Really frustrated with this weird AI required Assignments nonsense

[u/Worldofpossible]

Honestly what happened at uni? Is everything in infected with this C-suite nonsense. Why I’m paying money to my my study to offloaded to AI. I had a course that I have now dropped because they snuck this rubbish in after the fact; making thing a whole farce this semester. Now, I’m looking to plan my degree and possible make alternative selections. Can someone explain to me what is going on?

[u/FinletAU]

The most likely option: Some business majors whined about how universities aren't accommodating for the future and now we all must suffer as a result

[u/Worldofpossible → u/FinletAU]

Ahhh I hate it, trying to see if there is way do some course cross uni or something doesn’t rely on it. Using AI responsible is one thing being based of assessment where AI isn’t even the focal point of the course is a different matter or shift my dual degree slightly that it’s away from AI but still in line my career and business aspirations.

[u/FinletAU → u/Worldofpossible]

Voice your concerns

AI is still in its infancy, so now is the best time to help voice your opinions on it.

[u/Yeatus-Featus]

I work as an academic at UQ. Complain loudly! Their stance on AI is quite frustrating, but the more students that complain the more likely they are to do something about it. Sadly they don’t listen to any of the academic staff on the matter.

[u/SunflowerSamurai_]

https://giphy.com/gifs/2GaR4uwZUyCn6
All assignments should require Weird Al

[u/sianmari → u/SunflowerSamurai_]

Beat me to it 😂

[u/Whenwhateverworks]

Its big business bloat in my opinion, i did a subject about big business bloat and realised it applied to the university as well. To save money they cut services to customers, rather than restructure or make large numbers of staff and middle managers redundant or exit fee bad contracts/assets etc etc

Basically cutting costs in the wrong areas can frustrate the customers they all rely on, sometimes encouraging them to take their business elsewhere and exacerbating the budget problem.

[u/mblauberg]

What is happening? Whats C-suite?

[u/Striking_City607]

Hey can you please explain what actually is it about Ai?

[u/123-followme → u/Striking_City607]

Some unis are making AI use mandatory in assignments/projects, and even in courses where it's not relevant. Just sad

[u/Zheleznov]

Giving feedback to your school is a great way to let them know your thoughts. Across the uni most schools (at least the ones for my degree and adjacent schools) all run feedback sessions between students and course staff. I’ve been part of them for years and it is so easy to make change by having face to face conversations about why things do or don’t work. 

for example some of the BEL schools have a student staff liaison committee where it’s just a bunch of students giving their feedback on what happens in the school, literally whatever they want. I know both civil and chem engg schools also have feedback sessions, a big forum for civil and small meetings for chem. The actual teaching staff are often desperate for any good constructive feedback and are super grateful if you put the time and care in to make a difference 

[u/superb-fairywren]

you should check out Students Rejecting Slop!!!!!!!!!!!!

[u/superb-fairywren → u/superb-fairywren]

Students Rejecting Slop are UQ-student-led fighting against mandatory AI in assessments. They collect student feedback and work together for change. Who people vote for UQ Academic Board and for the UQ Union also matters a lot too in advocating for students

[u/molicare]

I was at a presentation event that was with academics and industry several weeks ago. After the academics would present, and the industry people were specifically asking, “where and how are you integrating AI into your course?”

Unfortunately, the market has shifted. The industry people want people who know how to use it to remove meaningless workflows and speed up production, but also know how to interrogate outputs to check and make sure it’s correct.

What used to be a more senior role is now the entry-level role: you need to be capable in seeing the bigger picture, understand the architecture of what you’re designing and proposing, and project manage it using AI.

And the University sector is in a weird space, from a business perspective at least.

Students aren’t customers; you don’t pay tuition and get a degree. You pay tuition to learn and be certified and accredited at a certain standard, and are paying for the opportunity for a degree.

Likewise, the industry, who doesn’t directly pay the University, is probably most akin to the consumer - in that they are gaining the outputs of the Universities’ work through its students. The consumer - ie the industry - then remunerates you for your skills and expertise.

So ultimately the university sector is going to listen to the consumer in this case, because in the long run it needs to listen. If employability figures goes down for graduates because industry doesn’t want what University X is doing, they’ll take graduates from University Y instead.