Relationships and ChatGPT in learning

Inside Higher Education's Steve Mintz frequently offers insightful reflections with which I resonate. The Power of Relationships in Undergraduate Education is a review of two books directed at how relationships matter, relationships among students and with faculty. I tend to resonate with Mintz' articles because his content is often very familiar and comfortable for me, which is the case with this article. The points he makes are as old as the stories of Socrates who advocated the importance of discourse and intimate interaction in learning and as contemporary as the expressed preferences of students who are now studying in higher education institutions.

There is a fresh insight that I've previously not pondered - how undergraduates' inclination toward career preparation has turned higher education into a transaction, one in which students seek efficiency rather than depth. Mintz' conclusion is that meaningful relationships must be cultivated if students are to receive the quality of education that they need. He proposes very traditional strategies to enhance relationships such as mentoring, increasing peer interaction, and other high-impact practices. Mintz acknowledged that few students in the U.S. higher education sector actually have experiences that mirror these qualities but others deny that personalized liberal education is in a death spiral.

Enter artificial intelligence - Chat GPT... The emergence of technology complicates the question of relationships. The jury appears to be "in," confirming that technology is very powerful and must recognize the changing nature of the workforce. The big question is how can technology be turned into something personal. As an example, John Warner suggests that ChatGPT might offer a way to prioritize learning by moving away from the routine aspects of writing and on to more substantive engagement. For faculty attempting to control students' use of ChatGPT Warner asserts, "If ChatGPT can do the things we ask students to do in order to demonstrate learning, it seems possible to me that those things should've been questioned a long time ago."

Reinforcing its importance as a disruptive technology, educators have begun to harness it for good, including experimenting with conversations on complicated questions of life and exploring the essentials of what constitutes good writing. ChatGPT was also lauded as helping students with learning challenges level the playing field. Some educators offer the analogy of reactions to the calculator in math to that of ChatGPT emerging in writing. While there are similarities between the calculator and ChatGPT, especially in relation to expediting tasks, there is a real difference in that writing is, itself, a process that requires advanced personal, contextual revelation. Others offer the perspective that any technology that moves learning away from "teaching to the test" would be beneficial to everyone. Other strategies being adopted include faculty talking directly about ChatGPT at the beginning of their courses, which then pulls the AI technology into a role as a companion in learning.

Some academics have equated ChatGPT with the plague, warning that it will forever change higher education and offering recommendations on how to combat its spread. After raising the questions of relationships and ChatGPT in different posts, Steve Mintz offers practical advice about how to accept, and incorporate, ChatGPT into instruction. His process includes assigning students to write a short essay with four parts: 1. a proposed prompt to ChatGPT; 2. ChatGPT's response; 3. an original essay that builds in the ChatGPT text supplemented by additional research and bibliography; and 4. corrections, revisions, and additions to the ChatGPT response. Students essays are then discussed in class.

Steps aimed at neutralizing ChatGPT include the creation of software that detects its use, training that informs faculty of the options they have in responding, and suggestions for policy related to it. The Brookings Institute offers a policy view on ChatGPT that applies in higher education and beyond, including handling the commercial risks and mitigating malicious use of AI.

The belief that many educators are embracing is that ChatGPT is a force that cannot be ignored. Thoughtful examination of the promises and pitfalls of AI in learning will remain central in campus and policy discussion going forward.