Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on HE has been dominating conversations since the launch of ChatGPT developed by OpenAI in November 2022. There are concerns over the generation of misinformation and bias, the threats it poses to academic integrity, as well as ideas for opportunities to engage with the tool. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that everyone is using it and Educators can’t ignore it. If you’re confused by all the noise surrounding ChatGPT, we’ve pulled together a few resources on some of the challenges and opportunities AI technology presents.
What is it?
Colleagues at Nottingham Trent University have pulled together this useful overview with useful links on where to find out more – An Introduction to ChatGPT
Times Higher Education (THE) Campus has also put together a collection of resources and views on AI technology – AI transformers like ChatGPT are here, so what next?
QAA have just released a briefing paper (30 January 2023) for HE providers who are concerned about AI in relation to academic standards. The Rise of Artificial Intelligence software and potential risks for academic integrity looks at actions and practices providers can take to support the integrity of assessment with links off to additional resources.
Embracing the technology
Alexandra Mihai in The Educationalist urges academics to move away from the ‘hysteria’ surrounding ChatGPT and look more closely at existing academic culture – Let’s get off the fear carousel!
In a similar vein, Sam Illingworth writing in The Conversation argues that this is ‘a chance to rethink assessment altogether’ – ChatGPT: students could use AI to cheat, but it’s a chance to rethink assessment altogether
In his Post Digital Learning blog, Peter Bryant agrees ‘we should be talking about assessment and how it facilitates learning’ – How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Ignore the Bot
Dr Sarah Eaton from the University of Calgary (one of the recent speakers in BU’s academic integrity webinar series) and Lorelei Anselmo at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning have put together this useful resources for using AI apps, such as ChatGPT, as part of an ‘educational toolbox’ as you would a calculator, a dictionary, or Google – Teaching and Learning with Artificial Intelligence Apps.
Student use of AI tools
In this short article on Yahoo!News, student Joe Bromley discusses his own use of ChatGPT for his dissertation research – I Used ChatGPT to research my Dissertation – here’s why it’s fine
‘Everyone is using AI anyway’ – Ethan Mollick shares a really useful resource that he shares with his students on how AI tools can help them in being productive and creative i.e. for writing, generating ideas, creating images, making videos, coding, with links to recommended tools to use – The practical guide to using AI to do stuff
Detecting output from AI tools
With concerns around academic integrity and the student use of AI tools, some of the conversation in this area has now turned to detecting where AI has been utilised. Sung Kim looks at two tools in development – How to Detect OpenAI’s ChatGPT Output
And talking of using AI to detect the use of AI (!), Mike Sharples shared these guidelines for ‘University Students on Best Practices for Using Generative AI Systems in Education’ on Twitter (@sharplm) – generated courtesy of ChatGPT:
- Understand the limitations of the AI system: Generative AI systems are language models, not knowledge bases. They may not produce accurate or reliable information and should not be used as a sole source for research of assignments.
- Use the AI system as a supplement: Use the AI system to supplement, not replace, your own critical thinking and research. Verify the information generated by the AI system with other sources before using it in your work.
- Cite your sources: If you use information generated byt the AI system in your work, be sure to cite it as a source. Plagiarism is a serious issue and academic integrity is of the utmost importance
- Be aware of ethical concerns: Be aware of the ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI systems and strive to use them responsibly and in an ethical manner.
- Communicate with your instructors: If you are unsure about how to use the AI system or have concerns, talk to your instructors. They can provide guidance and advice on how to use the AI system effectively.
- Continuously evaluate and improve: Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of using AI systems in your education and adapt accordingly. Provide feedback to improve the AI system for future use.
- Embrace the opportunity to learn: Use AI systems as an opportunity to learn more about technology, AI and its impact on society and the future.
Guidelines for ChatGPT generated by ChatGPT – with thanks to @sharplm
AI and research ethics
This is still a fast-moving area. I was going to finish this post with a journal article in Nurse Education in Practice which cites ChatGPT as an author:
Open artificial intelligence platforms in nursing education: Tools for academic progress or abuse
But leading scientific journal Nature laid down some ground rules just last week stating that no LLM (large language model) tool will be accepted as a credited author:
Tools such as ChatGPT threaten transparent science; here are our ground rules for their use
Clearly this is a conversation that is going to run for some time yet.
