March 8, 2024 • 18 mins
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Embark on a transformative journey with Dr. Jeffrey Kohler as we tackle the mid-semester crescendo of higher education. Our enlightening discussion promises to arm you with the strategies you need to navigate midterm assessments while keeping your students engaged and on track. We're breaking down the walls between achieving learning outcomes and the daily grind of exams, providing you with the tools to weave formative feedback into the fabric of your teaching. As the pressure of midterms mounts, we open up about the shared stress pervading classrooms and the significance of cultivating a supportive atmosphere that taps into the wealth of campus resources dedicated to mental health.
In the thick of academic challenges, we tackle the ever-present issue of academic integrity head-on, shedding light on the sophisticated arsenal at our disposal. From lockdown browsers to the nuanced AI detection capabilities of Turnitin, we're guiding you through the intricacies of these tools to keep honesty at the forefront of student assessments. Dr. Kohler offers a wealth of knowledge on deciphering Turnitin reports and the importance of keeping an open dialogue with students, ensuring that the pursuit of integrity doesn't overshadow the pursuit of understanding. As the semester's gears shift into their final phase, we underscore the symbiotic relationship between faculty support and student success, sharing nuggets of wisdom on harnessing available resources and the necessity of maintaining the momentum as the academic year's finish line approaches.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Maggie Grady (00:03):
Welcome to the Teaching Table, a monthly
podcast where we'll engage ininsightful conversations about
the dynamic world of teaching,learning and technology within
higher education.
Brought to you by theUniversity of Buffalo Office of
Curriculum Assessment andTeaching Transformation, and
made possible by the generoussupport of the Genteels'
Excellence in Teaching Fund,this podcast aims to shed light
(00:25):
on the pathways to educationalexcellence.
I'm Maggie Grady, a learningdesigner within CATT, and today
I'm delighted to be joined by DrJeffrey Kohler, Associate
Director of TeachingTransformation within CATT, as
we delve into best practices andrecommendations for faculty at
the mid-semester mark.
Welcome, Dr Kohler, and thankyou for joining me.
Jeffrey Kohler (00:46):
Thank you, Maggie.
Thanks for inviting me toparticipate in this podcast.
I'm looking forward to sharingany insights that I can about
teaching here at UB with ourlisteners.
Maggie Grady (00:58):
Can you please tell our audience a little bit
about your background inteaching Sure?
Jeffrey Kohler (01:03):
I've been teaching at the university level
for about 16 years now.
I started out actually here atUB as a TA in the history
department.
I earned my PhD there in 2013.
I've taught not only here at UBbut also other colleges in
Western New York, and I alsospent time as faculty at Bard
(01:23):
College and in my current rolehere in CAT, together with my
team of learning designers,maggie included, we are helping
to promote student success byimproving the quality of
teaching at UB.
Really, that's what's paramount, for our office is trying to
promote student success, and sowe provide regular programming
for faculty and instructionalstaff at all levels, including
(01:47):
those faculty who are on thetenure ladder clinical faculty
adjuncts, teaching assistantsreally anybody who has a
student-facing role thatinvolves some form of
instruction.
Maggie Grady (01:59):
So today's topic is mid-semester preparation and
practices.
I have some questions for youabout how faculty can prepare
for the mid-semester point andhow to survive all of the exam
grading, research papers and allat the same time still
delivering effective teaching totheir students.
So to begin my first questionwe have received many questions
(02:20):
within CAT about grade books andgrading, in particular within
UB Learns.
What are some things facultycan do in this main to help them
survive the midterm crunch?
Jeffrey Kohler (02:32):
Well, I think the first thing to remember is
that you know we've made ithalfway right.
That's a huge accomplishment inand of itself.
We've survived.
We've gotten to the point nowwhere we can sort of look back
and say, okay, what went rightthe first half of the semester,
maybe what we need to do somecorrection for the second half,
but overall, you know we've hita landmark and that's a good
(02:52):
thing.
So let's look at it from thatperspective.
A couple of things I wouldsuggest.
First is that when you'reconstructing your midterm exams
or creating assessments andthinking about how you're
evaluating your students,consider taking formative
feedback, not just now, butespecially now, I think, if
(03:13):
we're again, we're consideringthe midterm point, take some
formative feedback from yourstudents and that can really
help you identify areas of need.
