For the last month or so, I’ve been reading story after story about ChatGPT, the artificial-intelligence bot that writes pretty good essays on request. At least, they are smooth and appear to be somewhat knowledgeable on the topic, although the point of view is leftist if the subject is at all political.
College students have long cheated by plagiarizing and, more recently, turning to services that employ people to write papers for them. Professors have fought against those tactics with some success, but what about this new entrant?
In today’s Martin Center article, Professor Peter Jacobsen argues that the professorial response to ChatGPT could make higher education better.
He writes, “Students will soon have the ability to fake an original essay. And while many academics are horrified by the prospect, I see it as a good opportunity for change in higher ed.”
How should professors respond?
Jacobsen suggests, “Oral exams are an endangered species in higher education today, but they are a powerful tool for evaluating knowledge in a world of AI and portable smart devices. Term papers can be replaced, too, by long final exams with open-ended questions that demand handwritten essays.”
That will mean more work for faculty. Those who do it will find that it helps the students and themselves. (Unfortunately, many will just take the path of least resistance since they get paid the same either way.)
Jacobsen concludes, “Overall, though, many types of assignments made obsolete by AI are useless fluff, ossified by an industry that lacks dynamism. I, for one, am happy to see those things go.”