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industry & research the kind of answers we ask them to create on their own .
We can also use it to create writing prompts in the classroom . So we could ask Chat GPT to write the first sentence of a paragraph about whatever topic you ' re studying in that class , and then we can ask students to finish the paragraph . So these are just some examples of how lecturers can use Chat GPT in their classes .
But always I think it ' s important if you ' re giving students an example or an exemplar to tell them that you ' ve used artificial intelligence and to acknowledge your engagement with it . That ' s the kind of behaviour we ' re hoping students will model as well .
Can you use it across every discipline or would there be subjects that can benefit from it more ? I think there ' s an important conversation for lecturers and teachers to have about the relevance of Chat GPT to their own disciplines . And I think where it ' ll have the strongest impact will be in disciplines where there ' s a close connection between how it ' s used and the learning outcomes that you ' re aiming for . So in my discipline , which is writing studies and English , there are some clear connections between artificial intelligence that can create written essays and what we ' re asking students to do .
But we ' ve found that it ' s quite flexible and can be used in disciplines like law , biology , and nursing . It really is an adaptable tool . What changes are the kind of prompts that you ask Chat GPT and the kind of activities you can arrange and organise . So again , it comes back to the expertise of the teacher in thinking creatively about how to use Chat
GPT to achieve their outcomes that are important for their discipline .
How can Chat GPT help students learn better ? This ' ll be something for each discipline or different specialty areas to consider , but I ' ll refer to my own teaching scenario first where I ' m asking students to develop skills in critical thinking , argumentation and essay writing in the unit of study I ' m teaching this semester .
Students , for instance , can quickly and easily use Chat GPT to generate an essay in an academic style . But from that moment I can ask a range of questions like how does the Chat GPT essay show high levels of critical thinking or lower levels of critical thinking ? Is there cohesion between the different paragraphs ? How strong is the sense of argument in the produced essay , et cetera . So I ask questions that then are relevant to the outcomes of the unit I teach and students learn more about the writing process and how we assess and evaluate writing , but also they learn the limits of Chat GPT and what it can produce . So in this example , I ' ve found students are quick to see that Chat GPT is not very good at the highest levels of critical thinking such as synthesis , evaluation and argumentation . And this helps students understand what they have that Chat GPT doesn ' t or put another way , how they exceed the capacity of Chat GPT .
And this is a really important learning outcome for students . They learn what skills they have that they can bring to the use of artificial intelligence and whether they ' re moving out into the workplace next semester or next year or in two years ’ time , that ' s going to be the key point of difference when they ' re interviewing for a job in an area where artificial intelligence is a part of the workplace . Whether they can say , I can use that technology , but I also have these other skills and attributes that are important to put on top of that technology .
What are the next steps to assess students differently ? One of the first things it does is it makes teachers realise that if Chat GPT can generate an answer at a particular standard , they ask the question , should that be the pass standard for their task ? Or is it possible for Chat GPT to get credits , distinctions , high distinctions ? So the most immediate impact is forcing teachers to reconsider how they talk to students about the expected standards of achievement in assessment task , but then how they redesign their assessments to ensure that students are achieving above the potential of Chat GPT .
In terms of what ' s next for how to assess students differently , our approach or the approach of some of our colleagues at the University of Sydney is to start thinking about how we ask students to acknowledge their engagement and use of artificial intelligence , whether that ' s a footnote that explains how text was edited or including Chat GPT text that has been incorporated as an appendix so that markers can see how it ' s been adapted and reused or rewritten . That ' s one option . But other options are about building in to the process of assessment and understanding of how to use Chat GPT effectively as well . ■
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