Concerns that students are utilizing a powerful new AI tool to write high-quality essays without human involvement have prompted UK university lecturers to rethink their course assessments.
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s newest chatbot, was only released publicly a few weeks ago. However, it has already raised worries about plagiarism that is hard to detect and the essay’s future as a form of evaluation. OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and others.
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The Implications
It is called a “game changer” that will challenge schools and colleges.
Though General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and A-level courses are graded via conventional final assessments, experts worry that students who use the technology to complete their assignments may grow reliant on AI-generated answers without learning the necessary skills, The Guardian reports.
Dr. Thomas Lancaster, a computer scientist at Imperial College London, claimed it was indeed a game changer. He said it is clearly a key turning moment in education when colleges have to make substantial adjustments.
In order to gauge the difficulty of adapting to this new generation of AI text-generating technology, many departments across campuses have formed working groups to discuss the matter. Many experts have expressed mixed emotions, including excitement and concern.
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The ‘Disagree’ Party
University College London’s computer science faculty and staff, for example, recently made the decision to modify an evaluation. Students no longer have a choice between essay-based and skills-based final coursework assessments.
Even New York City schools have banned ChatGPT on all devices and networks due to worries it may promote plagiarism.
Australian institutions are returning to in-person examinations to ensure assessment integrity. Oral presentations are suggested instead of examinations to help students show their knowledge.
Saying ‘Yes’ to AI
The Association of School and College Leaders general secretary, Geoff Barton, said schools must learn how to use ChatGPT’s advantages while avoiding its drawbacks.
Michael Draper, professor of legal education at the University of Swansea and an academic integrity and cheating specialist, stated that it might seem quite convincing, but the more information you require as part of your inquiry, the more the algorithm would create something that seems good but is absolutely wrong.
He suggested letting students utilize and embrace this tech, although schools may attempt to outlaw it, much as they do with other types of academic dishonesty.
Jisc director of technology and analytics Michael Webb agreed to use it.
The first impulse could be to limit these resources in an effort to reduce student cheating, but he argued that this was not practical nor wise. He compared it to the natural progression of spelling and grammar checkers, which is another useful tool for the modern day.
Webb believes this is a tremendous chance for the industry to develop new assessment approaches that evaluate learners on “critical thinking, problem-solving, and reasoning rather skills than essay-writing abilities.”
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