Classes in college, as a general rule, expects students to read a great deal of course material each semester, usually weekly, for class. At GCSU or any other university, it is not uncommon to be assigned a chapter of a textbook or even a novel every week for just one class.
According to recent news articles and students’ perspectives, the amount of students who are willing to do reading homework has significantly decreased in the last handful of years. Much of this has to do with the pandemic and the rise of Artificial Intelligence, according to Jonathan Malesic’s New York Times opinion piece, “There’s a Very Good Reason College Students Don’t Read Anymore.”
“I assigned them nine books,” Malesic said about a class he taught in 2011. “After 13 years that included a pandemic and the advent of generative A.I., that reading list seems not just ambitious but absurd. I haven’t assigned an entire book in four years.”
According to many college students, the robust semesterly reading lists, which have included the same quantity of reading material for decades, have become overwhelming.
“Anything more than 1 hour of work per class per night is heavy,” said an anonymous junior psychology major. “For instance, most textbook-related readings/homework will take me about an hour per night if I split it up.”
She said she makes an exception for extra reading work in classes and for content that feels especially applicable to her life, like psychology readings that directly relate to her interests and future career. If a reading is particularly interesting to her, she will read it whether it is long or not.
Students are not willing to do as much in general since the pandemic, said the anonymous student, but just as true is that professors do not expect the same level of attendance and quality of submissions for assignments as they used to.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and the phase of transitioning back to normal, neither students nor professors could rely on a solid schedule, as school systems were constantly changing. Since the pandemic, schools have struggled to re-implement the same rigorous course materials and students have struggled to complete all of their assigned readings.
Mental health is a major reason students give as to why they do not complete as much homework as they used to. The pandemic taught many students the importance of personal time.
“If I read everything assigned to every class, I might do marginally better in the class, but given that I usually make all A’s, I don’t feel that the reward of reading everything is worth the cost of losing precious free time and sleep which I don’t have a lot of time for as it is,” said the anonymous student.
Madison Hood, a junior English major, shared a similar sentiment.
“I’m sure my education could benefit more from reading all of the material assigned to me, but I think my personal life and experience would not because of the mental toll,” Hood said.
Hood cites the recent rise of A.I. programs like ChatGPT as a large contributor to why students no longer read everything they are assigned.
“I think that the development of AI has sufficiently made it so that students feel even less inclined to do the work as well because it makes the answers more easily accessible and makes it easier to do the work at the last second,” Hood said.
People inclined to procrastination now have more of a reason to put their work off. Technically they do not have to start on assignments until the very last minute, since AI is at their fingertips.
Hood herself said that she avoids A.I. for summarizing reading material, especially novels. She relies instead on summaries and Goodreads reviews.
As all other aspects of life have changed after the pandemic, the way students succeed has evolved. While it is true that students have seemed less inclined to read in the past few years, many students have found a balance in schoolwork and personal time that has allowed them to succeed mentally, socially and academically.