Dr. Michelle Kassorla shared this tidbit (LinkedIn) this morning:

𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒
(and faculty can get them too–they just require an .edu account–although, I think this is US only).

Here are the free offers for students/faculty:

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬/𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐲: Free for 1 year. Get unlimited chats, image uploads, and quiz generations with more access to our 2.5 Pro model, Deep Research, and Audio Overviews, plus 2 TB of storage. Just for Students (Faculty can also use the student link). Use your .edu email. 𝑶𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝑶𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒃𝒆𝒓 6, 2025. https://lnkd.in/exbkEQUj.

𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫: New Comet Browser with Free Perplexity Pro Subscription for one year. No credit card required. After one year, you are simply downgraded to a regular account. https://lnkd.in/eMUhgTAb

𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐫 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫: Cursor is a coding app. They are offering free Cursor for a year with an .edu account. In addition, if you want to use Cursor in your classroom, they have a partnership program. Https://cursor.com/en/students

One of the concerns raised with Perplexity Comet? That it’s agent can complete assignments in the learning management system a university or school uses. For more affluent students in high school, it’s child’s play to get access to this tool and “get things done.” Dr. Kassorla then writes:

No sooner did I share this link, but one of my students told me his friend already used the agent in Comet to:

1) access our LMS,
2) check all the classes for assignments due,
3) make a list of everything required for the week,
4) make a study schedule for the week that considers the student’s work schedule

Of course, the elephant in the room is that the student could have the agent complete all his work. I’ve been warning everyone for months and months and months and months that agents are coming, and we have absolutely no way to stop them. In addition, the slow movement of college bureaucracy means that there are NO RULES at all about this other than general “academic integrity” rules.

Of course, no one is saying how Agents in our LMS systems will affect our compliance with FERPA. Will people listen now?? Where are my administrators? Where are the LMS companies? (I know where they are, they are making a stupid “Anti-humanizer” AI Detector. Ridiculous!)

Most people don’t even know what an agent is, or how dangerous they are to, especially, online education. I have warned my own students to not use any agents in my class, but that doesn’t mean they won’t.

This is a serious issue, and again, AI companies are appealing to our students at the exact moment that the students might want them (remember how ChatGPT three was released during finals week in 2022?)

Strap in everyone, the agents are here and they are really, really easy to use.

Jason Gulya responds to Dr. Kassorla’s follow-up post:

Yep. It’s one of the reasons why I think we need to organize our classes around internal motivation, choice, and productive struggle. I think it’s going to get harder and harder to keep these out of the classroom.

And these companies have basically no incentive to roll these programs out ethically.

I suspect some will be reaching for stone tablets and AI-guided chisels. One of the books I’m reading now, The Opposite of Cheating, redefines “cheating” as something students engage in because they can’t answer these questions with certainty:

• Do they think they can do the work?
• Do they know they are cheating?
• Do they think they are doing something wrong?
• Do the rules apply to me?

The authors shift some of the blame for causing cheating onto the culture of universities and unclear expectations among instructors. The authors (Gallant and Rettinger) suggest that students document Gen AI use (version history of usage, state what Gen AI tool they used and for what part of the assignment) and reflect on their usage as how it helped or hindered learning.

Gulya’s response above means a significant shift for assessment for all educators in K-20 pipeline. How responsive will instructors and teachers be when billions of dollars are spent to circumvent their best efforts on a Sunday afternoon in anticipation of a week of teaching?