Require in-person attendance at least once the first week for those using financial aid.
As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
41–50 of 147 posts
Re: As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
#42This is an example of what I've been thinking about/warning about for several years now: we are entering a post-truth era, where there is increasingly no way to know what is real and what is not. When I've thought about it, this scenario never occurred to me, but it's a perfect example: we're going to be increasingly unable to know what is "true" in a million different ways, and people are going to exploit that in ev…
We've been in a post-truth era for all of human history, since the first hunter-gatherer told a lie to take advantage of someone else.
Which is why we evolved to have exquisite bullshit detectors. They're not perfect, but they're pretty decent.
The answer around what is real and not is the same as it ever was -- does information come from a respected, generally trustworthy source or not? Does it come from a source that might have an agenda, or not? Is it written in a way that seems to gather a lot of evidence in all directions and then explain its conclusion in a plausible way, or is it clearly one-sided?
Bullshit detection, fraud detection, scam detection -- these have always been necessary skills in the world. Sure the scale of misinformation grows, but so do the tools we have to combat it. Email spam was a huge problem, then Gmail filtered it out.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Re: As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
#43The author tried really hard to dance around the real problem here: California is apparently paying students to attend online community college. If attending these classes was even just free, this wouldn't be a problem. Giving out student aid for online classes is just ridiculous.
Giving student aid beyond just free classes enables students who would otherwise need to spend time working to support themselves to instead attend school to get a better life. Generally that's considered a good thing, not worthy of the disdain you're displaying.
This is the first-order, emotional reaction, yes, but policy should be made based on its full effects, not just its sales pitch's popularity with first-order-emoting voters.
Re: As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
#44The author tried really hard to dance around the real problem here: California is apparently paying students to attend online community college. If attending these classes was even just free, this wouldn't be a problem. Giving out student aid for online classes is just ridiculous.
Giving student aid beyond just free classes enables students who would otherwise need to spend time working to support themselves to instead attend school to get a better life. Generally that's considered a good thing, not worthy of the disdain you're displaying.
I'm mixed. If we lived in a utopian world where money isn't real, I'd agree. Reality is California has major budget issues. Offering the classes for free is already enough in the current climate.
Working while going to school is not uncommon or isolated to California. Full time work while going to school is excessive - but that is also a California COL issue that the state needs to actually tackle. But it gets worse the more they don't address their deficits. Debt begets debt and it always drives up COL.
Re: As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
#45Isn't the solution really easy? Make the students show up on the first day in-person, compare.with ID and take a photo.
Re: As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
#46Re: As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
#47This is an example of what I've been thinking about/warning about for several years now: we are entering a post-truth era, where there is increasingly no way to know what is real and what is not. When I've thought about it, this scenario never occurred to me, but it's a perfect example: we're going to be increasingly unable to know what is "true" in a million different ways, and people are going to exploit that in ev…
We've been in a post-truth era for all of human history, since the first hunter-gatherer told a lie to take advantage of someone else. Which is why we evolved to have exquisite bullshit detectors. They're not perfect, but they're pretty decent. The answer around what is real and not is the same as it ever was -- does information come from a respected, generally trustworthy source or not? Does it come from a source th…
I Am A ~~Strange Loop~~ Exquisite Bullshit Detector
(not a joke)
Re: As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Giving student aid beyond just free classes enables students who would otherwise need to spend time working to support themselves to instead attend school to get a better life. Generally that's considered a good thing, not worthy of the disdain you're displaying.
This is the first-order, emotional reaction, yes, but policy should be made based on its full effects, not just its sales pitch's popularity with first-order-emoting voters.
The second order effects of cheap education are immense, ranging from longer life span, better health, stronger economies, amongst just a few.
The matter at hand, specifically, is one about how our ability to verify is overwhelmed by our ability to generate content.
This is playing out with recruitment, bug reports, complaint forms - and going all the way up to sophisticated fraud.
Re: As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
#49So is the journalist (and/or faculty) misusing the term "bot" to refer to real humans doing fraud? I find it annoying that words get redefined this way. Especially as it feels like it's the opposite meaning.
Re: As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the first-order, emotional reaction, yes, but policy should be made based on its full effects, not just its sales pitch's popularity with first-order-emoting voters.
The second order effects of cheap education are immense, ranging from longer life span, better health, stronger economies, amongst just a few. The matter at hand, specifically, is one about how our ability to verify is overwhelmed by our ability to generate content. This is playing out with recruitment, bug reports, complaint forms - and going all the way up to sophisticated fraud.
The third order effect of handing out money for nothing, is the chicks coming home to roost as anti-education movements tear down the nation.