The Venting Thread

[paultuttle]

An upper respiratory infection (not COVID, thankfully) has laid me low for several days.

The culprit? An unmasked woman of an indeterminate age in the waiting room at Dad's electrocardiologist this past Tuesday. Cough COUGH cough COUGH (without covering her mouth) and then touching her phone and the chair arms. Dad and I looked at each other and promptly moved as far away as we could get, but the damage was done, apparently.

I lost my voice during most of Friday morning, but the Mucinex with cough suppressant was working well (or so I thought) Friday afternoon, so I thought I was out of the woods. However, a rising fever on Saturday that peaked just before bedtime at near 100 degrees F made me finally acquiesce to my husband's strong arguments to go to the local urgent care on Sunday (yesterday). (Yes, I'm very stubborn, as my husband has reminded me multiple times during this situation.)

Fortunately, Dad is better off than I am, other than some coughing and phlegm. But I've been laid low.

That said, the antibiotic is working well and the prescription cough medicines (one daily, the other nightly) are helping. So woo hoo! I'm back at work.

[Puget]

Hope you feel better soon PT! Something is going around -- my parents both have some unidentified viral bronchitis though they are both starting go recover now.

[AmLitHist]

It must be that time of year:  I've heard that a lot of people locally have had bad colds/virus/URI/crud around here for a month now. 

Since I don't go much of anywhere except to doctor appointments, I'm probably safe, except that when I took ALHS to one of his doctors in St. Louis, the hospital had big red signs all over talking about the symptoms of measles. Dandy.

[Antiphon1]

We are in one of the measels hotspots.  Antispouse and I got vaxcine boosters for MMR, DPT, and shingles.  It's not safe out there if you are in an anti vax part of the country.

[Minervabird]

PaulTuttle hope you feel better. My husband and I both picked up a nasty, nasty respiratory virus when in the Netherlands at the beginning of May. We both were quite ill, with coughing, ear infections and runny noses, fever/chills and fatigue. I did discover a UK cough syrup called Buttercup, quite old fashioned, where the active is squill.  Best cough syrup I ever had...it just reduced the coughing and attendant misery beautifully.

[MarathonRunner]

Sigh. I can't prove you used generative AI, student, but you still get a failing grade for not meeting the assignment requirements. I'm sure I've had multiple students use AI this semester, but only two have actually left evidence, so it's easy to give them zeroes.

Also, what part of infographic means you can just submit text? If you had accommodations for visual impairment I would have received a letter and would create an alternate assignment. So I don't think that's the case. I provided you all with several free options for infographic creation.

[fishbrains]

Sigh. I can't prove you used generative AI, student, but you still get a failing grade for not meeting the assignment requirements. I'm sure I've had multiple students use AI this semester, but only two have actually left evidence, so it's easy to give them zeroes.

Also, what part of infographic means you can just submit text? If you had accommodations for visual impairment I would have received a letter and would create an alternate assignment. So I don't think that's the case. I provided you all with several free options for infographic creation.

This is starting to be my approach, especially by adding requirements that AI struggles with. Requiring quotes from a YouTube video source seems to drive AI up the wall, and so it make things up (apparently, AI doesn't spend all day doom scrolling).

Students here are starting to do grade challenges with some of this, so it'll be interesting to see how things go. Might have to just go back to grading the $hit out of them.

[MarathonRunner]

Sigh. I can't prove you used generative AI, student, but you still get a failing grade for not meeting the assignment requirements. I'm sure I've had multiple students use AI this semester, but only two have actually left evidence, so it's easy to give them zeroes.

Also, what part of infographic means you can just submit text? If you had accommodations for visual impairment I would have received a letter and would create an alternate assignment. So I don't think that's the case. I provided you all with several free options for infographic creation.

This is starting to be my approach, especially by adding requirements that AI struggles with. Requiring quotes from a YouTube video source seems to drive AI up the wall, and so it make things up (apparently, AI doesn't spend all day doom scrolling).

Students here are starting to do grade challenges with some of this, so it'll be interesting to see how things go. Might have to just go back to grading the $hit out of them.

