Artificial Intelligence software introduces ChatGPT: Educators navigating AI integration for student learning
In the age of Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT emerges as a pivotal tool in redefining how educators engage with learning materials for students.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence software that creates unique, human-sounding responses to user queries by accessing enormous databases.
This new AI is the latest chatbot from the Elon Musk-founded independent research body OpenAI foundation. Its official release date was Nov. 30, 2022.
Through a conversational interface, ChatGPT provides information and answers questions. It can give explanations, responses, and solutions to limitless prompts.
David Costa, a third year digital marketing student at the University of Guelph-Humber has not shied away from expressing how he has been able to use ChatGPT for his academic purposes.
“If I’m stuck with writing, or not sure how to start an essay, I would type in certain prompts in ChatGPT giving me topics on what to write about, and how to structure my sentences,” Costa said.
Although ChatGPT is seen to be just another tool like Google, educators are urging students to be careful on how they use the tool for their academic purposes. A recent survey conducted by Survey.com found that 72 per cent of college professors who are aware of ChatGPT, are concerned about its impact on cheating.
ChatGPT is trained on a massive amount of publicly available text from the internet. This includes books, articles, websites, forums, and other sources. It rephrases, uses quotations, and copies the writing style without citing the authors. This is considered plagiarism.
Survey.com found that 48 per cent of students admitted to using ChatGPT for an at-home test or quiz, 53 per cent had it write an essay, and 22 per cent had it write an outline for a paper.
Since a large majority of students are already using ChatGPT for school purposes, which is creating challenges around the potential threat of misuse, educators are looking for ways to assist students to use this solely as a learning tool.
George Bragues, the Vice-Academic Administrator at the University of Guelph-Humber, encourages educators to familiarize themselves with ChatGPT in order to modify their assignments that will challenge students to look beyond using ChatGPT.
“We’ve had a number of workshops and sessions for instructors to adjust their assignments accordingly because if the students are able to just get their whole assignment or answers off ChatGPT then we’re making it too easy for them,” Bragues said.
Christina Adorante, a first year kinesiology student at the University of Guelph-Humber thinks ChatGPT should only be used as a tool that helps a student’s original work.
“If you want to re-word something, or if you want to check an answer then sure, but I wouldn’t get my full answer from ChatGPT, I would want to try to do the work myself and then use ChatGPT as a way to improve my work,” Adorante said.
The American Psychology Association thinks educators could benefit in finding ways to incorporate AI such as ChatGPT tools in their courses that can actually help prepare students for the real world with this new advanced technology.
Similarly, Matthew Lagrone, the head of the liberal studies at the University of Guelph-Humber thinks it’s important for educators to let students understand the nuts and bolts of ChatGPT and what it is capable of, since he believes it will modify, or create entirely new opportunities in the workforce.
“If we’re not training our students now about all of the things they are able to do with ChatGPT, then we’re not getting them ready for the future workforce, which means we’re not doing our jobs correctly,” says Lagrone.
The University of Guelph-Humber recognizes that ChatGPT is probably here to stay, so Bragues mentions that if professors wish to integrate the software, they do it where they see best fits.
“We’ve also advised instructors that they have the option of integrating ChatGPT into their assignments, and I know a number of instructors have taken that up, where they allow students to use ChatGPT under certain conditions, and they have constructed assignments based around that,” Bragues said.
Navigating new technologies such as ChatGPT can be overwhelming, but educators are — more than ever before — now going to have to determine what could help or hinder students’ learning.
The American Psychology Association says the best way for educators to know this is by testing out ChatGPT for themselves. This can assist teachers in determining if they believe ChatGPT can be a useful tool that empowers students and guides their learning, or whether they need to find other methods to engage their students that won’t require ChatGPT to be as potent of a source.