One example that I use in mycourses is a minute paper, and
what you can do is give thateither at the beginning or the
end of a particular classsession.
Just have students write for aminute about an aspect of the
(03:36):
course.
You can ask them to identifysomething that they felt was
relevant about that class,something that they took home
that they thought wasparticularly important to them.
You can also ask them aboutwhat they felt was missing or if
there was some aspect of thatclass or that lesson that they
didn't really understand orthere's a concept that they're
not grasping.
It's a really effective way foryou to get feedback from the
(03:59):
students and sort of keep yourfinger on the pulse of the class
, while also being a low stakes,you know, anonymous way to have
students give you some of thatinformation that you're looking
for and to provide a betterexperience for them.
So I use that in my courses.
I think that works really well.
I would also suggest thatfaculty are looking at their
(04:19):
learning outcomes, you know.
So go back to that syllabus,which you may not have looked at
since the first week of thesemester or really talked about,
and make sure that you know theassessments that you are
implementing, your exams andyour assignments and things like
that.
Make sure that that really isaddressing what you are
expecting your students to learnand take away from your course.
(04:42):
You know, if you're expectingthem to master a particular
skill, is what you're askingthem to do able to showcase that
?
Is that really proving to youthat they are capable of
exercising that skill and thatthey have developed and mastered
that skill over the course ofyour class.
If it's missing the mark,that's okay.
It just means that you have thesecond half of the semester to
(05:03):
kind of go back and reassess andsay, all right, let's think of
what we can change to make thata more accurate way of getting
at that learning outcome.
And I would say too, obviously,faculty.
We're all dealing with thestress and anxiety of midterms,
but keep in mind that studentsare also experiencing that as
(05:23):
well, and also, if you have TAstoo, they're going through the
same exact thing.
So I would say, make sure thatyou're aware of resources that
are available on campus andshare those with your students,
such as counseling services.
This is an anxious or ananxiety inducing moment, if you
will, and I think that anythingthat you can do to help provide
(05:45):
students with some relief fromthat not only is going to make
your life easier, but it's alsogoing to make sure that your
students are at their best toperform their best in your
classes.
Not to be pretentious, but Ithink that there's oftentimes
this gap between students andfaculty and they feel like they
can't really relate to theirfaculty members, and so when a
(06:06):
professor is genuinelyinterested in your well-being or
is taking the time out of theirschedule to say hey, is
everything going OK for you inthis class?
Are you struggling?
Or again vice versa, if youhave a situation where a student
is excited that you're reachingout and saying I noticed that
you're doing a great job in theclass and here's something that
(06:27):
might take your interest to thenext level, or you might want to
read a little bit further onthis particular subject or
something, I just think it canmake all the difference between
a student who is just sort ofgetting by in class and someone
who is really investingthemselves in the class and
trying to get out of it the mostthat they can.
Maggie Grady (06:46):
All about the student's success.
Jeffrey Kohler (06:47):
That's right.
That's what we're here for.
Maggie Grady (06:49):
An area of concern this academic year has been the
use of AI, or artificialintelligence.
It seems like faculty aren'tquite sure what to do if they
suspect a student is using AI.
What would you recommend,especially since they will be
expecting to see more use of AIat this crucial exam time?
Jeffrey Kohler (07:07):
I think they should give up now.
I think it's all over.
We're all going to lose ourjobs.
It's pretty much done for.
Ai is a scary thing.
I think it's something thateveryone is dealing with,
regardless of whether it'sacademia or other industries.
This is something that everyonehas questions about, and not
(07:28):
just from a.
In the case of academia,plagiarism or what have you.
It's an ethical question.
There's things that go beyondhigher education, if you will.
For me, if I'm makingrecommendations to faculty, I
would say start with using thetools that are at your disposal.
(07:48):
Even before AI had this surgein 2023, ub has been on the
cutting edge of trying toprevent academic dishonesty and
trying to respond to thesequestions.
For example, setting up yourassignments in a way that uses
the lockdown browser.
(08:09):
That's not necessarily a curellfor AI, but it's a tool that I
think a lot of faculty arefamiliar with and can help
mitigate its use, particularlyon exams and things like that.
