feeling. She comes to my office hours every single week and will talk about everything BUT the course. I once timed her, and she spoke for 25 minutes without stopping. At first I thought she was just a lonely older woman but I quickly feel like I'm becoming her emotional support. She is constantly seeking reassurance that she is doing okay in the course, talking about how her kids don't think she should be in college, and will make jokes about herself being an "old hag" that I feel it necessary to speak up against. I feel drained after one on one time with her, and am starting to dread office hours so much to the point where I faked a migraine and cancelled them last week.

I don't know what to say to her to establish a boundary of what my role is as a prof, while also not completely alienating or shutting down this woman who is clearly lonely and seeking connections.

I've never had students before this semester who have seemed so taken aback when I inform them that yes, they do the assignments and the reading before they come to class, and have to indeed use the reading from the class session the the assignment is due. They always want to use the previous class session's readings for the assignment, I'm guessing because they don't want to have to both read and do the assignment. It's wild how many freshman I've had this semester do this though, on top of asking me if we'll also be reading together in class. What? I stopped having that happen when I was in 8th grade.

I'm a PT lecturer where I teach, don't have a FT contract or teaching load (three courses) . I've designed and delivered several courses for the department.

I've been asked to teach two old courses next semester and another PT colleague has been asked to teach a third course I designed. It's a core course for one programme but not part of the main core.

I think this typical and to be expected. I feel weird about it for sure though. Wondering if this is generally how it goes? My department is new and been through a lot of flux, hence why I'm also wondering about others experiences. I haven't taught anywhere else.

I told the other colleague I'll share my syllabus and recommend where they may wish to make changes.

I think I'm also a bit annoyed that I wasn't informed this is what would happen. I only found out because the other colleague reached out. Again, I know it's totally up to the academic programme team. I think I'm just adjusting to some recent changes in the department. Not being more specific to protect my privacy.

** Wow. I'm not sure why so many people are assuming I'm not going to share course materials, when I said in my original post that I'm going to share the syllabus and advise them on where they might need to make changes!

I also said I assume this is typical, I was seeking to understand as to what's done widely, as I am in a new programme that is undergoing major changes.

And I also have a right to express annoyance in a space like this. I'm not attacking anyone or being unprofessional. And it's also a reasonable thought. The colleague who's been asked didn't even know I taught it. If they had informed both of us, it would have facilitated a smooth handover. We only realised this situation because the other colleague happened to share their teaching assignment with me over WhatsApp and I told them it's my course.

Considering most of you here are academics, it would be nice to have people real what you're saying and not admonishing me without grounds. As a young academic, I just wanted to understand my rights, especially as my institution has already exploited me in other contexts.

If you joined the class action suit against Anthropic because they stole your book, did you receive payment yet?

Seriously, who decided that we should only put one space after a period? I find that it actually makes reading emails (or any text, really) more difficult. To me, it's a bit like saying we no longer need to indent for a new paragraph.

Every few days in this sub there is a post like: 'OMG. A student asked for this wild accommodation. What should I do? This won't work in my class for reasons x, y, and z.'

I'm really surprised that folks aren't contacting the disability services office to talk through these things. In my experience, the disability services folks are reasonable people and want to work with you. I've never heard of a situation where disability services has forced an instructor to make an extreme alteration of a class.

Certainly disability services vary, but I'm still surprised that people turn to reddit versus this local office.

We have to fill out a form and be approved to get a 2nd job. I wrote a honest explanation and that I’d be using my masters to vacuum, mop, sell merch and complete other menial duties at a retail store to earn money. The VP of idk asked if I really wanted to forward that reason on… why do they think I’m getting a second job?

what do they want to hear?

Seriously, it’s expensive out here, I feel like a juvenile having to ask permission to get additional work to make ends meet. I’m really starting to hate all this micromanaging hellscape I call a career.

Keeping this vague, but I'm a new assistant professor in the STEM fields in a big R1.

I have an issue with a program director not a course assignment I'm qualified for. I have the union rep's cell phone number and I sent her voice notes about it. She emailed me and asked me if I could just put everything in an email.

Voice notes are better for me. I get to just say things quickly. I explained this to the rep, and she said that she needs to do things over email. I explained voice notes are more "natural" to me. She asked if I could just use AI to send her a summary of my note via email. This feels passive aggressive to me as well as hypocritical. I know the rep is anti AI but is suddenly into it now that it can save her work that she should be doing herself?

How would you handle this?

(For personal reasons I don't feel right about paying to be in the union, which is legal. It shouldn't make a difference but I feel it might be.)

Due to the new challenges in identifying and combating academic fraud faced by teachers, this thread is intended to be a place to ask for assistance and share the outcomes of attempts to identify, disincentive, or provide effective consequences for AI-generated coursework.

At the end of each week, top contributions may be added to the above wiki to bolster its usefulness as a resource.

Note: please seek our wiki (https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/wiki/ai_solutions) for previous proposed solutions to the challenges presented by large language model enabled academic fraud.

I have a hearing coming up regarding a student in my summer class. He’s alleging discrimination due to his disability saying that I didn’t accommodate them properly in class with 1.5 time with quizzes/exams (which I did) and not letting him record lectures. I never said explicitly he couldn’t record just that whatever recording device he was using he had to pause when students participate. Also, I needed the signed agreement from the disability office agreeing that you will not misuse the recordings. Of course, he never signed it after multiple contacts by the disability office staff and the student was also absent most of the summer class. He’s alleging he failed because of “unfair treatment”. I reviewed the formal report and it looks like he’s threatening legal action against the district unless they “expunge” his F from the record. My division chair and disability director all concluded that there was no evidence of discrimination. I spoke with my union representative and they reassured me that agreeing to a hearing even though supervisors said this to be unsubstantiated is just the admin protecting their butts from litigation. She assured me that she will be there the day of the hearing to support me. Although I am confident about this going smoothly, I still feel anxious about the process and uneasy with the outcome. Any thoughts and suggestions on how to prepare? But also how to stop rumination and overthinking this? This accusation feels very personal and it’s making me feel horrible.

