Is ChatGPT beneficial or detrimental to students and professors?
Dave Cormier, digital learning specialist and Nick Baker, Director of the Office of Open Learning explore ChatGPT and the impact of learning at the University of Windsor.
“AI generated content is here to stay and students need to learn how to use it ethically,” said Baker.
Baker said New York City public schools were first to ban ChatGPT.
“The ban is not going to make much difference; instead professors should teach students how to use it effectively.”
“ChatGPT is a primitive version of what is coming. It has the potential to do to education, what the calculator did to math education,” Cormier said.
Nawal Jasey, a fourth year English Literature and Creative Writing Student says ChatGPT is a great solution for students to learn.
“I have not used chatGPT but I looked it up and I think this is a great way for students to learn and write papers assigned to them.”
“It does seem like it is helpful to students for writing assignments and papers. I do not think it should be considered plagiarism if it is supervised because students receive help from their professors when writing papers and that is not considered plagiarism,” Jasey said.
Mariam Morra, a third year Psychology student says ChatGPT is helpful in some aspects of a student’s academic life.
“I do think it is helpful in some aspects of academic life, especially if you need help with grammar and wording, those who may need additional aid such as SAS could use ChatGPT to aid them with accurate word choices”
“If the use of ChatGPT is abused, it could 100% be considered a form of plagiarism because you are having a software for the work for you, however I feel it is about finding a balance between how it is used,” Morra says
Nick Baker says that it is the end of a cycle trying to detect the use of artificial intelligence in academic essays.
“There have been questions and people coming out with ways to detect the use of ChatGPT but it is problematic because we do not know what these technologies are doing with student information.”
“There are no technology solutions to reliably find Al generated text, they are easily defeated and very often false and most importantly faculty should not be giving student IP to these companies,”said Baker
Professors can use ChatGPT in their teaching to create draft discussion prompts and practice exams.
There are assessment approaches that minimize the likelihood of ChatGPT misuse and professors can do this by breaking assignments into sequential pieces that are more authentic, e.g. annotated bibliographies, project proposals/outlines, multiple drafts.
“Artificial Intelligence is here to stay and is rapidly becoming ubiquitous, digital and Al literacy is a critical skill set for graduates and faculty, at present, we cannot feasibly or reliably ban or detect its use, unauthorized use can be considered academic misconduct and there are many creative and legitimate uses for these assistive technologies,” Baker shared
Baker says it’s still up for debate if ChatGPT is considered a form of plagiarism
“It is not taking existing work from anywhere but rather generating its own work.”
To learn more about University of Windsor Academic Integrity and Student Conduct. Visit https://www.uwindsor.ca/aauheads/resources/academic-integrity-student-conduct