To teach in the era of ChatGPT is to know pain • Hacker News Board

Re: To teach in the era of ChatGPT is to know pain

#21

Post by hackable_sand » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 1:25 AM UTC

jjmarr wrote: post #17

xg15 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sound pretty insane on its own. If you don't care about the content of the degree at all, what does the degree even prove?

It proves you could sit through 4 years of university and not fail out. Since basically anyone can graduate high school nowadays, this proves you put at least some effort into your education without being forced to. It doesn't really matter if it's low signal, just that it narrows the applicant pool.

Mostly it proves you have money

University is not difficult. Money is

Re: To teach in the era of ChatGPT is to know pain

#22

Post by FloorEgg » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 1:28 AM UTC

hackable_sand wrote: post #21

jjmarr wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It proves you could sit through 4 years of university and not fail out. Since basically anyone can graduate high school nowadays, this proves you put at least some effort into your education without being forced to. It doesn't really matter if it's low signal, just that it narrows the applicant pool.

Mostly it proves you have money University is not difficult. Money is

University has never been more not difficult. Cheating is rampant and the whole institution is organized arpund prioritizing students graduating over protecting the integrity of credentials.

Re: To teach in the era of ChatGPT is to know pain

#23

Post by FloorEgg » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 1:31 AM UTC

hackable_sand wrote: post #20

FloorEgg wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Students are making a rational economic calculation: they need a degree to get a job. Except it's not true. They don't need a degree to get a job. Maybe they need a degree to get a very specific job, but then they will be doing what the degree taught, and so they might as well learn how to do it. This whole "I need a degree to get a job" is the problem. It's how people end up with $200k in student loans working fro…

That may all be true But you still need a degree to get a job

As someone with no degree and a great career, who works with others that don't have degrees, and has hired many people who don't have degrees, and has several friends without degrees who also have great careers, I know this isn't true in absolute terms.

Re: To teach in the era of ChatGPT is to know pain

#24

Post by musicale » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 2:55 AM UTC

IChooseY0u wrote: post #4

> They may view an instructor as an opponent standing in the way of the grade they want. And they see “getting the right answers” as the goal of education because that’s how you secure that grade. But that’s no more true than thinking that logging a count of reps is the goal of bodybuilding. The author is essentially saying "you're doing education wrong" to students who never signed up for the author's version of wha…

> they need a degree to get a job

I see it as wanting to receive the credential (biology degree) while avoiding what it is supposed to signify (having learned something about biology.) But why would regular companies want graduates in English Literature, or History? Graduates should still be able to read, think critically, and write clearly - and the way you learn to do that is by actually doing the assignments.

Of course a more cynical view is that much of formal education is just teaching compliance (which employers also value), but college usually grants more non-financial freedom than a typical corporate workplace.

In any case, I guess it's good that you can't use ChatGPT to pass driving tests or medical licensing exams. Yet.

Re: To teach in the era of ChatGPT is to know pain

#25

Post by musicale » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 3:19 AM UTC

> For the last few years, I’ve been exclusively teaching asynchronous online courses, meaning recorded videos rather than live sessions

This seems like the root issue. In the ChatGPT era, remote student assessments cannot (remotely) be trusted. Since you cannot trust the assessment, it should probably be optional, and not used for credentialing purposes.

Re: To teach in the era of ChatGPT is to know pain

#26

Post by pants2 » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 4:34 AM UTC

Grading systems in school are and have always been broken, ChatGPT is only making these issues more apparent. Students are great "reward hackers" and are incentivized to find the most efficient solution to getting good grades regardless of whether they're actually learning. Learning takes a back seat to getting good grades.

There's a reason you're only hearing this from schools and not companies. I haven't seen any corporate execs complaining that they don't know who their good and bad employees are because of AI.

Re: To teach in the era of ChatGPT is to know pain

#27

Post by hn92726819 » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 2:33 PM UTC

IChooseY0u wrote: post #4

> They may view an instructor as an opponent standing in the way of the grade they want. And they see “getting the right answers” as the goal of education because that’s how you secure that grade. But that’s no more true than thinking that logging a count of reps is the goal of bodybuilding. The author is essentially saying "you're doing education wrong" to students who never signed up for the author's version of wha…

How reductive. Sure, there are paper mills and non-reputable colleges that hand out degrees, but that's clearly not what the author is writing about ('lecturers' there won't care about students cheating anyway).

So with that, what student expects college to be an easy pass to a job? College has always involved work, not a coupon for a free job.

> students who never signed up for the author's version of what education is

What? That's what college is. Students sign up to be taught however the college wants to teach. Students can choose to apply to colleges that match their style, but that hasn't changed at all.

I'm curious what you think students expect when they enroll in a reputable college

Re: To teach in the era of ChatGPT is to know pain

#28

Post by asdff » Wed, Apr 15, 2026, 7:44 PM UTC

clejack wrote: post #14

asdff wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big part of schooling that I didn't realize until I was an adult is learning self discipline. The boring terrible class you hate and can't pay attention for is a feature, not a bug. You ought to learn how to get over yourself, be able to dig in on something uninteresting, and get what you need to get done. That is probably the single greatest skill schools teach people entering adult hood. Unfortunately it only tak…

Rest assured, if you force students to learn basic english and math, the vast majority of students will experience this as being forced to study things they don't care about. The difference with what I'm suggesting is that they won't be forced to learn about 7 or 8 different things they don't care about at the same time. The allocation of teachers' time will be better with a more constrained curriculum, and the class…

>Framing learning things you're uninterested in as "learning to get over yourself" is odd. This isn't an ego problem, and dictating personality traits to such an extent is a questionable goal.

It is an ego problem. You will not have the liberty to be choosy over whatever might be in front of you in life. You will have to shovel the shit, figuratively or quite literally in some cases. The sooner you can learn this lesson, the easier life will be for you, and the more helpful you will be to others around you.