Grading homework and providing feedback to students is arguably the toughest part of being an educator. During my tenure as a professor, reviewing the results of carefully crafted assignments was at best a barometer of how well I was relaying the concepts and crucial elements of the course. In the era of AI, it’s become an infuriating exercise in futility. 

Discussion posts littered with complex references to materials outside the course’s accepted reading. Students who were instant masters at the subject matter from day one, taking a page from the classic tactic of “forge your mom’s signature the first time so you can keep forging it forever.” 

After reading a story last week about a UC Berkeley math professor who no longer bothers grading his students’ homework because they’re all using AI, I couldn’t help reflecting on my own experience as a professor of practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. With the proliferation of AI tools once ChatGPT launched in late 2022, and tech giants worldwide started following suit, launching increasingly sophisticated chatbots and now AI agents, grading homework became deeply depressing.

In advanced communications courses like the ones I taught, reviewing homework turned into a hypervigilant hunt for the hallmarks of AI-generated text and ideas. The beast was cunning, quick and never slept. My tools for catching it were sorely lacking.

Despite there being no way to verify it, I was fairly certain there were online students in my classes who had never done any of the work themselves the entire course.

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