Concerns that students are using a powerful new AI tool to write high-quality essays without human intervention has prompted British university lecturers to rethink their course assessments.
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s newest chatbot, was only made public a few weeks ago. However, it has already raised concerns about hard-to-detect plagiarism and the future of the essay as a form of evaluation. OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman and others.
(Photo: Kenny Eliason on Unsplash)
The implications
It has been called a “game changer” that will challenge schools and colleges.
While General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and A-level courses are assessed through conventional final assessments, experts worry that students using the technology to complete their assignments could become dependent on AI-generated answers without learning the necessary skills , reports The Guardian. .
Dr. Thomas Lancaster, a computer scientist at Imperial College London, claimed it was indeed a game changer. He said it is clearly a major turning point in education when colleges need to make substantial adjustments.
To gauge the difficulty of adapting to this new generation of AI text generation technology, many departments on campuses have formed working groups to discuss the issue. Many experts have expressed mixed feelings, including excitement and concern.
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The disagree party
For example, the computer science faculty and staff at University College London recently made the decision to modify an evaluation. Students no longer have the choice between essay-based and skills-based final course assessments.
Even schools in New York City have banned ChatGPT from all devices and networks over fears it could promote plagiarism.
Australian institutions are returning to in-person exams to ensure assessment integrity. Oral presentations are suggested instead of exams to help students demonstrate their knowledge.
Say “yes” to AI
The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Geoff Barton, said schools need to learn how to use ChatGPT’s benefits while avoiding its drawbacks.
Michael Draper, a professor of legal education at Swansea University and a specialist in academic integrity and deceit, stated that it might seem quite convincing, but the more information you need as part of your research, the more the algorithm would create something that is well seems. but is absolutely wrong.
He suggested getting students to use and embrace this technology, though schools could try to ban it, just as they do with other forms of academic dishonesty.
Jisc, director of technology and analytics, Michael Webb, agreed to use it.
The first impulse might be to limit these resources in an effort to reduce student cheating, but he argued that this was neither practical nor prudent. He compared it to the natural progression of spell and grammar checking, which is also a useful tool for the modern age.
Webb believes this is a great opportunity for the industry to develop new assessment approaches that evaluate students on “critical thinking, problem solving and reasoning skills rather than essay writing skills”.
Read also: A collective of artists and scientists, Waken.ai, reimagines ChatGPT for AI self-reflection
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