When it comes to writtenassignments, from a best
practices standpoint, I thinkit's important that not only do
you create the Manubi Learns, aswe talked about before, making
sure that you're setting them upaccordingly and using the grade
(08:30):
book properly, but it's alsoabout understanding what UB
Learns can tell you about thoseassignments submissions from
students.
Ub Learns employees turn it in,which is there for checking in
on plagiarism, but now it alsoincludes an AI detector and that
is separate from the plagiarismscore.
(08:51):
If you are familiar withlooking at the generated report
for plagiarism on turn it in,you'll want to note that there's
also a separate numerical valuea percentage value, for AI
detection now as well.
Turn it in is actually one ofthe better tools for AI
detection.
I know that.
(09:11):
I've talked with faculty whoare just kind of plugging in
portion of a student responseinto Google or something and
seeing if it comes up, orthey're using free AI detectors
online, and I don't want to belibelous, but to me, I don't
know how reliable that is.
However, turn it in can do areally great job of detecting AI
(09:35):
, or at least as good of a jobas we can in the current state
of where things are at with AI,and so what you have to do is
basically some deductivereasoning here.
It's not something where it's asilver bullet, right.
So if you get a certainpercentage score in turning in
as it relates to AI, you'regoing to need to do a couple of
(09:57):
things.
You're going to have to look atthe information in context.
You're going to have to, youknow, investigate a little bit
more, have a conversation withthe student.
I think that's really importanttoo.
You know, it's not somethingthat should be done in a vacuum
and it's like you're building acase against a student before
you even get a chance to talk tothem.
That's not really appropriate.
You want to make sure thatyou're doing your due diligence
(10:19):
here and you're trying to figureout if, in fact, this is a
valid you know, if this detectedtrue, legitimate academic
dishonesty or AI use or whathave you, or if it's something
that may be a mistake.
We've actually seen that quitea bit.
We've seen a situation,multiple situations, not just
now, but we have a lot offaculty that will come to us and
(10:42):
say, well, oh my gosh, mystudent submitted this work and
it's, you know, less than zeropercentage is being marked as AI
or plagiarism, and a lot ofthat comes out when you think
about assignments where there isa template, where there's
something where you're going tosee repeated text that's used
across all student submissions.
(11:03):
It's a false positive right,and so you just want to be
careful about those types ofscenarios as you're preparing to
respond to concerns about AI inyour classroom.
I want to give a shout out toKelly Ahuna and the Academic
Integrity Office here at UB.
They have done a great job.
They have a really greatprotocol when it comes to
(11:23):
dealing with suspected cases ofplagiarism and AI use and things
like that.
I have, I would say,unfortunately, had to go through
that myself with certainstudents and you know it's not a
pleasant experience.
Obviously, no one wants to haveto deal with that.
No one hopes that someone'sgoing to cheat or to engage in
academic dishonesty.
(11:44):
But I will say Kelly's officedoes a great job of helping you
as a faculty member.
Kind of steer your way throughthat successfully and take a lot
of the pressure off you asfaculty.
In fact, I will say that youknow when we see faculty coming
to our office and saying, oh mygosh.
Well, I have a situation where Ithink a student has used AI,
but I don't want to report itbecause I hear that you know
(12:06):
it's going to create a lot ofproblems, either for the student
or it's going to make myworkload a lot more.
I have to worry about this caseNow.
That's really not the situation.
Again, you know I won't presumeto speak for Kelly.
You can definitely check outthe Office of Academic
Integrity's website, but there'sa very clear protocol of how
the case is handled and howfaculty can get resolution there
(12:29):
, and there's protections therefor both the faculty and the
students.
So you don't have to worry abouta situation where you know if
you are suspecting AI and youpotentially submit this as a
case to Kelly's office.
It's not going to create alarger scenario where a student
is going to have a problem ifthey were in fact not, if it
wasn't a true instance ofacademic dishonesty.
(12:52):
But even with that protocol,the first step is contacting the
student.
Right is to talk with them andascertain exactly what's going
on.
And so, again, don't hit thepanic button.
You know when you see a certainpercentage, you know there's
probably false positives inthere not saying that they
always are but you know, don'tget too excited if you see the
(13:19):
plagiarism detector or the AIdetector come up with a certain
score.
