Is ChatGPT going to change the way we teach?

Posted on Monday, March 6th, 2023

In the mid-to late 1970s a new device was introduced in classrooms setting off debates and uproars, as to whether or not it would help or hurt student learning. Some fifty years later, the conversation around calculators still goes on, with many wondering if that device is taking away or adding to a student’s learning.

Today, a new form of technology is raising similar discussion. Artificial Intelligence (AI) (and specifically ChatGPT) is the latest tool to have educations minds buzzing.

According to CNET “This artificial intelligence bot can answer questions, write essays, summarize documents and write software. The bot remembers the thread of your dialogue, using previous questions and answers to inform its next responses. It derives its answers from huge volumes of information on the internet.”

For educators and learners, this powerful tool is a double-edged sword. There are three “camps” or schools of thought around this new free OpenAI technology. “One concern is it’s another way for students to cheat in a way that’s more undetectable, so we need to redo our assessments” said Rebecca Wakelin, Educational Developer, Learning and Teaching Services. “Another camp wonders how can we leverage this technology in teaching and the final group wonders how does this exist in policy landscape?”

It’s a lot to chew on, and has educators spending time looking at the best way forward to develop a response, including here at Algonquin College.

Wakelin gives a more recent example as to how technology is adapted in a classroom. “When cell phones first (arrived) we asked what is the pedagogical response,” she said. “Our job is to teach people. We have a policy response and we have a teacher response. Do we ban phones or do we teach classroom management?” There is much debate around if the technology is banned or taught and if taught, how to design authentic “cheat-proof” assessments.

“ChatGPT is the latest is a long line of cognitive offloading tools,” said Julia Huckle, chair Academic Operations and Planning. “These are all different types of AI tools with varied levels of acceptance and utilization in the classroom and/or by students —apps, ranging from Grammerly, to resume building tools and now language generating tools like ChatGPT. If you don’t do the work you give it to someone (or something) else. These are all ways of not doing the work.”

Huckle and her colleagues in Academic Integrity have been meeting on a regular basis to discuss this and other emerging technologies. Huckle is part of the Academic Integrity Council of Ontario who have recently released “Supporting Academic Integrity – Ethical Uses of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education Information Sheet”. Read more about this guide here.

“This is a guide for faculty of things to consider about AI in the classroom,” she said. There are considerations how to use AI ethically, to look at our assessments and how they are impacted by artificial intelligence. What can we do to talk to students to let them know we are aware of the technology?” She adds another point for consideration. “Some workplaces are using it (AI). If we are preparing students for the workplace, how do we prepare for the workplace if we ignoring a new technology?

Huckle said “It really goes back to the question of what is ethical and authorized use versus what is unethical and unauthorized. As a professor in the class, you can have the flexibility and freedom to say how to going to incorporate, but you need to have those guidelines and written instructions and expectations for students on how and when to use this tool.”

Wakelin adds in the importance of modifying assessments and classroom teaching to adapt to the new and emerging technology. “ChatGPT is not a critical thinker,” she said. “The opportunity to educate students to think critically is important. We need to teach students how to have the skills to check for accuracy and bias.”

Learning and Teaching Services and the Academic Integrity Office will be holding faculty idea-sharing sessions, Q&A etc. to discuss the recent recommendations and share examples of authentic assessments.

Recommendations can be reviewed here.

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