Being Overworked and Managing Students' Use of ChatGPT
As an anonymous lecturer shared in an article, being overworked can lead to difficulties in managing students' use of ChatGPT. With the rise of technology, students have found ways to cheat and make their lives easier. However, is it worth putting in the effort to stop them when lecturers are already struggling with work overload and low pay?
The author shares their personal experience of grading papers in a hospital lobby while their partner had surgery. The lecturer had to cancel a class and used all their sick days for the semester. They know that missing an extra class won't result in their contract being dropped, but as a lecturer, they are never certain. It is a precarious situation.
The author faces the problem of students using ChatGPT to cheat and their inability to stop them. They use GPTZero to flag the text and try to reverse engineer it in ChatGPT, but it is a time-consuming process. They also find it challenging to find a website that isn't just looking for direct plagiarism.
The author shares the struggles of teaching four classes a semester, and teaching at a pay lower than a high school teacher's starting salary. Rent is skyrocketing, pay is stagnating, and students' expectations are rising. There is a need for more feedback, more individual attention, more organization, more, more, more. As a result, lecturers are cutting corners and doing the bare minimum to get by.
The author highlights the issue of not being paid enough to care about a student's use of ChatGPT. They could report the student to the honor board, fail the assignment, or force them to redo it. However, at the end of the day, it's not worth putting in the effort when the pay is meager.
Conclusion
Being overworked and managing students' use of ChatGPT is a challenging task for lecturers. With low pay and high expectations, it's no wonder that they are struggling to keep up. It's a precarious situation that needs to be addressed to ensure that lecturers get the support they need.