Do your due diligence.
You know, read what yourstudents have written, have the
cited sources and, again, youknow, make sure that you're
having a conversation with yourstudents before you make any
accusation.
Maggie Grady (13:34):
Keeping the lines of communication open between
you and the student.
Jeffrey Kohler (13:37):
Absolutely.
Maggie Grady (13:38):
So last question I have for you.
My students didn't do as wellas I thought they should, or
they aren't quite getting theconcepts the way that I would
have expected in my course, inmy class, and I want to make
sure that they're doing well.
What would you recommend?
Jeffrey Kohler (13:53):
Well, I think, first of all is, again, we're at
a good point in time of thesemester to do that reflection,
right.
That, as a faculty member, ifyou are sitting there and you're
looking at your students andyou're genuinely concerned at
how they're doing in your classand You're saying, well gosh, I
wish they were here, but they'renot quite there yet, you know,
that's.
That's really admirable, right,that you're doing that level of
(14:15):
reflection, and I wish thatmore faculty would engage in
that.
What I want to say, though, isthat you know, start by going
back to your syllabus and goback to those learning outcomes,
as I mentioned earlier today,the content that you've created,
the assessments that you've,you know, designed the
activities that you're havingyour students engaged in.
Make sure that they're relevantand that they're necessary and
(14:36):
that they're aligning with whatthe course expectations you had
set out that to be at thebeginning of the semester, that
they're still, you know, in linewith that.
Now, I'd also say that you wantto make sure you're not judging
your students too harshly.
I think that happens quite abit right, where we say, you
know, we obviously hope that allof our students are gonna get a
(14:57):
100, and we say, wow, I'd loveto give everybody an A.
You know, obviously, hopefully,that they legitimately earned
it.
We're not talking about greatinflation, necessarily, but just
the idea in general, right,that you know we want our
students to succeed, and so youknow, if a student didn't do
great on the midterm exam, butthey're doing really well in
other areas, you know, they'redoing well on their homework,
(15:18):
they're doing well in group work, they're doing well on
Discussion responses, thingslike that.
You know it might be time foryou to review the assessment
itself.
It may not be the student, itmay be that the exam is not
designed really well, and thinkabout where those problems might
be.
You know, are you asking theright questions to get at that
answer, to demonstrate thestudent has mastered the skill
(15:39):
or the subject matter thatyou're looking for from them?
Don't be afraid to address thefact that you are maybe
expecting a little bit more outof your students.
I'm not saying to you know,come into lecture and browbeat
your students and say thateveryone did a terrible job.
That's, that's absolutely notwhat I'm saying.
But what I'm thinking of is,you know, it's okay to talk with
(16:02):
your students about an exam andsay, hey, that was really tough
, you know, and that I washoping that everybody would be
doing a better job.
But, you know, get theirfeedback, you know.
Did they feel like the examquestions were fair?
Did they feel like thequestions were appropriate,
based on what had been learnedor had been described in lecture
, you know, and clarify thosemuddy areas.
Maggie Grady (16:22):
These have been some great suggestions and thank
you for so much for taking thetime to meet with me today.
Do you have any final takeaways?
Jeffrey Kohler (16:30):
Just remember that you are not alone, right,
as a faculty member, if you're ateaching assistant, if you are,
you know Anyone that's in aninstructional role and you're at
this midterm point and you'resaying, oh my gosh, you know
it's, it's been a battle to gethere.
You're not by yourself.
Everyone is dealing with thatat this point and, and you know
anything that you know you'regoing through, I can almost
(16:53):
guarantee you that someone elsehas done it before and has
gotten through it and has madetheir way to fall semester, or I
should say to, to the, to theend of the semester, to May, and
you know may is not that faraway, basically.
So you know, really, at the endof the day, you can do it.
You, you are able to get thereand you know you're gonna let
(17:14):
your you know students succeedand and you're gonna do your
best to get them there.
So I would say just to just tohang in there and, as I
mentioned to, you know ouroffice is here to support you.
So it's not something where youare on an island, you know.
You can come to talk with us,you can talk with your chair.
I mean, these are all thingsthat you can do if you feel like
you need some externalObservation or some external
(17:37):
supports to help get you towhere you need to be.
