The Impact of ChatGPT on Student learning.

 ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a Chatbot launched on November 30, 2022, by San Francisco-based OpenAI. The company was founded in San Francisco in late 2015 by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, and others. OpenAI LP received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft in 2019 and a second multi-year investment in January 2023, reported to be $10 billion. ChatGPT is a language model that is designed to generate human-like responses to a given prompt. The AI is trained on a large dataset of text worldwide, hence allowing it to understand and respond to a wide variety of inputs. It uses machine learning algorithms such as deep learning to generate text. It works on the principle of “probabilistic language modelling ” thus the model generates a response by selecting the word with the highest probability. ChatGPT is a sophisticated but powerful language model that can generate natural-sounding text responses with high accuracy. This makes it a well-suited tool for a wide range of applications, such as Blogging, essay writing, and creative writing.

  Chat GPT debuted in November 2022 and got quick attention from people and now it’s turned into a viral sensation. Currently, it’s making a revolution in the tech industry because of its ability to generate human-like text ChatGPT is capable of participating in discussions and answering questions in a manner that’s very close to a human and it can carry a conversation through multiple queries in addition to generating software code; definitely, the world of so-called natural language processing is entering a new phase. ChatGPT is Capable of Coming up with Countless original combinations of words, it provides detailed responses to text prompts. Nowadays people are using ChatGPT for various things like writing essays, fictional stories, poems, and even plots of movies, and sometimes it can give a laugh by telling a joke.

Educator’s response to the usage of ChatGPT

Today, the use of ChatGPT by students has become a matter of concern for teachers because the students are using it to write their homework and complete essays for them, endangering students’ willingness to develop skills like writing and researching. This tool allows students to complete homework and assignments without much effort and raises concerns of cheating, academic disintegrity, and, above all, the loss of learning ability. Educators fear that it will make students lazy thinkers, and students will be unable to develop life-long skills like critical thinking, researching, or writing. Moreover, if students use technology to produce text that is not original, it may also be considered plagiarism, which is a serious offence in academic settings. This can have negative consequences for both the student and the institution, as it undermines the integrity of the educational system and the hard work of other students.

Due to concerns about negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content, access to ChatGPT is restricted on New York City Public Schools’ networks and devices. The education department blocked access to the program, citing “negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content”.The chatbot’s ability to churn out pitch-perfect essay responses to prompts spanning a wide range of subjects has sparked fears among some schools and educators that their writing assignments could soon become obsolete — and that the program could encourage cheating and plagiarism. The school and college authorities believe that ChatGPT can generate convincing prose, but that doesn’t mean what it says is factual or logical. It is not ethical to use ChatGPT or any other automated writing tool for school papers, as it is considered cheating and does not benefit the student in the long run. ChatGPT is not a reliable source of information and it can provide inaccurate answers. Experts say that in the future students will be more interested in Chatting with AI rather than paying attention to classes hence ChatGPT imposes a Big question Mark on today’s education system and teaching & learning Process.

In India, the first university to ban ChatGPT is RV University of Bangalore. Their advisory council adopted a policy of “Fair use of AI” for both students and teachers. The advisory also includes a warning regarding disciplinary action against offenders; if someone is found using AI for the assessment, he/she may get expelled from the University campus. This policy was implemented on January 1st. The proclamation against the usage of the bot has been issued by Sanjay Chitnis, dean of the school of computer science and engineering at RV University. They have already started blocking ChatGPT during lab and tutorial sessions. Apart from ChatGPT, the University also bans the usage of other AI bots, such as Github Copilot and Blackbox.

Many other colleges in India are planning to change their assignments and assessment process to prevent the usage of AI tools. Dayananda Sagar University and the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-B) in Karnataka are also looking for alternative methods for curbing Chatbot usage. Christ University (Banglore), is also developing measures to prevent students from using AI tools.  

Don’t Ban ChatGPT, employ it as a pedagogical tool

Absolutely, AI can’t replace human creativity, but it doesn’t mean it has no place in the classroom or education system. Rather than being insecure about the use of ChatGPT by the students, teachers should focus on how this AI would help students to systematically arrange their unorganized thoughts on paper. Teachers should use AI as another pedagogical tool for students. Just like teachers give a grounding in students to send emails and how to do proper research on Google search engine. Educators should compose clear lessons around how the ChatGPT bot can assist with essay writing. Acknowledging AI’s existence and helping students work with it could restructure the teaching and learning process. Teachers should also teach students to give proper and ethically correct instructions to AI rather than Asking AI for a fabricated essay without any idea or thought in mind about how students should focus on the construction of outlines, templates, and instructions by using ChatGPT. Experts say ChatGPT has the potential to offer students a base and skeleton for any writing project.

This chatbot can be used by teachers to showcase to students how to generate prompts to enhance their writing process. These little things will become game-changers for the students to systematically generate ideas. As mentioned earlier, it can provide outlines, and templates for actual writing; thus it will be possible to create a structure for an essay. After this, Al’s algorithms can provide real-time evaluation of students’ writings and it can provide feedback to show students how to improve their writing composition.

Instead of Considering ChatGPT as an apocalyptic shift toward the future, we should focus on how we can make the best out of it. Nowadays technology is evolving fast and we’re the people living in the future. Rather than blocking and banning this new technology, we should work with its astonishing ability to improve writing and research. AI has the potential to greatly assist us in every walk of life. It’s important to note that AI is not a replacement for human creativity and critical thinking. AI can help with the mechanics, but it cannot replace the unique perspective and insights that a human can bring to their work. Artificial intelligence, algorithms, and machine learning are here to stay, and it is our responsibility to accommodate them with virtue.