I am graduating with a Bachelor’s degree next year. And to be quite clear, I don’t know what I have been learning that which is primarily academic to things related to its practical, worldly reflections. In each and every class, and this is apart from some unusual exceptions, class consists of weekly reading a textbook chapter or two, filling out discussion board questions and conversing with other students, possibly taking a few quizzes, getting ready for a build-up of these chapters for a test and… that’s it. You get a grade and congratulations, you have taken a college level course and passed!

My question is: where are we going with academia if students learn by and through the textbook? If this is the case where instructors have little hand in building and raising students, a better way of teaching and educating students needs to be examined. I have previously said this, and I remain adamantly steadfast on this point: if students are made to learn without guided and personal learning from the instructor, then it is better for them to learn from an AI model that has been created with the express intention of allowing for personal interactions to foster and bloom. A human instructor or professor cannot possibly instruct dozens of students on a personal level. There simply isn’t enough time! I understand this point. But it does not take away from the fact that there remains a problem that is not being solved even with the advent of AI. Instead, AI is being looked at as something sinister that will “take away” portions of skills away from students. But let me ask you this. How many people know the ins and outs of their car? And even if they are aware of it, intellectually at least, how many can actually perform the labor? Is it even worth it to do so, apart from some perhaps artistic or personal desire to do so? The car is simply an utility. But it does not need to be understood and studied to a fine degree in order to use it. In the same manner, AI is a tool which can be used to build students as opposed to lessening and dumbing down their tendencies and critical thinking skills. These skills need not disappear merely due to the introduction of AI. I sincerely believe that it can adapt and evolve itself alongside AI. The issue at hand is how many professors are clearly able to envision the change that AI can come to bring students to the best of their abilities?

If there is no sincere effort in allowing students to learn to the best of their abilities, and for myself, I completely believe that AI is a gamechanger in how things can be learned, then we are simply kicking the can further down the line. And the crux, the main point of this post, can be repeated: are students actually learning in academia? Are engaging in methods of distance and orthodoxy the clearest methods in order to build students to the degree where they can actually attribute attending college as being helpful in educating them? Or are they merely cruising for a degree without knowing the full benefits of where it can lead them? This is a particularly poignant and clear question for myself. But I know that it is not simply a question for me and me alone.

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