Chegg Lays Off Staff
Plus, meet the educators who are standing with Course Hero. Plus, Class Notes and the Department of Corrections.
Issue 218
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Chegg Fires Staff, Cuts Expenses
Cheating profiteer Chegg announced this week that it has laid off about 4% of its workforce - about 80 people - in an effort to reduce costs in its battle with AI-powered, free alternatives.
As Chegg’s stock value and revenue continue to decline, the move was probably expected.
What’s amusing to me is this bit, from the Bloomberg article above:
Chegg has been reorganizing around the idea that students will sometimes prefer to interact with AI chatbots, Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig has said.
My goodness, if Chegg’s leadership thinks that the company is losing users because of an interface preference, they are delusional. The issue is, as everyone knows, not chatbot versus human cheater, it’s paid versus free. If Chegg switched to all AI chatbots today, they’d still lose because they’re charging for a cheating service that’s entirely free elsewhere.
They have to know that. Don’t they?
Either way, if you’re currently suing Chegg (and there’s more than a few people who are), you may want to speed it up just a tad. Soon, there may not be much left.
Educators Sign on to Course Hero Summit, Again.
Noted cheating provider Course Hero hosts an annual “education summit,” probably to give the false impression that they’re a legitimate teaching or learning resource.
This year’s Potemkin performance is June 29 and 30.
As in previous years, I’m highlighting the education leaders who’ve either sold out, or are been mislead as to who they’re supporting and what they’re doing when they appear on stage with Course Hero. See Issue 143 for an example.
A fast note or two before we get to the list of who’s loaning - or selling - their credibility to cheating incorporated next week.
When I first started paying attention to this, I contacted a few of the educators, asking if they knew what Course Hero did and if they had comment on standing up with academic dishonesty providers. I stopped doing that because I don’t think it’s my role to educate or influence what educators do. I believe that should come from their peers and supervisors.
I have - and continue to - reach out to writers or journalists who get mixed up with Course Hero or the others. After which, several have quietly dropped out. I don’t publicize that.
With that said, if anyone wants to try to talk sense to these educators before they help legitimize Course Hero, here’s who’s publicly listed on next week’s agenda:
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Columbia University
Stephen M. Kosslyn, Foundry College
Stephanie Speicher, Weber State University
Shanina Sanders Johnson, Spelman College
Stephanie Malmberg, SUNY Broome Community College
Michael London, Muhlenberg College
Siovahn Williams, Carthage College
Detra Price-Dennis, Ohio State University
Bonnie Slavych, Missouri State University
Gabriella McBride, New York University
Cynthia van Golen, Delaware State University
Crystal White, University of Memphis
Bridget Turner Kelly, University of Maryland
Jeremy Logsdon, Western Kentucky University
Jen Newton, Ohio University
Michael Horn, Harvard University
Jeremy Caplan, CUNY Newmark
Matthew Farber, University of Northern Colorado
Joab Corey, University of California, Riverside
Michael G. Strawser, University of Central Florida
Teresa Cusumano, Lehigh University
Anne Arendt, Utah Valley University
Renée Cummings, University of Virginia
Class Notes and TCS Department of Corrections
In Issue 217, I shared that Honorlock was having a web event on AI and plagiarism detection. For some reason, I listed the date as June 29 when it is June 20 - was, depending on when you read this. I sent a note out with the correct day but, either way, that was my error.
A reminder that this August, I will be the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the National College Testing Association (NCTA). In Vegas, baby. Registration is open, at the link here.