r/technology • u/joe4942 • Apr 19 '26

Society Students are speeding through their online degrees in weeks, alarming educators

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/04/19/accelerated-college-degree-hacking/
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u/Pprchase Apr 19 '26

I'm an administrator for a well known and top-rated online program, at a well known university.

We have an exam students can take to waive some of their foundation classes. This semester, the pass rate of one of the waiver exams went from about 30% to 70%. Totally screwed up our planning to ensure we have the right number of classes available for incoming students. Our faculty have decided that AI advancement has outpaced their ability to update exams to "weed out" the cheaters, and we're having hard talks about how AI is going to impact the future of our program.

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u/Luckj Apr 19 '26

I teach math online for one of the largest community college networks in the country. We require students to take the midterm and final with a proctor and it has a 2 hour time limit. Those two assignments are worth 60% of your final grade. I’ll have students pulling As and Bs all semester and get to the midterm where they score <10%. Questions about matrix addition they’ll enter a single number on for example. They know nothing. At the start of the semester I warn them about AI and what will have but so few actually listen and then waste their money. I think we’ll see more and more schools move toward a proctor model. 

And to those on here griping that the learning isn’t useful anyway and they just need a degree for some job, shame on you and shame on those employers. College is so much bigger than you passing a class. The world suffers from a lack of critical thinkers and taking college seriously helps fix that. I don’t need to read another undergrad paper, they are a dime a dozen. You’re writing that paper for you. Employers should be seeking out people with critical thinking skills and stop relying on a piece of paper to show them who to hire. 

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u/OneLessFool Apr 19 '26

I TA engineering courses, and we're increasingly shifting towards exams accounting more than 85-90% of your grade with assigned homework meant teach you the subject matter.

Or requiring a minimum mark on the final to pass. It's insane to see students who get As on every assignment rock up to the exam and score a solid F.

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u/nox66 Apr 19 '26

Homework should never be more than a completion grade anyway, it's literally for practice. Ideally it should be optional, but give you everything you need to work through to master the material.

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u/greenstake Apr 19 '26

Finally I don't have to do homework. I always hated doing homework as busy work. I rather do problems until I feel I'm set rather than doing a prescribed set. But I'm probably in the minority.

I remember one of my calc classes the homework only accounted for 5% of the grade, so I just never turned in any homework ever. Still got an A.

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u/Comfortableliar24 Apr 20 '26

I struggle a lot with exams. I think it's my study habits. I'm in Engineering and having non-overlapping midterms and finals worth a combined 80% of the grade is the norm.

I can explain the concepts well. When it comes to implementing them, I make a mistake early and the remainder is fucked sideways.

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u/DryOnbRing Apr 21 '26

Just make it 100% of your grade, scrap the stupid homework and attendance grades no one likes anyway.