As the world becomes more efficient, students grapple with staying motivated for assignments and relying on AI
By AMRA ABID — features@theaggie.org
Today is Monday. You open your general education course syllabus to see that by Wednesday, you are expected to read 30 pages of dense 16th-century prose to prepare for a class discussion that will only last an hour. Besides the essay due by the end of the week, readings for three other classes and every other academic responsibility you must fulfill, you are then again assigned several new readings for Friday’s class.
For many college students, juggling academics, extracurriculars and a social life means maximizing every minute. So, when tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet offer the opportunity to reduce hours of close reading to a summary that takes just a few minutes, it can be difficult to imagine why the extra hours would be worth it.
Sarah Velardez, a first-year environmental science major, is taking a Greek, Roman and Near Eastern Mythology class. She noted that the dense readings demand hours she doesn’t always have.
“I do have to force myself to do [readings] sometimes, but a lot of times I’ll give myself a reward [after],” Velardez said. “But I will say that it is increasingly difficult. It’s like — how easy would it be to access it, just like a quick summary — and be done with it in 5 minutes?”
Nonetheless, even for a class unrelated to her major, Velardez pushes through. The work itself, she argued, is worth the extra time and energy.
“I think that people do notice when you’re actually putting in the work,” Velardez said. “I feel like I’m honing a work ethic right now, and I feel like that’s what’s really going to work.”
For students in reading-heavy disciplines, Velardez believes the practice is even more important.
“I think if you’re going into a religious studies major and that’s going to be your career and you’re not doing the readings, [then] why would you major in that?” Velardez said. “Because if you don’t like to put in the work now, you’re not going to want to do it when you’re having to work 40 hours a week, actually [reading] as a job.”
However, students like Bhargav Kapur, a second-year molecular and medical microbiology major, believe using AI and similar tools to summarize texts can help make sense of class material. One example Kapur provided is for a religious studies class, in which the papers vary from the scientific research papers he is used to.
“A lot of it can be very theoretical, and stuff that you wouldn’t think about as a [science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)] major,” Kapur said.
For Kapur, AI doesn’t replace reading or understanding, but rather points out themes and certain arguments from the text he may have completely missed.
“[AI] helps me think of things, or identify things from the readings that I wouldn’t have otherwise,” Kapur said. “I would ask it, ‘Okay, I’m on page four of this entire document. I really do not understand what this section is leading toward or what the author is trying to convey — could you help me break down some of the language that is being said or define some of the terms that I don’t understand?’”
But more than that, Kapur believes that in some areas, AI simply has an advantage over human readers.
“I guess [an advantage is] speed, for one, and kind of like the comprehension and sometimes the summary of all of it,” Kapur said. “Because that’s one thing [AI’s] good at that us humans are not typically very good at. We can get to the end of a really long research paper and then we look back and we’re like, ‘I don’t know what I just read.’ Whereas the AI can usually come up with some kind of good summary. But that is to say that the summary should be treated as a summary.”
Lucy Lamadrid, a second-year philosophy and political science double major, believes that the importance of doing the readings for class goes beyond academics; to her, interpreting literature on your own is necessary for critical thought.
“There were times when I couldn’t do the reading in time for the class, [and] I couldn’t really formulate an opinion,” Lamadrid said. “I just had to go off of what other people were telling me, and I couldn’t really have my own take on things. And I think that for myself to fully understand a text, I should be able to have my own opinion of what is being said.”
Being able to closely read is a fundamental and crucial skill for analyzing texts, according to a study conducted by Harvard University. The study asserts that close reading entails “reading out of” a text rather than “reading into” it. Engaging too deeply into summarizing instead of reading, to that end, may limit your ability to truly understand the central arguments presented by academic texts.
“If you choose to become a political scientist, you’re going to be looking at a lot of people writing these research analyses on a bunch of statistical data,” Lamadrid said. “How are you going to know where people’s issues lie if you look at a chart and you can’t interpret any of the information?”
Rather than doing the readings solely for the purpose of learning the content, Lamadrid encouraged approaching readings as a way to practice attentiveness and patience.
“Being able to focus on something for a long amount of time without having to check your phone or get distracted, that’s so incredibly valuable,” Lamadrid said. “And I think that not even just reading in class — just reading in general, like for leisure, watching a movie, just consuming content that takes you a longer time to finish in general — helps with that.”
Even then, Lamadrid explains that difficulties with readings often resolve themselves with practice.
“Another [reason] is also, of course, efficiency,” Lamadrid said. “Because obviously if you’re doing the full reading, you don’t want to take a million hours doing the full reading. You’re going to eventually start working at a pace where you can digest content quicker. People think that with AI, it’s the same thing. You know, oh, I just need to be able to know how to summarize this. But you can do that too on your own, just as long as you get the practice.”
For Lamadrid, doing the readings is about making the most of opportunities for self-betterment, and not just with regard to grades and academics.
“Some people kind of lose sight of [why they study],” Lamadrid said. “They get to college and they think, ‘Whatever I’m studying is what I’m going to get a job in. I’m studying this so that I can work in this’ […] But that’s not entirely true. I think that having the opportunity to study at such a diverse institution means that you can take a class on anything and take so much away from it that you’re going to apply in your personal life.”
Written by: Amra Abid — features@theaggie.org
