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University administrators and faculty weigh in on the pros and cons of the newest online learning tool.

, the artificial intelligence chatbot, continues to have internet users abuzz, given its ability to answer prompts on a stunning variety of subjects, to create songs, recipes, and jokes, to draft emails, and more.

鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing to have this technology do in seconds what it takes many of us hours to do,鈥� says , executive director of the 人妻少妇专区鈥檚 and a professor of writing studies. 鈥淭here鈥檚 just an endless set of possibilities.鈥�

Those endless possibilities, however, have faculty and administrators in higher education expressing anxiety as well as awe, because ChatGPT also can write essays and code, answer homework questions, and solve math problems.

鈥淲e鈥檙e all trying to figure out how it fits into the existing landscape of higher education,鈥� says Rachel Remmel, assistant dean and director of the University鈥檚 Teaching Center. 鈥淓veryone is talking about it.鈥�

ChatGPT鈥攖he GPT stands for 鈥済enerative pretrained transformer鈥濃�攚as launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It reached one million users in five days, according to OpenAI鈥檚 , and after two months, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history.

And more is coming. Google is nearing the public release of a rival to ChatGPT called Bard.

鈥淭he one thing I鈥檓 sure of is ChatGPT and others like it are here to stay,鈥� says , an associate professor in the . 鈥淎nd we, as educators, will just have to deal with that.鈥�

Rochester faculty and administrators offered their thoughts on how they鈥檙e dealing with ChatGPT鈥攁nd how it may affect teaching and learning down the road.

How will ChatGPT change the landscape of higher education?

In short, substantially.

Says Greer Murphy, director of academic honesty for Arts, Sciences & Engineering, 鈥淚 think it has the potential to be extremely game-changing. It鈥檚 something that will continue to evolve, and those of us in higher ed will keep asking questions about principles and usages.鈥�

Kanan, who听is currently teaching an undergraduate course on how to build systems like ChatGPT, believes such systems are 鈥済oing to be everywhere and be pervasive.鈥�

鈥淭his is just Day One,鈥� he says. 鈥淚mprovements are being made as we speak. You think of earlier disruptive technology like the calculator and spellcheck. This is like that, only on ultra, ultra steroids. It can do so much more.鈥�

Some faculty have already altered their teaching in the听wake of ChatGPT鈥檚 release

Several faculty members have incorporated ChatGPT into assignments, primarily as a means of exposing the AI chatbot鈥檚 limitations.

, an assistant professor in the , used ChatGPT as part of an assignment this semester. He asked students to cowrite an essay with the chatbot on a question that would challenge the technology鈥檚 capabilities, such as citations from obscure texts or knowledge of readings published after 2020.

鈥淚 then had the students reflect upon the process of cowriting: what worked, what was harder, whether they would use this in the future,鈥� Herington says. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important for students to explore the capacities and limits of these models. They aren鈥檛 magic. They do some things very well, but lots of higher-level tasks鈥攖he ones we care about in upper-level philosophy鈥攁re beyond them.鈥�

, an associate professor and the graduate writing project coordinator in the Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program, uses ChatGPT in a few courses. In Impacts of Engineering, students ask the AI chatbot to identify advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence. And in Communicating Your Professional Identity, students draft an abstract for a technical project, prompt the chatbot to modify it for different audiences, and then compare versions based on writing style and content.

鈥淚鈥檓 asking students to explore and critically examine the implications of authorship and effective academic writing when using digital tools such as GPT,鈥� Tinelli says. 鈥淚n Writing for a Digital World, students explore the ethical complexities of authorship and attribution when generating texts using AI. And in Impacts of Engineering, we aren鈥檛 just asking for output. Students are critically engaging with output to learn how to ask better questions and identify specific audiences who care about the answers.鈥�

To fulfill these learning objectives, Tinelli says students must be active participants in their own learning鈥攏ot passive consumers of AI-generated information. 鈥淯ltimately, my goal is to help students critically evaluate and navigate the effective and responsible use of these tools,鈥� she says.

鈥�19 (PhD), an assistant professor of computer science, has returned to in-class quizzes for the first time since before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 鈥淚鈥檓 changing all of my assignments to involve more high-level concepts and more integrative knowledge,鈥� he says.

Purtee鈥檚 message is clear: 鈥淚 want the student to know this information. The best way to do that is to get them alone in a room with a pencil and see what happens.鈥�

Likewise, Kanan introduced his first in-class, on-paper midterm since pre-pandemic last fall. 鈥淚t just becomes harder to sort out who knows what and who鈥檚 getting help from things like ChatGPT,鈥� he says.

Remmel says Rochester professors are likely to react to ChatGPT in different ways depending on the familiarity of the instructor with the AI chatbot as well as the learning objectives for a given course.

鈥淢y hope is that professors and students will weigh the pros and cons for each course,鈥� she says.

ChatGPT and other AI chatbots are in the 鈥榶ellow鈥� category of the academic honesty team鈥檚听. That means students should proceed with caution.听

Why yellow, on the green-yellow-red scale? The categories were created by administrators in the Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program, but reviewed by the Academic Honesty office.

