[AStonesThrow]

A classroom may take many forms, and pedagogy has many methods, but your standard college course looks like a lecture hall full of students, with one professor, presenting a stream of facts, and perhaps demonstrating a few exercises on a screen or whiteboard. The students pay attention, take notes, and they may ask or answer a few questions.

But in a lecture-based class, the information stream is thick, and goes mostly in one direction. The professor's best time is invested in imparting knowledge and wisdom to the students.

But all of that knowledge and wisdom will go in one ear and out the other, if a student doesn't put it into practice, refer to it repeatedly, and reinforce it. So we have textbooks, and we have homework, and we have study groups.

With a high student:teacher ratio, there's simply no efficient way to place students under a microscope and eliminate cheating from their homework. But you need students to practice and do some "workouts" outside of class time, when the prof's not on the clock. And, those students crave feedback on how they're doing. If they just do homework and grades or comments aren't forthcoming, then what's the point?

Ultimately, a cheating student is hurting himself. The cheating will eventually ruin their life if they try to make a career out of it. Unfortunately, unchecked cheaters can ruin a credential or brand as well. If an institution gives "A"s and diplomas to cheaters, what will their reputation be, when such "experts" get into the workforce but they're incompetent frauds?

There's no easy answer, for sure, but something's gotta give. I believe that we're going to see a decline in the supremacy of the University system, and a decline in the prestige of diplomas and degrees. Vice-President Kamala Harris has vowed to eliminate the degree requirement for civil servants, so I believe that alternate education pathways will be widened and endorsed in a big way, in the near future.

[musicale]

In a number of courses I've taken and/or am familiar with, homework "grades" are basically a participation/study incentive, but actually completing the assignments yourself is highly recommended if you want to pass the in-person exams which the course grade is actually based on.

In other courses, problem sets aren't graded and solutions are provided the next week for self-assessment (often with a discussion session to explain the solutions.)