If you are successful in yourteaching, your students are
going to be successful, and Ithink that's really important to
remember.
We're not just telling you to.
You know, emphasize studentsuccess for the fun of it.
It's because we want to seeyour students succeed, we want
you to succeed, and so, again,it's it's.
It's a very Synergisticsituation.
(17:59):
So I would say you know you'rehalfway there, hang in there and
you know may is here before youknow it.
Maggie Grady (18:07):
Thank you for joining us today at the teaching
table.
Today we discussed mid-termbest practices with dr Jeffrey
Kohler.
Be sure to connect with usonline at buffaloedu slash cat
that's ATT, or email us atubicat at buffaloedu.
Welcome to the Teaching Table, a monthly
podcast where we'll engage ininsightful conversations about
the dynamic world of teaching,learning and technology within
higher education.
Brought to you by theUniversity of Buffalo Office of
Curriculum Assessment andTeaching Transformation, and
made possible by the generoussupport of the Genteels'
Excellence in Teaching Fund,this podcast aims to shed light
(00:25):
on the pathways to educationalexcellence.
I'm Maggie Grady, a learningdesigner within CATT, and today
I'm delighted to be joined by DrJeffrey Kohler, Associate
Director of TeachingTransformation within CATT, as
we delve into best practices andrecommendations for faculty at
the mid-semester mark.
Welcome, Dr Kohler, and thankyou for joining me.
Jeffrey Kohler (00:46):
Thank you, Maggie.
Thanks for inviting me toparticipate in this podcast.
I'm looking forward to sharingany insights that I can about
teaching here at UB with ourlisteners.
Maggie Grady (00:58):
Can you please tell our audience a little bit
about your background inteaching Sure?
Jeffrey Kohler (01:03):
I've been teaching at the university level
for about 16 years now.
I started out actually here atUB as a TA in the history
department.
I earned my PhD there in 2013.
I've taught not only here at UBbut also other colleges in
Western New York, and I alsospent time as faculty at Bard
(01:23):
College and in my current rolehere in CAT, together with my
team of learning designers,maggie included, we are helping
to promote student success byimproving the quality of
teaching at UB.
Really, that's what's paramount, for our office is trying to
promote student success, and sowe provide regular programming
for faculty and instructionalstaff at all levels, including
(01:47):
those faculty who are on thetenure ladder clinical faculty
adjuncts, teaching assistantsreally anybody who has a
student-facing role thatinvolves some form of
instruction.
Maggie Grady (01:59):
So today's topic is mid-semester preparation and
practices.
I have some questions for youabout how faculty can prepare
for the mid-semester point andhow to survive all of the exam
grading, research papers and allat the same time still
delivering effective teaching totheir students.
So to begin my first questionwe have received many questions
(02:20):
within CAT about grade books andgrading, in particular within
UB Learns.
What are some things facultycan do in this main to help them
survive the midterm crunch?
Jeffrey Kohler (02:32):
Well, I think the first thing to remember is
that you know we've made ithalfway right.
That's a huge accomplishment inand of itself.
We've survived.
We've gotten to the point nowwhere we can sort of look back
and say, okay, what went rightthe first half of the semester,
maybe what we need to do somecorrection for the second half,
but overall, you know we've hita landmark and that's a good
(02:52):
thing.
So let's look at it from thatperspective.
A couple of things I wouldsuggest.
First is that when you'reconstructing your midterm exams
or creating assessments andthinking about how you're
evaluating your students,consider taking formative
feedback, not just now, butespecially now, I think, if
(03:13):
we're again, we're consideringthe midterm point, take some
formative feedback from yourstudents and that can really
help you identify areas of need.
One example that I use in mycourses is a minute paper, and
what you can do is give thateither at the beginning or the
end of a particular classsession.
Just have students write for aminute about an aspect of the
(03:36):
course.
You can ask them to identifysomething that they felt was
relevant about that class,something that they took home
that they thought wasparticularly important to them.
You can also ask them aboutwhat they felt was missing or if
there was some aspect of thatclass or that lesson that they
didn't really understand orthere's a concept that they're
not grasping.
It's a really effective way foryou to get feedback from the
(03:59):
students and sort of keep yourfinger on the pulse of the class
, while also being a low stakes,you know, anonymous way to have
students give you some of thatinformation that you're looking
for and to provide a betterexperience for them.