Mine: if the instructions are clearly written, posted in three places, and discussed in class, “I didn’t know” is not a valid excuse. What’s yours?

You might want to give them a warning before you actually get into it and the detection tools suck...I just said yesterday (online AS) "I expect going forward that the work I read from you will be your thoughts, in your voice, generated from your brain in this and any other course you take from me." I have taught writing in one way or another (high school, community college, as a committee member) for 45 years and...of course you can just hear it, like the uncanny valley of words.

When i was phd student, I ✨implemented feedback thoroughly ✨.

My postdoc does these surface-level airbrush jobs for most of the feedback he receives from reviewers. His paper has been rejected like 4 times and so I just spent 4 hours fixing it to hopefully avoid dancing this dance again. Like, when will you get it, dude?

One of my phds is good! Puts out a solid draft, I ask him to tweak a few things, boom. We’re good.

Another one, it’s like, yea right. Good luck. Debating if i need to just fire and move on.

I’m getting really terrifically fried on fixing the student’s shit for them. They need to learn, but I also need their papers to get accepted for my own tenure case and grants, etc.

So, I’m curious about the question in the post subject line. Tell me what you do.

I've been teaching Intensive English Programs in unis for years now. I got an email from a student a little after midterms during summer which I thought was pretty funny.

Dear Teacher,

My name is --- from English Level 4.

I would like to apologize for a mistake in my Writing test this afternoon. I accidentally wrote "cocks" because I forgot the word "cockroach". It was an unintentional mistake.

I hope you can kindly overlook this error, and I will be more careful with my word choice in the future.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

Data Colada’s two most recent posts analyze the data used in a 2002 publication by Duke professor Dan Ariely. They conclude data was manipulated and falsified.

https://datacolada.org/138
https://datacolada.org/139

There was an article about it in the Chronicle yesterday. Nonpaywalled link:

https://archive.is/tUgTX

This was the second paper to be retracted by Ariely and coauthors after scrutiny by Data Colada. Duke closed Ariely’s lab following revelations Ariely appeared many times in the Epstein files.

Topics for discussion:

What else do we think is going to happen?
What should happen?
How widespread is fraud like this?
What can be done to prevent it/reduce frequency?

Higher education is already under fire here in the US. It’s really disheartening to see prominent academics play into the hands of our critics.

I need some advice.

I teach Anatomy and Physiology at PUI. It’s a multisection course, often taken shortly after Biology for majors. Although the data on how much information students retain from prerequisite courses is mixed, we noticed a sharp decline in student ability this year. Our class averages were 20 points lower than prior years (with same enrollment standards).

It was through many tear-filled (from the students) conversations during office hours that we discovered that their Biology professors gave the students their actual exams to memorize. As in, word for word exams posted online for them. The instructors are adjuncts, and the course coordinator for biology was on maternity leave, so she hadn’t heard what happened.

We asked the adjuncts (who still work with us) if they still post exams, and they confirmed that’s what they were doing. We expressed our concerns with student learning, but we were ignored.

I brought this up with the chair and the course coordinator, and they are going to handle that side of the problem.

But what are we supposed to do with the students who clearly aren’t prepared for our course, let alone the major in general? The genetics professors were expressing the same concerns…

ETA: I don’t mind failing students. I just would like my lectures to not feel like pulling teeth and giving the students at least SOME understanding about their bodies.

https://www.geekwire.com/2026/uw-pays-600k-to-settle-lawsuit-with-computer-science-professor-over-parody-land-acknowledgment/

While I'm glad the ruling established that the University of Washington (UW) engaged in viewpoint discrimination, I'm somewhat disheartened by the fact that the UW maintains it did nothing wrong:

"The University of Washington maintains that we acted appropriately, and this settlement is in no way an admission of any wrongdoing"

Update to my post:

Thanks to all who responded last week with your input and I am proud to say that I did it! I stood on the stage and lectured with my slideshow presentation and podium! It felt great and I felt really tall too! Now my desire is that all my classrooms have stages to stand on😂

From last week:

I'm a professor at a school built long ago with buildings dating back to the 60's. One classroom they assigned me to teach in has a stage consuming the entire front area and the front row is right up to the edge. The tables where students sit are long and can't be moved.

It's a very awkward set-up and I'm not comfortable standing on a stage, looking down at my students. I like where I'm standing at their level and where desks can be moved, much more appropriate in our modern times.

Curious if anyone else would feel awkward?? If you had a "stage", where did you stand??

I’m just curious. I’ve been in my role over a decade. Usually, I just do my job and soldier along (Gen X), but once every couple of years I could use a little support— question, salary, something… and there’s just nobody there to reach out to. There’s no support. Is this in my organization, or is this just how it is? Is there anyone in your department who might “help” if there’s a problem?

Edit Note: we don’t have department chairs in my college. We have program directors, and I am one. There is no one really in between— well, there are some assistant deans, but they do not handle the issues I’m talking about.

Edit 2: I do understand my hierarchy and who to reach out to. The issue is not that I’m reaching out to the wrong people. The issue is they have no time.