AUGUST 2025 – Universities are coming to terms with the fact that their students are using AI to do all their work, a profound problem that’s calling for an equally profound solution. NYU Provost Clay Shirky wrote a lively op-ed for the NYT this week about it all, and it’s one of the best and most honest assessments to date. The solutions of course lie in old-fashioned methods, not simply back-and-forth Socratic discussions but the broader use of in-class written assignments that students must actually do themselves. Shirky’s candid take includes all the institutional resistance from faculty and students alike – many of whom simply don’t want to have to work so hard, or don’t want to upend their current routines.
As Shirky writes:
Learning is a change in long-term memory; that’s the biological correlate of what we do in the classroom. Now that most mental effort tied to writing is optional, we need new ways to require the work necessary for learning. That means moving away from take-home assignments and essays and toward in-class blue book essays, oral examinations, required office hours and other assessments that call on students to demonstrate knowledge in real time. The shift is already happening: The Wall Street Journal reported on booming sales of blue books last school year.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/opinion/culture/ai-chatgpt-college-cheating-medieval.html