College Student Demands Tuition Refund After Catching Professor Using ChatGPT To Create Lecture Notes
Is artificial intelligence helping or hurting in the classroom?
Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock Since the inception of artificial intelligence, its role in education has been highly controversial. Math problems can be instantly solved with the click of a button, and whole papers can be written within seconds. Most institutions have banned it entirely, and many employ AI detection software.
However, the focus of the conversation is currently shifting, putting educators in the spotlight. If students are prohibited from using AI for their work, should teachers be allowed to use it? When one student caught her professor using a chatbot, she decided to push back to ensure the quality of her education.
A college student filed a formal complaint against her professor when she found out that he used ChatGPT to generate course materials.
In an article in the New York Times, a former student at Northwestern University, Ella Stapleton, explained that she was reviewing the lecture notes for one of her classes when she noticed something. In the middle of the lesson notes, there was a prompt to ChatGPT that read, "Expand on all areas. Be more detailed and specific," followed by a bulleted list with detailed examples.
After confirming that a fellow classmate noticed the ChatGPT prompt in the notes as well, Ella went back to previous slide presentations for the class and found other notorious signs of AI use, including "distorted text, photos of office workers with extraneous body parts, and egregious misspellings."
Ella was upset because the course syllabus specifically forbade academic dishonesty, which included unauthorized use of artificial intelligence. She felt that it was hypocritical for professors to use it when students were not allowed to.
The student was disappointed with the quality of the class and the professor, given the prestigious reputation of the university.
Due to the professor's undisclosed use of AI and several other issues with his teaching style, she requested a refund on her tuition for the class, totaling more than $8,000.
Many college students like Ella are criticizing professors for over-reliance on AI, arguing that they pay a significant amount to be taught by humans, not a free online software.
The New York Times interviewed several teenage students about how they feel when teachers use AI to grade assignments. These students brought up issues like the ethical consequences and what these practices teach the kids. One student said, "I believe teachers should not be able to use AI to grade our assignments and papers because this would completely contradict their beliefs and values that they commonly preach along with the curriculum. If students are not allowed to use the assistance of AI, educators, especially, should not be allowed to use their help."
Others felt that it causes a lack of connection between teachers and students. Another student explained, "If I were to find out a teacher was using AI to grade my paper, I would be heartbroken. It makes me feel that they don’t want to see the labor of love and passion that I work on for their class."
Though students clearly don't support the use of AI in instruction, teachers argue that using AI tools can help them provide a better educational experience.
Educators say that AI streamlines simple processes and helps them save time to allocate to other areas. A professor at the University of South Florida, Zafer Unal, created a new online platform for educators that provides free AI tools to help enhance learning. He stated, "Overall, AI is helping teachers in many areas, from language learning and assessments to writing support, presentation skills, grading, and lesson planning."
The New York Times also asked educators how AI can be used in the classroom. A teacher from Los Angeles said, "AI has the potential to give immediate feedback to students on spelling, grammar, and simple structural and organizational features of the writing. This *could* be used to free teachers up to give students feedback on more subjective areas: thoughts expressed, use of learning from class, or choices on what to prioritize in edits and future practice."
Teachers also argue that there is a clear difference between using AI for learning and using AI to help complete tasks. "Students are working generatively when writing an essay. They are composing and organizing a thesis with sub-points and evidence. This is a clear skill that AI can interrupt the process of learning," a Sacramento teacher explained. "Now, teachers, on the other hand, we have earned credentials and often multiple master’s degrees. We know the generative skill of composition. If we can use AI to support grading, we can spend more time planning, prepping, and supporting students."
The ongoing controversy about the use of AI in education shows that there is much more work to be done to draw boundaries and determine how AI can best be used to help, not hurt.
Kayla Asbach is a writer currently working on her bachelor's degree at the University of Central Florida. She covers relationships, psychology, self-help, pop culture, and human interest topics.
