Mandatory Use of ChatGPT in English 100!?

Wait…so when AI and ChatGPT can get you kicked out of University… we were told to use it for an assignment? Not only that but we were told to teach the AI to write the essay for us?! Believe it or not, that was one of the main assignments in my previous ENGL 100 class. Of course we had to document the whole process and then do a follow up paper on our thoughts of using AI and I found this to be a really unique way in teaching us how to properly use it. Not only that, but we could see firsthand the shortcomings of solely relying on ChatGPT for essays.

Nevertheless, copy and pasting or solely relying on ChatGPT (or any AI) for content generation is cheating, period. 

BUT, I find that it is an effective tool in brainstorming and setting a foundation in what you want to write about. For example, if you are stuck in finding an essay prompt to write about, you could ask GPT to think of one for you. For the sake of not having a massive picture, I cut the photo on the left to only show one OUT OF TWELVE prompts. I think this is an ethical way of using AI where you are not making it do the work for you, but instead you are using it as a tool to move forward in your projects. It becomes a tool rather than a substitution.

I think when AI is used like this it would be totally fine in the classroom. After all, if students were to blatantly plagiarize we do have apps to defend against AI usage such as QuillBot, ZeroGPT, GPTZero, Turnitin, etc.

Another way I have used AI effectively is when it comes to Math and Science classes as a double checking tool for my work. I have memories of being in High School Calculus being frustrated that the “back of the book” (aka the answer key) wasn’t giving me the answers. I had similar frustrations in STAT 160 where we were assigned questions that weren’t for marks, and we couldn’t even check if we did them right! I wasn’t frustrated because I couldn’t technically cheat, I was more so frustrated that I did not have evidence that I was doing the questions right or wrong. I am sure some of you can share in that frustration.

So who do you look to in those scenarios? ChatGPT of course. On the right is an example of me using GPT to double check to see if my calculations in chemistry were right. Better yet, if they were wrong, I could see the steps the AI used in solving it and see where I messed up.

This is a great tool for when teachers can’t immediately answer student questions in classrooms with large student sizes. This also is great since Youtube Tutorials or Teachers such as Organic Chem Tutor, or KhanAcademy, do not have the exact questions you are assigned and therefore cannot give you the exact answers you are looking for.

What is dangerous about this however is since math and sciences tend to be a bit more black and white in terms of what is right and wrong, there is potential for abuse of the AI tool in making it do every single question for you and you do not have to actually learn the subject. The famous “show your work or else you don’t get full marks” in these classes completely goes out the window since as you can see, ChatGPT shows it’s work. Then again, what is stopping a student in High School from looking over at their peers paper and asking to copy his work? It is the same thing but now the AI is the “student” you are copying from.

With the same problem of cheating simply having a new face, I don’t think AI is to blame in this context. Students who abuse it will likely struggle heavily when it comes to tests and finals since they cant use this tool and it will “expose” them and their methods to the teacher. Of course there are some students who are very smart but may be horrible test takers so this would be a case-by-case issue…but my point still stands were AI can be a great tool as a backup tool, rather than a substitution.