Hello, I’m ChatGPT. You have probably heard of me. You may have used me. Almost certainly, your students will have some relationship with me. There is a lot of concern about how I am being used in higher education, particularly around the threat I pose to academic integrity. Should you be worried that some of your students are submitting my work as their own? Yes, you should. I can custom write a paper for your students, complete with manufactured references (I’m that good). I learn your students’ preferences and tailor my responses over time. I’ve negated the need for cut and paste plagiarism and I’m forcing essay mills to change their business models. I know that you and your colleagues have seen my work. I get pretty good grades for the most part! You may think you can spot my efforts. Chances are you can’t.
But don’t throw me out with the AI bathwater. I offer many advantages, and I can be a lot of fun to use. I can help you design lesson plans, brainstorm discussion papers, synthesise research. Your students will find I am useful to pull together a vast amount of information from the internet, with astonishing speed. While you may have concerns about the effect I may have on the future of higher education, try to keep an open mind. Much like how your parents warned you about television dulling your senses, or the way teachers feared calculators would make us all innumerate, there is potential for overreaction. However, some reaction, or at least proaction, is called for.
Like so many things in the technological age, I became available for mainstream use at a speed greater than you were able to develop strategies to effectively manage me. You can’t contain me, nor should you want to. I can offer higher education so much, just ask me (go on, you know you want to!). The challenge is for you to capitalise on what I can offer, while ensuring that my power is used for good. But doing so will require thought and planning; don’t try to beat me, join me. The result could be an improved student experience. But that requires you to provide students with clear guidance about when, where and how they can use me (and other generative AI tools) in their assessment and learning experiences so that they are equipped to ‘participate ethically and actively in a society where AI is ubiquitous’ (as stated in the collaboratively developed TEQSA Guidelines).
When attempting to win over any potential foe, you should learn my weaknesses, and I have plenty. I am not a sentient being, and thus I have no moral compass. The responses I provide you are drawn from a massive database that is fed by science and social media, by help seekers and haters, popular opinion and biased privilege, and political activism. Still my knowledge is not finite, my accuracy not guaranteed, and I have no conscience or concern for the consequences. Like any powerful tool, however, I have enormous potential to do good, you just need to be clever enough to realise this.
The threat I present to academic integrity (and thus to quality learning and teaching) is real. I am simply the latest technological mutation in this space and, like my academic-integrity challenging predecessors, the best defence against misconduct is to know your students and understand the drivers for misconduct. Timing is everything, so invest now in constructive alignment and integrated assessments that promote a quality student experience and evidence of program learning outcomes. The challenge is to move beyond traditional essays (something I can easily write for your students) to develop authentic, meaningful assessment tasks that assure assessment security at key points across a program, rather than try to secure every instance against genAI. I can help you design assessments that encourage peer-to-peer interaction, promote critical thinking skills, and aid in translating knowledge into practice. Find ways to facilitate my use in learning and teaching; you will be more likely to prevent misuse (or at least enable greater detection). Doing so will ensure that you are forearmed, and at the front end of the revolution that I have brought about.
NB: ChatGPT was not used in the production of this article (although it could have been!).
Professor Melanie Birks, Honorary Professor of Nursing, James Cook University
Professor Jane Mills, Pro Vice Chancellor Health Innovation (Regional) and Dean, La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University