Editor's Note: This article was written by Darrin Burningham, a guest contributor to the Daily Universe.
Since November 2022, AI has disrupted countless industries, markets and jobs around the world. In the overall higher education, Brigham Young University and its students and professors are no exception. The students almost immediately realized the possibility that AI might have to help them with their school work.
“It was scary,” said Kaiona Worthington, a junior who studies philosophy. “I thought I was cheating.”
“Google seemed like a crack to me,” said BYU sophomore Sonia Chini, who is studying wildlife and wild conservation.
Senior Calvin Boyce recounts his reaction to his first use of ChatGpt: “I was shocked. It was much better than I thought. I was hoping for a Siri-like response. The AI is much more impressive than that.”
For many students, applications for AI academic work were obvious from the start. Others took a little time to incorporate it into their research field. Matthew Schwartz, a sociology major, said he was one of these.
“I'm like a grandpa (using AI), but since the fall semester my professor has encouraged me to use it more.
Since Openai shocked the world in 2022, the use of AI in schools has begun to pick up a lot.
Many students may find this exciting because of the time AI saves them. However, some people involved in academic integrity are quick to point out the red flags these figures raise, questioning whether this indicates an increase in learning rates or a surge in fraud.
Many institutions of higher education are dedicated to academic integrity, and BYU is no exception.
“The first injunction in the Honor Code is a call to 'be honest',” BYU's academic and honest policy.
“BYU students should be fully honest in their business with others. They should complete their work and be evaluated based on the work. They should avoid any form of academic injustice and misconduct, including, but not limited to, plagiarism, manufacturing or forgery, fraud, and other academic misconduct.”
In addition to its academic sincerity policy as part of Honor Code, BYU has quickly released generative AI guidelines following the advent of ChatGPT. Students can go genai.byu.edu View these guidelines. In the Academic Integrity section, the site reads as follows:
“BYU currently does not have a specific school-wide policy to define acceptable AI use for assignments, tests or other academic studies. For general principles, see: Academic sincere policies, Data Usage, Privacy and Security Policy and CES Honor Code. ”
Even with guidance from the university, students and professors alike feel that when it comes to using AI in schools, it feels like the wild west.
The professors have taken away the freedom that universities have recognized them, and have come to very different conclusions when AI can and does not.
“I had a professor who really didn't care. It's like you need to study, but obviously you don't use it on the test. But as long as you tell me you used it, as long as you take 30% off (your grades) to me, as long as you tell me you tell me you're sure I'm sure you're me.
Professor Aaron Miller of Marriott Business School says his AI policy is “to use it on an assignment they say they can do and ask not to be another assignment.”
Professor Jamie Jensen of Life Sciences School said, “What I usually tell students is that they can use AI as a learning tool, but they shouldn't submit AI as a job,” she admits that students struggle to distinguish between these aspects.
“Students are welcome to use AI, but perhaps they should, but say the final product that will change me should be their job and show me that they should show me how they used it,” said Eric Dursteler, professor of humanities.
Other professors have adopted a more laissez-faire approach and have chosen to address little AI in classroom policies.
“Yeah, I have (AI policy) in my graduate classes…but I don't address it in my undergraduate classes because it's not relevant,” said Brian Harker, professor of music history.
Professors have a different overall sense of new technology, not just their actual AI policies. Emotions can range from excitement to scary, and many professors have little to none.
“I tell my students to use it as a great starting point. It's a powerful tool that can be used in the imaginative kind of process of creating something for themselves,” Professor Dursteler said.
Miller said LLM, which specializes in reading and writing, or large-scale language models, is “the best way for students to evaluate their own thoughts.”
But Miller also said, “When you hand over all the processes you think of to AI, whatever you submit doesn't reflect your actual capabilities. That's the biggest tension. I think there's a fundamental consistency issue. I think that always applies to fraud.
Jensen added: “It feels like AI is robbing you of developing skills. Number one, how do you find information, and second, how do you decide whether it's legal… The question is when they don't know where the information fits.”
Most students and professors feel that AI use is a kind of academic gray area, making it difficult to identify potential misuses and police. The uncertainty surrounding it has also made it impossible for students and professors to effectively utilize the full potential of technology.
Some professors do not feel that the misuse of AI is a serious issue and that universities should not limit their use.
“I don't think that's a big problem if I'm very honest,” Dursteler said. “Tell students that it's a starting point. It's a tool that can be used in the imaginative process of creating something for themselves.”
Still, others are worried about how to control the use of AI to prevent fraud without too much of a hindrance to that possibility. Many teachers even had to change the type of assignment they gave, and even changed the way they managed assignments to return the grade to normal.
“I've had them do the exam online. But I've heard that through grapevine from students to TAS, they're all using ChatGpt,” says Jensen. “I also noticed that the average is much higher than ever before, so I completely abandoned online. I thought I had a favor by having students online. Now they're trying to get all the tests at the testing centre.”
“Previously, I had them write research papers and once AI became relevant, I stopped doing that and had them write short essays at the test centre.”
Many point out that cheating has also become much easier when the internet was announced, but education has yet to change much. However, students can not only look up answers to multiple choice or blank questions, but also structure their own original answers with a neatly expressed AI prompt.
Miller expressed concern about the rise of students who engage in AI and fraud. “The really interesting challenge of fraud is how integrity is high among students, and the chances of fraud increase as fraud increases. Essentially the equation rises. So, it's so ridiculously high.”
Some professors also want more guidance from universities on the subject, as well as tools on how to address the issues it poses.
Jensen said he's struggling to find a good tool to detect AI.
“Another tool I was trying at home, I intentionally generated things with ChatGpt and put them in. Then I intentionally wrote things, but it wasn't good at all. It was saying that my own writing was ChatGpt,” Jensen said.
He also said he feels that the university can provide them with better tools for AI detection.
“There's zero resources to test AI and know that it's doing a good job because if AI doesn't use AI, then I don't want to blame AI students,” he said.
Some professors are concerned that ChatGpt can have a wide range of influences on how society is valued, and that the value of a university degree in the workplace could be further reduced if students can't prove to their employers that they have the skills to handle themselves.
“There are many ways to learn. They don't have to be in college. A core feature of university education is their credentials. They promise that graduates can do certain things. “We always exchange questions about that credential and say, “How does this affect the student's credentials?”
So, while the advent of AI has provided great efficiency, the ju-degrees have yet to come out on how it will continue to change higher education, for better or worse.
