Have your ever imagined a robot doing homework for you? This has become a reality due to the coming of ChatGPT. But teachers at UK universities have been asked to rethink about the way to assess (评价) their courses because students are already using a powerful new AI tool capable of producing high-quality essays (论文).

ChatGPT, the latest chat robot, has only been publicly available for weeks, but has already caused concerns about the possibility of academic (学术的) dishonesty and questions about the acceptability of the essay as a future form of assessment. Working groups have been set up in university departments to meet this challenge.

Experts admit feeling both excited and alarmed. Dr Thomas Lancaster, a computer scientist working at Imperial College London, best known for his research into academic honesty, said ChatGPT was in many ways a game changer. He explains, “It’s certainly a major turning point in education where universities have to make big changes. They have to adapt sooner rather than later.”

There are signs of Australian universities to have a return to greater use of in-person exams to try to protect the fairness of assessment. Lancaster said, however, a total return to exams was not the answer, suggesting instead the use of giving a formal talk to enable students to show their understanding of a subject.

Michael Webb, director of technology and analytics at Jisc, which provides network and IT services to higher education, agreed. He said, “The immediate reaction might be to avoid these tools in order to stop students cheating, but that’s not advisable. We should not simply regard them as spelling or grammar checkers, but technology that can make everyone’s life easier.”

“We don’t need to go back to in-person exams: This is a great opportunity for the schools to explore new assessment methods that measure learners on critical thinking, problem-solving and reasoning skills rather than essay-writing abilities.”

Teens and preteens who start the school day really early tend to weigh slightly more than those who start later. That’s the finding of a new study of nearly 30, 000 Canadians between the ages of 10 and 18. These data are the latest evidence that starting school too early can harm health.

“We know from earlier studies that when school starts too early, kids can’t get the sleep they need,” says Genevieve Gariepy. She works at Mcgill University in Montreal, Canada. Getting too little sleep can put kids at risk for a number of problems. Sleepy teens are more likely to be overweight, to have trouble concentrating and to struggle in school. They also are at higher risk of feeling depressed, using alcohol or drugs and getting in car accidents.

As an epidemiologist (流行病学家), Gariepy is interested in patterns of disease. She studies teen obesity，or extreme overweight. In this study，she wanted to know how earlier school start times might be linked to weight.

“Overweight and obesity in adolescents is a big problem in North America,” she says. The number of overweight kids has grown over the past 30 years. About one in three U. S. and Canadian teens are now overweight or obese. Kids who don’t sleep enough may be at higher risk. So Gariepy decided to find more about the impact of school start times.

Her team collected start times of 362 Canadian schools and found that among “6 to 10” graders, those who started school earlier tended to be slightly heavier for their height. Every 10-minute delay in school start time was linked, on average, to a slightly lower weight among students who were the same sex, age and height. But it’s not clear that changing school start time would help heavier kids lose weight. To know for sure, researchers would want to compare the same kids before and after changing to a later school start time.

One of my bad habits is saying “busy” when people ask me how I’m doing. Sometimes it’s because I actually am busy, but other times it’s because that’s what I think I’m supposed to say. That’s what important people say. That’s what people who get promoted say. But working long hours doesn’t drive better results. Never taking a vacation won’t lead to a promotion. So why are we so proud to talk about how busy we are all the time?

In 2016, researchers from Columbia, Harvard, and Georgetown conducted a study to figure it out. They found busy people are perceived to be of high status, and interestingly, the status is heavily influenced by our own beliefs about social mobility. In other words, the more we believe that one has the opportunity for success based on hard work, the more we tend to think that people who skip leisure and work all the time are of higher standing.

That’s why we feel like we have to appear busy, and there’s a view that if someone is knee-deep in meetings, emails, and stress, then they’re probably a big deal. This culture of busyness is making it hard for employees to find work-life balance. According to a recent study, one in five highly engaged employees is at risk of burnout.

Personally, I’m going to stop saying “busy” when people ask me how I am. It sounds self-righteous (自以为是的) and sets the wrong tone. Phrases like “I have limited access to email” and “I’ll respond as soon as I get back” sound like you’re being held against your will from working as opposed to making the most of your time off.

That’s why we recently launched the Out of Office Email Generator, a free tool you can use before your next long weekend or trip. You can share loud and proud that you won’t be checking email until you’re back. Managers need to think twice about emailing their teams on the weekend and talking about how busy they are. Leaders should take time off themselves and encourage employees to do the same.