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They Were Every Student’s Worst Nightmare. Now (because of ChatGPT) Blue Books Are Back.
The Wall Street Journal ^ | May 23, 2025 | Ben Cohen

Posted on 05/25/2025 3:57:36 PM PDT by DoodleBob

…Students outsourcing their assignments to AI and cheating their way through college has become so rampant, so quickly, that it has created a market for a product that helps professors ChatGPT-proof school. As it turns out, that product already exists. In fact, you’ve probably used it. You might even dread it.

It’s called a blue book.

All of which explains how a paper company in Pennsylvania has unexpectedly found itself on the front lines of the classroom AI wars.

Most blue books for sale in campus bookstores and on Amazon for 23 cents apiece are made by Roaring Spring Paper Products. The family-owned business was founded more than a century ago in Roaring Spring, a small borough outside Altoona that has become the blue-book capital of America. The company now sells a few million of these classic exam books every year and all of them are manufactured in the U.S., said Kristen Allen, its vice president of sales and marketing.

Sales of blue books this school year were up more than 30% at Texas A&M University and nearly 50% at the University of Florida. The improbable growth was even more impressive at the University of California, Berkeley. Over the past two academic years, blue-book sales at the Cal Student Store were up 80%.

But even professors who have gone analog to defeat the latest technology are deeply conflicted about it. Many of them believe students should be using AI to get smarter. It would be stupid not to. These tools will be a part of their lives and knowing how to use them effectively will be an important advantage in their future workplaces.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: ai; bluebooks; chat; chatforum; chatgpt; generativeai; poeticjustice
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To: dfwgator

The Council of Trent!


61 posted on 05/25/2025 5:23:41 PM PDT by Trump_Triumphant (“They recognized Him in the breaking of the Bread”)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

I hope it won’t be like the story With Folded Hands, by Jack Williamson.


62 posted on 05/25/2025 5:24:44 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: DoodleBob

how are they going to use a blue book, if they can’t write cursive? my kids can since they were homeschooled, but regular federal schools? i don’t think they teach cursive anymore.


63 posted on 05/25/2025 5:26:47 PM PDT by dadfly
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To: IndispensableDestiny
At my college’s computer labs, there were boxes of discarded printouts for the taking - the IBM Green Bar paper….

I would grab about a foot of this “refuse” and use it for scratch paper, working out answers to homework, etc.

We were recycling before it was fashionable.

64 posted on 05/25/2025 5:28:37 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s² )
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To: Not A Snowbird

I hope it was good.


65 posted on 05/25/2025 5:30:09 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s² )
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To: DoodleBob

Woohoo!!! Blue Books!!!

Undergrad final exams - three questions, two hours. And it was always a race to complete the exam before the time was up.

I couldn’t do that now...getting older.


66 posted on 05/25/2025 5:30:50 PM PDT by dadgum (Fight to WIN or do not fight at all)
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To: DoodleBob
Many of them believe students should be using AI to get smarter.

Well. That would explain why the students coming out of "higher education" are so ignorant.

It is impossible for the LLM to make you "smarter". Even if it was actual AI it could not make you "smarter". It could make you more knowledgeable if it was a reliable source rather then a program created with (stolen) fiction rendering it completely unable to distinguish fantasy from reality but it could not make you "smarter".

By the time you are in university you are as smart as you are going to be. There are some things you can do with small children to make them smarter but once you have finished puberty it is generally set.

Shouldn't blame the students. The teachers are so profoundly ignorant that they have almost no chance of being otherwise.

67 posted on 05/25/2025 5:32:56 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: FateAmenableToChange

Your phone should be able to play any AM or FM radio station that is streamed online.


68 posted on 05/25/2025 5:39:37 PM PDT by big truck ("This space intentionally left blank.")
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To: UnwashedPeasant

Many of these low IQ dummies are unable to read a clock too, it must be digital for them to understand.


69 posted on 05/25/2025 5:48:35 PM PDT by quantim (Victory is not relative, it is absolute.)
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To: DoodleBob

How many college profs are capable of grading blue book exams nowadays?


70 posted on 05/25/2025 5:52:05 PM PDT by JohnBovenmyer (MAGA urge to purge the dirge of O'Biden's scourge and splurge)
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To: lewislynn
👍

Yes, doing math in your head is a skill that has fallen by the wayside.

It's funny watching people trying to figure out what they should tip at a restaurant.

71 posted on 05/25/2025 5:54:30 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and His mercy endures forever. — Psalm 106)
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To: dfwgator

Ugh. Oral examinations were a mainstay in my medical school and was the main component of mu specialty’s board certification process. One thing is for sure, oral exams quickly see if you know something or not. I wasnt especially fond of them but it sure makes you study the proper way. I did well on mine and i suppose in time i an grateful as they well prepared me for my field


72 posted on 05/25/2025 5:59:57 PM PDT by gas_dr (Conditions of Socratic debate: Intelligence, Candor, and Good Will)
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To: dfwgator

In 1969, I had to take an oral exam to get a bachelor’s degree.


73 posted on 05/25/2025 6:32:58 PM PDT by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump)
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To: DoodleBob
Many of them believe students should be using AI to get smarter.

Search engines have resulted in people being stupider. "Why do I have to learn that? I can just google it ..."

74 posted on 05/25/2025 6:35:28 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Mrs.Z; lightman; Navy Patriot

I taught a graduate Cell Biology course at Tufts Biotech Engineering. This included lectures, labs, and exams.

The exams were open book/open note, and consisted of research problems taken from leading biotech/biology journals (Cell, Science and Nature). The questions were “real world” and tough, but I graded them easy.

The labs were “real world”, and sometimes went well into the night. So we ordered pizza.

The students were almost entirely employees of Boston/Cambridge biotech companies.

Although the exams and labs were tough, I gave everyone an “A”. They all deserved it! That was the best course I ever taught!


75 posted on 05/25/2025 6:40:12 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: quantim

Haw-haw!

Reading a clock is a standard part of cognitive tests!


76 posted on 05/25/2025 6:42:23 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: DoodleBob

I’ll take a pair of those Optimus Mach II speakers for $149.00.


77 posted on 05/25/2025 6:44:37 PM PDT by aspasia
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To: dadfly

I lost the ability to write cursive, so just print.

That’s what most people do.


78 posted on 05/25/2025 6:50:50 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: Fungi

It has been helpful to me as a writer for research and the occasional critique. However, I still have to double check the research, but it’s a good starting place. Has made life a little easier.


79 posted on 05/25/2025 7:06:34 PM PDT by freepertoo
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To: algore

I distinctly remember learning to use an abacus in elementary school.


80 posted on 05/25/2025 7:12:16 PM PDT by Spacetrucker
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