So I use that in my courses.
I think that works really well.
I would also suggest thatfaculty are looking at their
(04:19):
learning outcomes, you know.
So go back to that syllabus,which you may not have looked at
since the first week of thesemester or really talked about,
and make sure that you know theassessments that you are
implementing, your exams andyour assignments and things like
that.
Make sure that that really isaddressing what you are
expecting your students to learnand take away from your course.
(04:42):
You know, if you're expectingthem to master a particular
skill, is what you're askingthem to do able to showcase that
?
Is that really proving to youthat they are capable of
exercising that skill and thatthey have developed and mastered
that skill over the course ofyour class.
If it's missing the mark,that's okay.
It just means that you have thesecond half of the semester to
(05:03):
kind of go back and reassess andsay, all right, let's think of
what we can change to make thata more accurate way of getting
at that learning outcome.
And I would say too, obviously,faculty.
We're all dealing with thestress and anxiety of midterms,
but keep in mind that studentsare also experiencing that as
(05:23):
well, and also, if you have TAstoo, they're going through the
same exact thing.
So I would say, make sure thatyou're aware of resources that
are available on campus andshare those with your students,
such as counseling services.
This is an anxious or ananxiety inducing moment, if you
will, and I think that anythingthat you can do to help provide
(05:45):
students with some relief fromthat not only is going to make
your life easier, but it's alsogoing to make sure that your
students are at their best toperform their best in your
classes.
Not to be pretentious, but Ithink that there's oftentimes
this gap between students andfaculty and they feel like they
can't really relate to theirfaculty members, and so when a
(06:06):
professor is genuinelyinterested in your well-being or
is taking the time out of theirschedule to say hey, is
everything going OK for you inthis class?
Are you struggling?
Or again vice versa, if youhave a situation where a student
is excited that you're reachingout and saying I noticed that
you're doing a great job in theclass and here's something that
(06:27):
might take your interest to thenext level, or you might want to
read a little bit further onthis particular subject or
something, I just think it canmake all the difference between
a student who is just sort ofgetting by in class and someone
who is really investingthemselves in the class and
trying to get out of it the mostthat they can.
Maggie Grady (06:46):
All about the student's success.
Jeffrey Kohler (06:47):
That's right.
That's what we're here for.
Maggie Grady (06:49):
An area of concern this academic year has been the
use of AI, or artificialintelligence.
It seems like faculty aren'tquite sure what to do if they
suspect a student is using AI.
What would you recommend,especially since they will be
expecting to see more use of AIat this crucial exam time?
Jeffrey Kohler (07:07):
I think they should give up now.
I think it's all over.
We're all going to lose ourjobs.
It's pretty much done for.
Ai is a scary thing.
I think it's something thateveryone is dealing with,
regardless of whether it'sacademia or other industries.
This is something that everyonehas questions about, and not
(07:28):
just from a.
In the case of academia,plagiarism or what have you.
It's an ethical question.
There's things that go beyondhigher education, if you will.
For me, if I'm makingrecommendations to faculty, I
would say start with using thetools that are at your disposal.
(07:48):
Even before AI had this surgein 2023, ub has been on the
cutting edge of trying toprevent academic dishonesty and
trying to respond to thesequestions.
For example, setting up yourassignments in a way that uses
the lockdown browser.
(08:09):
That's not necessarily a curellfor AI, but it's a tool that I
think a lot of faculty arefamiliar with and can help
mitigate its use, particularlyon exams and things like that.
When it comes to writtenassignments, from a best
practices standpoint, I thinkit's important that not only do
you create the Manubi Learns, aswe talked about before, making
sure that you're setting them upaccordingly and using the grade
(08:30):
book properly, but it's alsoabout understanding what UB
Learns can tell you about thoseassignments submissions from
students.
Ub Learns employees turn it in,which is there for checking in
on plagiarism, but now it alsoincludes an AI detector and that
is separate from the plagiarismscore.
(08:51):
If you are familiar withlooking at the generated report
for plagiarism on turn it in,you'll want to note that there's
also a separate numerical valuea percentage value, for AI
detection now as well.