Yep. Not worth my while to go through the process (other than for the students who left ChatGPT in the links that they submitted), but if students fail anyhow, because while I can't AI proof my assignments, students who blatantly use it fail anyway, I'm okay with that. I'm sure some are using AI and passing, but I don't have a) the training and b) the time/salary to pursue those, especially when AI detectors are so often wrong. Yes, many of us can feel when somethings "not right" but in a class of 200+ I can't interrogate each suspicion. My smaller courses that are under 30 students, oh yeah, I'd be asking them questions, and know them better in the first place. The 200+ course is a service course. Courses in my major are all less than 30 students

[Minervabird]

I usually penalised them for the hallucinatory sources generated by AI—improper citation—as it was nigh impossible to "prove" AI usage.  Only way I could keep my blood pressure from rising.  And if they did it in their final year dissertation, I would go after them with every tool I had.  A couple had to rewrite it, and they graduated a term later than their peers. Serves them right.  It is one thing for a first year to try it on; it is another for a final year student who knows well what they are doing.

[fishbrains]

I usually penalised them for the hallucinatory sources generated by AI—improper citation—as it was nigh impossible to "prove" AI usage.

It can sometimes be a little entertaining to ask them for a screenshot or hard copy of one of those hallucinatory sources (or an obscure source they don't really have access to) so you can check their quote or paraphrase--that you can't grade their paper until they provide that copy.

And on the rare occasions that they can provide the sources, all the better!

[ciao_yall]

Not really a vent, but...

Our cafeteria is closed for changing vendors + renovation so we have food trucks providing summer lunch service.

I have started sending out all employee emails announcing which food truck will be there that day, their $10 special, and trying to make them entertaining.

Today is Greek food so I said lunch was at the "Agora" in the subject line and referred to Greek philosophers in the body.

The key data - Student Union, time, etc was all straight and up front.

Our marketing director made me take out all the fun stuff, saying it would go over students' heads!

We're a college, FFS! And the email technically goes to employees.

Grrr. No fun.

[apl68]

It's hard not to wonder whether that marketing major got through college without ever even hearing about things like an agora.  If this person is fairly young, it's entirely possible he or she never had to take any history to speak of, ever, at least not anything that would touch on the ancient world. 

[Minervabird]

Not really a vent, but...

Our cafeteria is closed for changing vendors + renovation so we have food trucks providing summer lunch service.

I have started sending out all employee emails announcing which food truck will be there that day, their $10 special, and trying to make them entertaining.

Today is Greek food so I said lunch was at the "Agora" in the subject line and referred to Greek philosophers in the body.

The key data - Student Union, time, etc was all straight and up front.

Our marketing director made me take out all the fun stuff, saying it would go over students' heads!

We're a college, FFS! And the email technically goes to employees.

Grrr. No fun.

So much for the Socratic method. (Bad joke)

[apl68]

Not really a vent, but...

Our cafeteria is closed for changing vendors + renovation so we have food trucks providing summer lunch service.

I have started sending out all employee emails announcing which food truck will be there that day, their $10 special, and trying to make them entertaining.

Today is Greek food so I said lunch was at the "Agora" in the subject line and referred to Greek philosophers in the body.

The key data - Student Union, time, etc was all straight and up front.

Our marketing director made me take out all the fun stuff, saying it would go over students' heads!

We're a college, FFS! And the email technically goes to employees.

Grrr. No fun.

So much for the Socratic method. (Bad joke)

Not at all!  LOL here!

[RatGuy]

Not really a vent, but...

Our cafeteria is closed for changing vendors + renovation so we have food trucks providing summer lunch service.

I have started sending out all employee emails announcing which food truck will be there that day, their $10 special, and trying to make them entertaining.

Today is Greek food so I said lunch was at the "Agora" in the subject line and referred to Greek philosophers in the body.

The key data - Student Union, time, etc was all straight and up front.

Our marketing director made me take out all the fun stuff, saying it would go over students' heads!

We're a college, FFS! And the email technically goes to employees.

Grrr. No fun.

So much for the Socratic method. (Bad joke)

And for dessert, some popsicles... pronounced like a Greek philosopher