Says Murphy: 鈥淥ne reason is, there isn鈥檛 yet a consensus at Rochester or in higher education in general on how it may be used, and whether it鈥檚 mostly acceptable or unacceptable. It鈥檚 a tool we continue to react to. Putting it in the green category would signal it鈥檚 always OK to use it. Putting it in the red category would mean it鈥檚 never OK, which eliminates instructor discretion.鈥�

AS&E recently created an for choosing when (or if) to use ChatGPT and other AI chatbots in the classroom鈥攐r give students permission to use it. The takeaway for faculty and instructors? Be practical, be transparent, be consistent, be responsible鈥攁nd be mentors.

Spelling out the rules鈥攁nd the rationale behind them鈥攃an help prevent academic dishonesty

鈥淪ome classroom goals will fit well with ChatGPT, while others will not,鈥� Remmel says. 鈥淲e want students to always check with instructors, so they don鈥檛 end up in trouble. Not every professor will have the same rules, but every professor should spell out the do鈥檚 and don鈥檛s in terms of using ChatGPT and other AI chatbots.鈥�

Murphy encourages faculty members to go further, spelling out 鈥渘ot just what your policies are, but why and how they鈥檙e related to your course outcomes. If writing is not a part of that outcome, maybe think about smart, ethical use of GPT as something you would permit.鈥�

Murphy stresses that it鈥檚 important for professors to understand that these are tools many students will use鈥攚ith or without appropriate guidance. 鈥淭o me, it鈥檚 just not realistic to try preventing their usage,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 far more important to teach students how to use them safely and effectively.鈥�

The upshots of using ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies in the classroom

Rossen-Knill says ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies can help students learn things that aren鈥檛 always easy to teach. 鈥淭here are many ways to write a book summary, and it鈥檚 sometimes hard to help students see they have a range of choices and perspectives,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut in a classroom, using ChatGPT, you could create three versions summarizing Edgar Allan Poe鈥檚 鈥楾he听Tell-Tale Heart鈥櫶齮hat look incredibly different, and it immediately helps students see that you have choices. What works about this one? And that one?鈥�

Other school aids have been around for a long time. Photomath allows students to take pictures of math problems and receive the answers. Humanities papers have been sold for years. So, what makes ChatGPT different?

鈥淚t鈥檚 not that it鈥檚 more sophisticated,鈥� Remmel says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more accessible and will be more commonplace. It鈥檚 a free (for now), extremely fast chatbot using technology that will likely be built into many commonly used software products in the future. ChatGPT poses different questions than conventional cheating industry products, as AI chatbots will be used in many settings.鈥�

The technology behind AI chatbots like ChatGPT is changing rapidly

Generative AI technology is evolving at an incredibly fast pace. Purtee recently created a 鈥渢ricky鈥� homework assignment for first-year students. He tested it against ChatGPT, and the bot couldn鈥檛 answer correctly.

Two weeks later, a student turned in the assignment. 鈥淗ere鈥檚 my code,鈥� the student told Purtee, 鈥渂ut I also checked to see what ChatGPT came up with, and that one is much shorter and looks better. Which should I turn in?鈥�

Purtee was taken aback after checking the results.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a little surreal that ChatGPT can solve a problem it couldn鈥檛 solve two weeks before. In a sense, it鈥檚 stronger than some of my intro students,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his is not a criticism of my students. They鈥檝e had only two weeks to absorb this knowledge and learn a new skill, while ChatGPT has been trained on practically the entire internet.鈥�

In moments like these, ChatGPT can lead to a teaching moment.听鈥淪omehow it offends my humanity to have a teaching assistant grade this work by a bot,鈥� Purtee told the student. 鈥淟ook at your work and look at what ChatGPT did. See what you like about this solution and revise your work before turning it in.鈥�

And it鈥檚 not just classrooms being disrupted by such AI technologies.

鈥淭here are many companies and start-ups creating these systems now,鈥� Kanan says. 鈥淏roadly, generative AI methods, such as large language models, are one of the hottest topics in AI because they are having real-world impact. Blogging companies and news outlets are now using them to produce content, and this is going to happen more and more. These systems are changing industries, and I foresee that in a few years they will be used to create many products. One of my students just won a hackathon using ideas inspired by ToolFormer [a language model developed by researchers at Meta], which enabled control of a drone with natural language.鈥�

AI chatbots: friends or foes in higher education?

鈥淚 believe 100 percent that it can be a positive,鈥� Rossen-Knill says. 鈥淏ut I also feel 100 percent that some will choose to use it in a negative way. Still, the heart of teaching is working with those who truly want to learn and collaborating to create new things. I don鈥檛 think that will change.鈥�

Kanan says the answer depends on what consumers do with the technology.

鈥淭here are so many amazing applications that will open doors,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 going to be disruptive to so many things. Pedagogy is the one thing professors are worried about. I was talking to a professor at another university. He fed ChatGPT a test, and it got an 80.鈥�

Remmel says educators and students eventually will reach a common approach to where AI chatbots fit in. 鈥淏ut things are still fluid at this point,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd as technologies keep evolving, there will no doubt be another technology that will come along as a disruptor in the future. I still have a fundamental belief in universities as a place where human communities come together to learn and innovate, so I don鈥檛 think ChatGPT poses any risk to higher education鈥檚 fundamental value, even if it might change how we approach doing some of our teaching and learning.鈥�

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