AI in Teaching and Learning: Overcoming Artificial Intelligence Instructional Intimidation.

By Sarah S. Learman, PhD

Overcoming AI Intimidation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) text-generating technologies continue to spark concern among higher education faculty and staff nationwide, including those at CMU (Marche, 2023; Nguyen, 2023a; Nguyen, 2022b; Rogers, 2022; Glazier, 2022; McMurtrie, 2022). Current concerns surround student use of AI software (such as ChatGPT) to generate text responses to assignment prompts instead of writing the responses themselves (Obrien, 2023). Here, you’ll find a brief continuation of our previous discussion of this “AI in academia” controversy. We’ll also expand on some of our suggestions and offer more resources to help you navigate this most recent instructional detour.

While the newness of these AI technologies precludes much data-driven research, many anecdotal pieces align in themes and content, suggesting similar experiences and recommendations across the board. The most powerful suggestion is to try it yourself and take a close look at some AI-generated outputs. By entering one of your current writing prompts and reviewing the responses, you might be surprised by what you find. Some research evaluating ChatGPT text from our own prompts has helped us to identify some tips for recognizing AI-generated text. Most importantly, we’ve found that the quality of the assignment prompt is important in generating a high or low-quality text output. We also found that regardless of the prompt, AI-generated text generally:

does not always follow word count limitations, nor does it include proper citations,
is not able to offer an authentic personal reflection or high-quality application to real-world scenarios,
follows the same general text structure and uses consistent transitional language between outputs (making multiple outputs of the same prompt quite similar in structure),
repeats certain words and phrases both within and between different outputs,
reflects considerable overlap between outputs to the same and different questions,
sometimes includes an “As an AI generates this….” disclaimer at the beginning of the output, and
often includes significant inaccuracies related to content.

If you feel intimidated by AI, consider which of the above might be easier for you to recognize. Also, remember how frequently we take advantage of similar software and tools and how the advent of other technologies has revolutionized teaching and learning in some fields. Especially things that were negatively perceived at first, for example, the printing press, the calculator, or even text autofill to expedite our emailing process. As history has shown, don’t lose sight of the potential for such tools in what they can do in our classes and lives.

Finally, continuing to expand on our previous post in this series, now would be a great time to bulk up your course expectations, revisit your writing assignments/prompts, and consult with CIS! A few more considerations:

Expectations and effective policies can be valuable to preclude the successful use of AI software in completing your assignment.
- More information can be found in this recent piece which includes a sample course policy that speaks directly to AI use in the classroom (Mollick & Mollick, 2023).
- Implement, prioritize, and hold students accountable to our University’s Academic Integrity Policy. We must also recognize that you can’t force students to follow the honor code; you’ll need to trust them to follow expectations and respond accordingly.
Re-design (or even minorly adjust) your assessments to enhance security and more easily identify AI-generated text, unauthorized collaboration, copying, etc…
- This may include adding some “real world” experiential applications, personal reflections, or other teaching and learning best practices to the assignment. One alternative might apply a Revise and Resubmit or open book style assignment that incorporates the AI-generated version of your text prompt (Orlando, 2021; Fetter, 2021). In this case, AI-generated text might be one of those valuable resources to support student writing and editing skills.
- Or you might even consider returning to former, lower-tech, methods of assessing student writing, including using blue books for in-class written assessments.
Consult with CIS regarding any of the above suggestions. The Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support is always here to help with any step in this process. If you’re unsure where to go from here, if you’d like help approaching your course, assignment, or writing prompt related to this new AI technology, or if you have any other instructional questions or needs, send us an email at TLPro@cmich.edu.

Next month we’ll engage with some common text/plagiarism detection methods (such as CMU-supported SafeAssign, the roberta-base-openai-detector , GPTZero, or this AI Content Detector) to answer the question, How to Check if Something Was Written with AI, to help instructors recognize and mitigate unauthorized use of AI in your courses. (Brown, 2022; Brown, 2023)

Additional Resources

In addition to those resources linked above, referenced below, and provided in our previous blog, here are some recent articles and resources speaking to and supporting you through this topic.

References

Brown, E. (2022). A new AI chatbot might do your homework for you. But it’s still not an A+ student. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/19/1143912956/chatgpt-ai-chatbot-homework-academia

Brown, E. (2023). A college student created an app that can tell whether AI wrote an essay. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2023/01/09/1147549845/gptzero-ai-chatgpt-edward-tian-plagiarism

Fetter, D. (2021). Why I went from proctored exams to open-book. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/educational-assessment/why-i-went-from-proctored-exams-to-open-book/

Glazier, R. (2022). How to solve the student disengagement crisis. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-solve-the-student-disengagement-crisis

March, S. (2023). The college essay is dead. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/chatgpt-ai-writing-college-student-essays/672371/

McMurtrie, B. (2022). AI and the future of undergraduate writing. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/ai-and-the-future-of-undergraduate-writing

Mollick, E. & Mollick, L. (2023). Why all our classes suddenly became AI classes. Harvard Business Publishing. https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/why-all-our-classes-suddenly-became-ai-classes?cid=email%7Cmarketo%7C2023-02-14-the-faculty-lounge%7C1424822%7Cfaculty-lounge-newsletter%7Clinkedin-prompt%7Cvarious%7Cfeb2023&acctID=none&mkt_tok=ODU1LUFUWi0yOTQAAAGJ7seQvWX-xt6TTY0fngK8SuDugh4e_zS1prjpeXZKGGyo7V6FmI8CEz81dTN2dlgCTbBR2MT-LmAnMHnWMX5RrAd1rAwfmb7mlIQs5d7Sgg

Nguyen, N. (2023a). ChatGPT: How to adapt your courses for AI? Feedback Fruits. https://feedbackfruits.com/blog/chatgpt-how-to-adapt-your-courses-for-ai

Nguyen, N. (2022b). ChatGPT: A threat to Education? Feedback Fruits. https://feedbackfruits.com/blog/chatgpt-a-threat-to-education-opinion

Obrien, M. (2023). Explainer: What is ChatGPT and why are schools blocking ? AP News. https://apnews.com/article/what-is-chat-gpt-ac4967a4fb41fda31c4d27f015e32660

Orlando, J.O. (2021). Use revise and resubmit instead of extra credit. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/educational-assessment/use-revise-and-resubmit-instead-of-extra-credit/?st=FFdaily;sc=FF210728;utm_term=FF210728&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Use+Revise+and+Resubmit+Instead+of+Extra+Credit&utm_campaign=FF210728

Rogers, J. (2022). Writing with robots. The Habit Weekly. https://mailchi.mp/thehabit.co/writing-with-robots?e=7810232178

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