Artificial Intelligence (AI) Faculty Guide

ChatGPT is a form of generative AI - which means that it creates text. It had been "fed" books, articles, webpages, dictionaries, and more. ChatGPT allows you to have human-like conversations, and can answer questions and assist you with tasks, such as composing emails, essays, and code. 

ChatGPT does not search the internet for information - it merely draws from its own memory banks to generate an "answer". It does not do research, and therefore can not be trusted to generate information that is factual. 

It has been in the news recently as teachers and professors are worried their students are using ChatGPT to write their papers for them and taking credit for the work. This is considered cheating AND plagiarizing. 

These are a few tips for detecting and/or preventing AI use in students' academic work: 

Have Clear Instructions 

• Students are less likely to cheat if they fully understand the assignment. Be available to answer questions. 

Check Citations 

• ChatGPT does not research, it only pulls from its memory banks. Therefore, it does not produce actual citations - it makes up fake ones that look real. This can be detected by simply checking the links in citations. 

Writing Sample 

• Creating assignments like a short annotated bibliography on a discussion board or an in-class writing activity allows instructors to identify students writing styles. This assignment could be personal - AI is unable to write about a student's personal experiences. 

Require Supplemental Materials

• Require an outline, annotated bibliography, annotated article, or some other supporting material that shows planning on the students part. 

Check it Yourself

• Input the writing/assignment prompt into the AI platform you are suspicious the student is using to see if it autogenerates similar results.

Educate Students 

• Prepare an activity where students compare an AI generated article to a human-written one. See if they can spot the difference. Teach students why one source is reliable while the other is not. 

Note that even reliable plagiarism checkers like TurnItIn have trouble detecting AI use and can sometimes falsely detect use. 

• Fear of failure 
• Not being fully prepared to complete an assignment 
• Not enough time to complete an assignment 
• Not fully understanding the material/assignment 
• Believing that cheating is acceptable (lack of consequences)
• Believing that others are cheating (and getting away with it) 

There are ways in which AI tools like ChatGPT can be used ethically. However, students should first be educated on what is NOT ethical use before being given opportunities to engage with AI tools in the classroom. 

Ethical AI Uses: 

• Time Management
  • Chat GPT can produce schedule suggestions to help students stay organized. 
• Explanation 
  • ChatGPT can take a paragraph that a student does not understand and put it into simpler language for them. This can be an especially useful tool for people who do not speak English as their first language. 
• Talking Point 
  • Lead a discussion on ethics.
• Practice Tests
  • ChatGPT can generate practice tests or study guides for class materials. 

Unethical AI Uses:

• Essays/Assignments
  • Auto-generating essays and using AI's words as their own
• Completing test/quizzes or checking over test/quizzes during class times
• Spreading fake news that has not been fact checked