AI companies are targeting students. How it changes your studies: NPR

Students are using ChatGpt more than ever – and ChatGpt knows that.

Last week, OpenAI launched “Study Mode” with a chatbot that aims directly to the student market. It is intended to act like a tutor rather than an answer-spewing machine. Use Socrates' methods to build quizzes and create a study plan. On the same day, Google announced a set of learning-oriented tools.

So how does Generation AI compare to old school tools like textbooks and online homework helpers like Chegg and Quizlet? Do they still have a place?

First I asked ChatGpt: Answer: “Yes, I can be an absolutely useful learning tool, but the best results arise from knowing how and when to use me along with textbooks and the Edtech platform.”

Then I spoke to people running some of those platforms and students who used (or used) them. As generative AI plantes an interest in education, they all do what they can to adapt.

How companies adapt

Chegg sells textbooks and offers slate digital services, including flashcard generation and practice questions. In May, the company was confirmed with NPR as it fired about 250 employees, or 22% of its workforce, in part due to students turning to generating AI. But rather than trying to expand your reach, you're zooming in.

“We were trying to be everything for every student in the preschool world,” says Nathan Schultz, CEO of Chegg.

Some generation AI platforms, including ChatGpt, have free plans. Chegg hopes to contact students who pay $19.99 a month for tools that encourage long-term use and goal setting.

“When you think about the fitness world, those apps and their services tend to be more guided to achieve your goals,” Schultz says. “They're giving you, 'We're going to do this miles every week, do this lot of rides and this lot of work,' and that's what has been designing our services. ”

Chegg also wraps AI models in the platform. New features include subscribers side by side with Chegg's answers to questions next to answers from other platforms, such as ChatGupt, Google Gemini, and Claude.

Macmillan Learning sells textbooks and e-books, and offers quizzes and study guides. Like Chegg, AI tools were incorporated into paid plans and began rolling out at the end of last year.

Macmillan's tools do not provide students with straightforward answers. Instead, they lead them to solutions through open-ended questions that expose flawed thoughts (aka Socrates' method).

“It supports them to Soklal so that they have a learning experience they can use… when they have to do that on the exam.”

Flem argues that Macmillan's AI tutors are more accurate than AI chatbots as they are drawn from the company's textbooks. The platform also reduces “content switching,” he says.

“If you switch between that tab and that tab, you always notice the realization, 'Wait a minute, what did you say here?'” says Flem. “So our AI tutors are next to the issues our students are working on.”

How students adapt

Some students mix and match AI with traditional tools. Bryan Wheatley studied ChatGpt in combination with Quizlet and Socratic (another AI tool). The recent graduate of Prairieview A&M University in Texas initially approached ChatGpt with anxiety.

“What's really adaptive is kind of crazy in a way,” he says, but he used it to outline essays and other tasks. He says ChatGpt was right in about half the time and had to make many cross-references.

He was one of 66% of students with bachelor's, master's and doctoral studies, according to a July 2024 survey by the Council of Digital Education, which regularly used ChatGPT.

The survey found that over 50% of students believe that relying too much on AI will have a negative impact on academic performance.

Sally Simpson is trying to hold the line. Georgetown University Students working on a PhD German Literature does not use generative AI. During my undergraduate days, I used websites such as Quizlet and SparkNotes to enhance the information I processed.

Now she watches undergraduates use the generated AI to complete their homework assignments and summarise work organizations that they haven't read. “It makes people's education cheaper,” she says. “I think it's an important skill to be able to read articles, read texts and summarise them, as well as think critically.”

Dontell Shoulders, a senior studying social work at Kentucky State University, is an avid quizlet user and still uses it to study for the test. With Quizlet, he has to ask for the answer. Generic AI is not so challenging, he says.

“You just have to put something on your computer and type it in, just like 'go here,'” he says. “After you type it, do you remember it? You're not.”

How Professors adapt

Attorney Amy, director of the Horse Management at the University of Louisville Business School, says some students still use online study guides such as Chegg and Sparknotes. “Students are at the point of using the resources available,” she says.

Of these resources, ChatGpt had the biggest impact on the classroom. She uses it for editing and encourages her students to do the same. However, she is currently publishing more assignments that must be handwritten or completed in her class to prevent the AI chatbot from being plagiarized or overused.

Ayelet Fishbach, professor of marketing and behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, says students always find shortcuts, no matter how technology evolves. “No fraud has been invented lately,” she says.

“What's different now is that it seems more blurry to a lot of people,” she says. “Before you know you're cheating, you feel like, 'I might still be doing what I have to do, but I'm the only one who's more efficient.' This is confusing for students and we try to support them. ”