ChatGPT is gaining the attention of Minnesota educators. Here’s why

The artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT is capable of generating ideas, answering questions and producing complete essays in just seconds — a skill set that it’s easy to imagine students would be interested in using for school.

Minnesota educators have begun considering how this technology could impact learning in schools and universities, with concerns around plagiarism and cheating rising from within academia. Some schools around the country have already issued bans or blocked the site.

The free online tool works by using millions of pages of writing from all over the internet to understand and respond to inquiries from users.

Timothy R. Johnson, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said ChatGPT will likely change the way students are tested and exams are written, to make them more difficult to feed into AI programs.

Johnson said he knows of only knows of one instance when a student used ChatGPT to complete an assignment. He said it was a high school student taking a University of Minnesota class, and the instructor realized it quickly because writing generated by the program is still relatively easy to spot.

ChatGPT’s writing often relies on overused cliches, is unnecessarily wordy, has few citations and makes generalizations, he said.

“When I took a look at the paper, it took me about 10 seconds to realize,” Johnson said.

Educators identify one possible solution

Johnson said this encouraged him to begin experimenting with the technology to learn more about its patterns and limitations.

He said he and other academics are realizing one way to prevent students from using ChatGPT is to create assignments based on current events.

The older the topic, the more writing on the internet ChatGPT can grab from. But using more recent subjects taken from the news makes it harder for the software to generate writing, he said.

“If you were to ask it about the Dobbs decision, that initial day, there would have not been enough on the web to put together a paper,” Johnson said. “But if you waited just one week, I will imagine there would have been enough on the web for it to put together a paper comparing Dobbs and Roe v. Wade.”

Counter software is already available to help educators identify when ChatGPT may have been used. OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT, released an AI classifier tool which can tell when AI may have used to write text. Other similar detection programs like GPTZero are also available.

OpenAI did not respond to MPR News’ request for comment for this story.

Regardless, Johnson said he’s started including text in the syllabi for his courses that says if a student is caught using the program, they’ll fail his class.

Could ChatGPT be a learning tool?

Some educators are trying to incorporate ChatGPT into classroom discussions or use it as a learning tool.

Kathryn Tabke, an English teacher at Shakopee High School in the Health Sciences Academy, said she hasn’t encountered students turning in work produced by ChatGPT yet.

But when she heard students in her AP class talking about the program, she decided to take a closer look at the technology with the class with the hope of helping students realize some of its pitfalls.

They began by asking ChatGPT to generate an essay on “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tabke said her students quickly realized the writing wasn’t very articulate and was even incorrect in some places. She said the ChatGPT essay referenced a romance between two characters in the novel, Jay Gatsby and Jordan Baker, that never took place.

“On the surface, it looks shiny and nice, but it took my students not even two minutes to discover why it's not good writing,” Tabke said. “Then we got into this really wonderful conversation about why one would give up their autonomy or their own creativity and their own thought, and what does that mean for them. If they allowed a computer to do their thinking for them, isn't that giving up their individuality and their humanity?”

Students relying on ChatGPT to produce writing might also be a sign that educators need to better address how reading and writing is taught, Tabke said.

“What's happening to a student that they now desperately need to use something like ChatGPT to write a paper? Is it to hide that they don't have literacy skills? Is it that life is stressful and they just forgot?” Tabke said. “Those are constantly evolving conversations at the school.”

ChatGPT use could be considered academic dishonesty

At the University of Minnesota, language about ChatGPT may eventually be incorporated into official policies on academic dishonesty, said Ken Leopold, a chemistry professor and chair of the Student Academic Integrity Committee.

“The university already has policies around academic dishonesty and I think misuse of ChatGPT would easily fall under existing policy,” Leopold said. “It’s possible that as we get this sorted out, there could end up being some mention of ChatGPT in official policy.”

A 10-page document discussing ChatGPT best practices and impacts recently began circulating among faculty and staff at the University of Minnesota.

The document recommends instructors review their assessment formats and incorporate ChatGPT into a lesson. It says plagiarism checker tools can be used as an “imperfect last resort.”

The document also looks at equity and accessibility when it comes to ChatGPT and AI.

“Regardless of the larger goals for AI and equity, the on-the-ground reality is that AI tools are not yet themselves accessible or unbiased. Whether and how we revise our assessments must take our students’ realities in this moment into account,” the document reads.

While there is concern, Leopold said much of the conversation he’s been involved in has been about how to use ChatGPT in a constructive way. There seems to be an understanding that AI programs are not going to go away, Leopold said.

“While there is certainly some angst about academic integrity, there is also a sense of opportunity in that this technology, if used appropriately, could enhance education,” he said. “People are recognizing that in a few years, students will be using artificial intelligence in their jobs and it is in their interest for us to give them the experience of using it wisely and effectively.”

For Tabke, there has always been a tension between education and technology, and ChatGPT is another example of it.

“As long as we've had schools, you see people trying to find their way through or around things,” Tabke said. “It might get more difficult to spot and we have to be more diligent on it, but at the same time, maybe the bigger conversation is about how we encourage students to really want to think for themselves.”

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