NY.- While grading essays for his world religions course last month, Antony Aumann, a philosophy professor at Northern Michigan University, read what he said was easily “the best paper in the class.” He explored the morality of the burka bans with clean paragraphs, appropriate examples, and rigorous arguments.
Instantly a red flag was raised.
Aumann confronted his student about whether he had written the essay himself. The student confessed to having used ChatGPT, a chatbot that provides information, explains concepts and generates ideas in simple sentences and, in this case, had written the article.
Alarmed by his discovery, Aumann decided to transform essay writing for his courses this semester. He plans to require students to write first drafts in the classroom, using browsers that monitor and restrict computer activity. In subsequent drafts, students have to explain each revision. Aumann, who may forgo essays in subsequent semesters, also plans to include ChatGPT in lessons by asking students to rate the chatbot’s responses.
Across the country, university professors like Aumann, department heads, and administrators are beginning to reshape classrooms in response to ChatGPT, sparking a potentially huge change in teaching and learning. Some professors are completely redesigning their courses, making changes that include more oral exams, group work, and handwritten rather than typed assessments.
The moves are part of a real-time fight with a new wave of technology known as generative artificial intelligence. ChatGPT, which was launched in November by the OpenAI artificial intelligence lab, is at the forefront of change. The chatbot generates eerily articulate and nuanced text in response to brief prompts, and people use it to write love letters, poetry, fiction, and their school assignments.
That has affected some middle and high schools, with teachers and administrators trying to discern whether students are using the chatbot to do their schoolwork. Some public school systems, including in New York City and Seattle, have since banned the tool on school Wi-Fi networks and devices to prevent cheating, though students can easily find workarounds to access ChatGPT. .
In higher education, colleges and universities have been reluctant to ban AI, because administrators doubt the measure is effective and don’t want to infringe on academic freedom. That means the way people teach is changing.