Turn it in is actually one ofthe better tools for AI
detection.
I know that.
(09:11):
I've talked with faculty whoare just kind of plugging in
portion of a student responseinto Google or something and
seeing if it comes up, orthey're using free AI detectors
online, and I don't want to belibelous, but to me, I don't
know how reliable that is.
However, turn it in can do areally great job of detecting AI
(09:35):
, or at least as good of a jobas we can in the current state
of where things are at with AI,and so what you have to do is
basically some deductivereasoning here.
It's not something where it's asilver bullet, right.
So if you get a certainpercentage score in turning in
as it relates to AI, you'regoing to need to do a couple of
(09:57):
things.
You're going to have to look atthe information in context.
You're going to have to, youknow, investigate a little bit
more, have a conversation withthe student.
I think that's really importanttoo.
You know, it's not somethingthat should be done in a vacuum
and it's like you're building acase against a student before
you even get a chance to talk tothem.
That's not really appropriate.
You want to make sure thatyou're doing your due diligence
(10:19):
here and you're trying to figureout if, in fact, this is a
valid you know, if this detectedtrue, legitimate academic
dishonesty or AI use or whathave you, or if it's something
that may be a mistake.
We've actually seen that quitea bit.
We've seen a situation,multiple situations, not just
now, but we have a lot offaculty that will come to us and
(10:42):
say, well, oh my gosh, mystudent submitted this work and
it's, you know, less than zeropercentage is being marked as AI
or plagiarism, and a lot ofthat comes out when you think
about assignments where there isa template, where there's
something where you're going tosee repeated text that's used
across all student submissions.
(11:03):
It's a false positive right,and so you just want to be
careful about those types ofscenarios as you're preparing to
respond to concerns about AI inyour classroom.
I want to give a shout out toKelly Ahuna and the Academic
Integrity Office here at UB.
They have done a great job.
They have a really greatprotocol when it comes to
(11:23):
dealing with suspected cases ofplagiarism and AI use and things
like that.
I have, I would say,unfortunately, had to go through
that myself with certainstudents and you know it's not a
pleasant experience.
Obviously, no one wants to haveto deal with that.
No one hopes that someone'sgoing to cheat or to engage in
academic dishonesty.
(11:44):
But I will say Kelly's officedoes a great job of helping you
as a faculty member.
Kind of steer your way throughthat successfully and take a lot
of the pressure off you asfaculty.
In fact, I will say that youknow when we see faculty coming
to our office and saying, oh mygosh.
Well, I have a situation where Ithink a student has used AI,
but I don't want to report itbecause I hear that you know
(12:06):
it's going to create a lot ofproblems, either for the student
or it's going to make myworkload a lot more.
I have to worry about this caseNow.
That's really not the situation.
Again, you know I won't presumeto speak for Kelly.
You can definitely check outthe Office of Academic
Integrity's website, but there'sa very clear protocol of how
the case is handled and howfaculty can get resolution there
(12:29):
, and there's protections therefor both the faculty and the
students.
So you don't have to worry abouta situation where you know if
you are suspecting AI and youpotentially submit this as a
case to Kelly's office.
It's not going to create alarger scenario where a student
is going to have a problem ifthey were in fact not, if it
wasn't a true instance ofacademic dishonesty.
(12:52):
But even with that protocol,the first step is contacting the
student.
Right is to talk with them andascertain exactly what's going
on.
And so, again, don't hit thepanic button.
You know when you see a certainpercentage, you know there's
probably false positives inthere not saying that they
always are but you know, don'tget too excited if you see the
(13:19):
plagiarism detector or the AIdetector come up with a certain
score.
Do your due diligence.
You know, read what yourstudents have written, have the
cited sources and, again, youknow, make sure that you're
having a conversation with yourstudents before you make any
accusation.
Maggie Grady (13:34):
Keeping the lines of communication open between
you and the student.
Jeffrey Kohler (13:37):
Absolutely.
Maggie Grady (13:38):
So last question I have for you.
My students didn't do as wellas I thought they should, or
they aren't quite getting theconcepts the way that I would
have expected in my course, inmy class, and I want to make
sure that they're doing well.
What would you recommend?
Jeffrey Kohler (13:53):
Well, I think, first of all is, again, we're at
a good point in time of thesemester to do that reflection,
right.
