When ChatGPT was released in November 2022, it sparked a lot of conversation and moral panic. These center on the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on the information environment. People are concerned that AI chatbots could have a negative impact on the integrity of creative and academic work, especially since they can generate human-like text and images.
ChatGPT is a generative AI model using machine learning. It is trained to recognize patterns in data and generate human-like responses. Although the model appears to be having natural conversations, it looks at vast amounts of data and extracts features and patterns to generate consistent responses.
Higher education is one area where the rise of AI like ChatGPT is causing concern. Some of these relate to ethics and integrity in teaching, learning and knowledge production.
We are a group of academics in the field of media and communication who teach at universities in South Africa. We wanted to understand how university students use generative AI and AI-powered tools in their academic work. We conducted an online survey among undergraduate students at five of his universities in South Africa: the University of Cape Town, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Stellenbosch University, Rhodes University, and the University of the Witwatersrand.
This result suggests that moral panic about the use of generative AI is unwarranted. The student is not very focused on his ChatGPT. We found that students often use generative AI tools for active learning and have a critical and nuanced understanding of these tools.
A potentially bigger concern from a teaching and learning perspective, next to using AI-powered tools for conceptual clarity, is the use of AI-powered tools to help students generate ideas for assignments and essays. , or using the tool when you get stuck on a particular topic.
Unzipping data
1,471 students responded to the survey. Most spoke English as their native language, followed by isiXhosa and isiZulu. Most were first-year students. Most respondents were enrolled in humanities, followed by science, education, and commerce. Thus, although this study is biased toward her first year in the humanities, it provides thought-provoking findings that may be useful to educators as they explore new areas.
We asked students whether they had used individual AI tools and listed some of the most popular tools across several categories. Our study did not examine instructor attitudes or policies toward AI tools. This will be investigated in the next stage of the study, which will consist of focus groups with students and interviews with lecturers. Although our study was not specific to his ChatGPT, we asked students about their usage of this particular tool. We investigated a wide range of uses for AI-powered technology to understand how students use these tools, which tools they use, and where ChatGPT fits into these practices. Did.
The main findings are:
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41% of respondents said they primarily use laptops for schoolwork, followed by smartphones (29.8%). Only 10.5% use a desktop computer and 6.6% use a tablet.
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Rather than ChatGPT, students tended to use a variety of other AI-powered tools, such as translation and reference tools. Regarding the use of online writing assistants such as Quillbot, 46.5% of respondents said they use such tools to improve their writing style on assignments. 80.5% said they had used Grammarly or a similar tool to write in proper English.
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Less than half of survey respondents (37.3%) said they used ChatGPT to answer essay questions.
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Students acknowledged that AI-powered tools can lead to plagiarism and impact learning. However, they also say they are not using these tools in problematic ways.
Read more: ChatGPT boosts higher education needs to rethink assessment
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An overwhelming proportion of respondents were positive about the potential of digital and AI tools to ease the transition to university. They suggested that these tools could help with: Clarify academic concepts. Work out ideas. Structure essay. Improve your academic writing. Save time; check spelling and grammar. Clarify assignment instructions. Find information and academic sources. Summarize academic documents. We help students whose native language is not English improve their academic writing. Studying for a test; a better phrase. Avoid plagiarism. And see better.
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Most students found these tools to be beneficial to their learning process, and most students used tools such as ChatGPT to solve learning-related questions that they did not fully understand or that they felt were not adequately explained by their instructors. We have clarified the concept of
enthusiastic learning
We were particularly interested in how students often use generative AI tools for active learning. This is an educational approach in which students take responsibility for their own learning. They actively generate thinking, learning skills and strategies, forming new ideas and understanding through conversation and collaboration.
Read more: 'Don't think of us as the worst': Students know AI is here to stay and want universities to teach them how to use it
Using AI tools, students can tailor content to address their specific strengths and weaknesses and have a more engaged learning experience. AI tools can also become a kind of personalized online “tutor” that has “conversations” to help understand difficult concepts.
Concerns about how AI tools could undermine academic evaluation and integrity are legitimate. However, those working in higher education should be mindful of the importance of considering student perspectives in order to work towards new pathways of assessment and learning.
The full version of this article was co-authored by Marenet Jordaan, Admire Mare, Job Mwaura, Sisanda Nkoala, Alette Schoon, and Alexia Smit.
