I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue, obviously with high quality and cheap generative AI essay writing is meaningless for assessment, which is a shame because crafting an essay is an excellent exercise for thinking through a concept.

In my undergrad I wrote a lot of essays but also had a lot of small group tutorials where our contribution contributed to our grade. In medical school assessment outside of examination was almost entirely based on interaction with professors and supervisors. I’m also aware of verbal examination where a professor effectively interrogates a student to assess their knowledge which I think in undergrad settings is mostly historical but could make a comeback, oral examination is used extensively in postgraduate medical training.

For a degree to mean anything assessment needs to be not easily cheated. There are assessment methods that are available although they are less efficient.

If I were running an undergrad humanities degree I’d have essays be 10-20% of the total grade, have a brief 15-20min oral examination and tutorial participation make up the bulk of the grade. I don’t know how else a degree can mean anything.

I dislike this idea that government run is bad.

I recently changed my name and had to call several government agencies and found them competent and helpful every time.

I think this is true and until we have easily accessible and free mental health services it is the next best option and far more likely to do good than harm.

I’m very much a privacy amateur but am interested in comments on my set up, I’m sure it’s not ideal.

I use firstname@lastname.tld for personal email. Anything @lastname.tld forwards to my main email so for the rare occasion I need to access Facebook my account is facebook@lastname.tld and so on for any other untrustworthy sites.

I can easily block emails from a leak or just if unsubscribing is made difficult.

Ug r the khez th ia2zugk8

Unfortunately a lot of sites have ditched support for RSS over the past 10 years requiring tedious work arounds if you can get it to work at all.

I hope it can make a comeback but I’m dubious.

We need to start letting people and organisations know that this isn’t acceptable. I’ve been guilty of just using an anonymous account or letting it slide but having a mailing list is not much effort for example, honestly having a basic website is pretty cheap and easy.