That, as a faculty member, ifyou are sitting there and you're
looking at your students andyou're genuinely concerned at
how they're doing in your classand You're saying, well gosh, I
wish they were here, but they'renot quite there yet, you know,
that's.
That's really admirable, right,that you're doing that level of
(14:15):
reflection, and I wish thatmore faculty would engage in
that.
What I want to say, though, isthat you know, start by going
back to your syllabus and goback to those learning outcomes,
as I mentioned earlier today,the content that you've created,
the assessments that you've,you know, designed the
activities that you're havingyour students engaged in.
Make sure that they're relevantand that they're necessary and
(14:36):
that they're aligning with whatthe course expectations you had
set out that to be at thebeginning of the semester, that
they're still, you know, in linewith that.
Now, I'd also say that you wantto make sure you're not judging
your students too harshly.
I think that happens quite abit right, where we say, you
know, we obviously hope that allof our students are gonna get a
(14:57):
100, and we say, wow, I'd loveto give everybody an A.
You know, obviously, hopefully,that they legitimately earned
it.
We're not talking about greatinflation, necessarily, but just
the idea in general, right,that you know we want our
students to succeed, and so youknow, if a student didn't do
great on the midterm exam, butthey're doing really well in
other areas, you know, they'redoing well on their homework,
(15:18):
they're doing well in group work, they're doing well on
Discussion responses, thingslike that.
You know it might be time foryou to review the assessment
itself.
It may not be the student, itmay be that the exam is not
designed really well, and thinkabout where those problems might
be.
You know, are you asking theright questions to get at that
answer, to demonstrate thestudent has mastered the skill
(15:39):
or the subject matter thatyou're looking for from them?
Don't be afraid to address thefact that you are maybe
expecting a little bit more outof your students.
I'm not saying to you know,come into lecture and browbeat
your students and say thateveryone did a terrible job.
That's, that's absolutely notwhat I'm saying.
But what I'm thinking of is,you know, it's okay to talk with
(16:02):
your students about an exam andsay, hey, that was really tough
, you know, and that I washoping that everybody would be
doing a better job.
But, you know, get theirfeedback, you know.
Did they feel like the examquestions were fair?
Did they feel like thequestions were appropriate,
based on what had been learnedor had been described in lecture
, you know, and clarify thosemuddy areas.
Maggie Grady (16:22):
These have been some great suggestions and thank
you for so much for taking thetime to meet with me today.
Do you have any final takeaways?
Jeffrey Kohler (16:30):
Just remember that you are not alone, right,
as a faculty member, if you're ateaching assistant, if you are,
you know Anyone that's in aninstructional role and you're at
this midterm point and you'resaying, oh my gosh, you know
it's, it's been a battle to gethere.
You're not by yourself.
Everyone is dealing with thatat this point and, and you know
anything that you know you'regoing through, I can almost
(16:53):
guarantee you that someone elsehas done it before and has
gotten through it and has madetheir way to fall semester, or I
should say to, to the, to theend of the semester, to May, and
you know may is not that faraway, basically.
So you know, really, at the endof the day, you can do it.
You, you are able to get thereand you know you're gonna let
(17:14):
your you know students succeedand and you're gonna do your
best to get them there.
So I would say just to just tohang in there and, as I
mentioned to, you know ouroffice is here to support you.
So it's not something where youare on an island, you know.
You can come to talk with us,you can talk with your chair.
I mean, these are all thingsthat you can do if you feel like
you need some externalObservation or some external
(17:37):
supports to help get you towhere you need to be.
If you are successful in yourteaching, your students are
going to be successful, and Ithink that's really important to
remember.
We're not just telling you to.
You know, emphasize studentsuccess for the fun of it.
It's because we want to seeyour students succeed, we want
you to succeed, and so, again,it's it's.
It's a very Synergisticsituation.
(17:59):
So I would say you know you'rehalfway there, hang in there and
you know may is here before youknow it.
Maggie Grady (18:07):
Thank you for joining us today at the teaching
table.
Today we discussed mid-termbest practices with dr Jeffrey
Kohler.
Be sure to connect with usonline at buffaloedu slash cat
that's ATT, or email us atubicat at buffaloedu.
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