Chit Chat(GPT)

The computers are coming for us! We have known that for a while but understanding how and where these new technologies will impact our lives and jobs can be tricky. I know that academics are often mocked for being out of touch. We are just up in our ivory tower, wearing our elbow patches, talking about stuff no one cares about, and stroking our beards (I identify with about ¾ of these things. I will let you decide which ones). But (most of us) adapt quickly to things happening beyond our office doors. Technology in the classroom is one place we really need to stay up to date. It makes our lives easier and if we don’t, the students will hammer us in our evaluations, we will  never catch when cheating happens, and we will be mercilessly mocked (mostly behind our backs) for using outdated stuff.* The newest technology we need to get our brains around is ChatGPT. When I first heard about it I was interested. Then the holidays happened and the only thing I was interested in was cheese. But yesterday the incomparable Dr. Ray Jones** posted about it on LinkedIn and got me thinking again. From what I can tell, the initial reaction from educators to this new Artificial Intelligence (AI) was panic. Learning is over! The essay as we know it is dead! Homework is no longer an option! Society will collapse! I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about so I asked ChatGPT to help me solve a problem I often encounter:

Pretty good stuff!! I totally understand the panic about the efficacy of AI like this from the perspective of educators-especially at the middle and high school levels. We need students at those stages to learn how to communicate and how to think. If they use ChatGPT for everything they will stunt their academic abilities and that could be disastrous. But college students? To me that is a different situation. I have been teaching this population of students for a considerable amount of time and I think I have some perspective. 

When I first started teaching I gave multiple choice and essays tests in class based solely on the book. Embarrassing. All those tests did was ask students to memorize and regurgitate. Very low levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of me. As I got more confident in teaching the material I moved to strictly essay-based in class exams. Better. These required some critical thinking and the amalgamation of course concepts. Students combined what they learned from the book with examples in the real world. In theory these were great and they are definitely standard practice. However, when you have three sections of 35 students writing 7-10 pages worth of essays several times a semester and no teaching assistants it becomes a bit challenging to do anything beyond constantly grading (and teaching is only one THIRD of my job). Then I had a crazy year where I decided that complete Project Based Learning (PBL) was the way to go. That was truly insane. It allowed students to explore class concepts through a variety of avenues; all of which were different and none of which had a standardized grading approach. I knew that was not sustainable so I borrowed the PBL concept of learning by doing with real-world problems and tweaked it. I also stopped using a textbook. Apologies to all of my textbook writing friends. I know they work exceptionally well in certain courses but for a class like Business & Society I think it is crucial to read about things happening right now in the world so that students see the links to reality beyond the theory. Textbooks can’t keep up. By the time the “newest” edition is out it’s out of date. No matter what I needed to supplement the text so I decided to just put together my own readings from online sources. This means that they are FREE. The cost of textbooks is insane and not all of them have a cheaper online version available. Requiring a $150+ book for a class feels like a barrier to entry (or at least to success) if all of our students don’t have the same means. This approach eliminates the problem. Students only need access to a computer or smartphone to get their class materials. Please note, this shift does not mean all of the students read. If anyone figures out the silver bullet for that, hit me up!

The changes I’ve made to my class mean that there are no exams. There are presentations, fact finding missions, discussions, and short (very specific) essays. So, generally speaking, ChatGPT is not a real concern for me in my classes. Not just because of the lack of essays but because Chat GPT isn’t the first time students could get answers without doing the work. Essays and analyses for purchase have been around since the dawn of the internet. A personal favorite are the many options students have to purchase the “answers” to a case study I wrote titled: The Ultimate Fighting Championship and Cultural Viability. You can buy an MBA level Marketing analysis ($39.99+ depending on your timeline), a case solution (free), or a case analysis (unclear cost). I was shocked when I happened upon these but also a little flattered. My point is that there have always been ways for students to skirt actual learning if they want to. No matter how good of a teacher you are, if a student is disinterested in the material, pressed for time, being forced to take college classes, or whatever reason they give themselves to not do the work they will find a way to get the answers and get through the class. Will they learn anything? No. Do they care? Also, no. This does not make sense to my education loving and frugal brain. Why spend so much on tuition only to have someone else do the work? Maybe the students don’t see the value in what we are teaching. Maybe that’s on us. I know that when students outsource their work (cheat) they aren’t learning anything. I also know that they are adults. If they want to coast through college not actually gaining useful career skills or new perspectives that’s their right (as long as they are paying their tuition). I wish they cared. I want to send prepared and professional students out into the world and that is much more difficult when this is their approach to education. 

Interestingly, often the students who don’t actually do the readings and could care less about the class in general love to participate in discussions! I find that some of the least prepared students are the ones who speak the most in class. It is low-key infuriating. They don’t do the readings or the work but they have a lot of things to say. All of the time. In every class. I call them over-participators. In grad school my advisor used something in his class called the Rule of Three to help manage this situation. He told students that if they had participated three times that day they were good; it was time to let someone else say something. However, if they had not participated in the last three classes it was time to jump in because your lack of engagement is going to start harming your grade. I have had to tell students that they have “had their three” for the day on many occasions. I have also had to straight up tell students that I am no longer calling on them. Participation is not the same as contribution. 

So what can we do about ChatGPT? I think we can harness its usefulness while acknowledging that it isn’t the same as a person. It’s close but no cigar. As educators, we will have to explicitly state in our syllabi and in class and over and over again that using ChatGPT generated answers is cheating and, hence, not allowed. That it is a violation of academic integrity and grounds for (insert bad thing here). That should take care of it! I’m kidding. Students will still use it to craft answers but the firm that created ChatGPT knows that. They are trying to help universities combat what is being called AIgiarism. ChatGPT is “watermarking” its responses as a way to help detect cheating with the AI and they have created GPT-2 Output Detector Demo where you can drop in the text to have it checked. 

I am going to encourage students to use ChatGPT for (ethical) fun. As a way to generate ideas, ask questions, and get recommendations while understanding that due diligence and fact checking are still necessary. I want to focus on the benefits and on how to use it and still be a good person/student. ChatGPT output isn’t perfect. Maybe it will be in the future. For now it’s a solid B+ student with great suggestions for how to deal with annoying over-emailers.  

* When I started at USD there were still a handful of people using overhead projectors. Not document cameras. OVERHEAD PROJECTORS. With transparencies. Yikes.

**Ray Jones was my TA when I took Business, Government and Society during my short-lived tenure as a Finance (hahahah!) major at the University of Pittsburgh. He was spectacular in every way. I went on to TA that same class at Pitt after my Master’s. I now teach the USD version of that class. This is not a coincidence. Ray is an inspiration. He once stood on a desk during class. I don’t even remember why but it was awesome. I have yet to stand on a desk. Thank you Ray! ☺️