ChatGPT: Educationists divided over benefits, some say it can disincentivise learning

ChatGPT has been in the news for reportedly aiding in creating malware and composing email texts for phishing campaigns, making it a new cyber threat to deal with (Image Courtesy: Nurphoto via Getty Images)

ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence tool that can perform tasks ranging from answering questions to writing fiction and non-fiction, has divided educationists over whether it is useful or “dangerous” for learning.

The technology is extraordinary, but it's not perfect. It’s “dangerous and disruptive,” Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda pointed out to Moneycontrol.

Educationists said ChatGPT can create personalised lesson plans and assignments, design viva questions, and develop curricula, research articles and other instructional support material.

“However, the major challenge that ChatGPT poses for students and faculty is the potential for plagiarism,” said Dr Aaquil Bunglowala, associate dean of the School of Technology, Management and Engineering at NMIMS. He said the text generated by ChatGPT can make it difficult for a teacher to figure out whether an essay was written by a machine or a student.

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Others advocate the use of ChatGPT to teach students how to think critically.

Prajodh Rajan, cofounder of Lighthouse Learning (formerly EuroKids International) said ChatGPT is without doubt beneficial for students to participate in and learn about subjects such as robotics, AI, Internet of Things, 3D printing, and design thinking.

“This will enable educators and students to deep dive into the digital world and better understand other facets of the available material,” he added.

Cognitive abilities

The differences over the role of ChatGPT in education is only one aspect of the AI tool, which also has its limitations. Recently, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, tested how the chatbot would perform in an MBA exam.

Christian Terwiesch asked ChatGPT questions about a core MBA subject – operations management. His first observation was that ChatGPT did “an amazing job” at answering questions related to basic operations management and process analysis, including those that were based on case studies.

However, he also noted that sometimes, ChatGPT made “surprising” mistakes in school-level maths, which could be “massive” in magnitude. The professor also said ChatGPT cannot handle more complex questions related to process analysis. Based on the chatbot's test performance, the professor said it would have received a B to B- grade.

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Sanjay Goel, director at JK Lakshmipat University, noted that the AI-powered chatbot does not possess personal experience, emotions, opinions, beliefs, preferences, or the ability to think or reflect. They respond based on patterns and correlations learned from its training data.

For instance, he said it would amount to cheating if students use the tool to submit assignments when original work or creativity is expected from them.

“In this way, the use of such tools can hinder the natural cognitive abilities of the students and obstruct their learning process,” Goel said.

Aarul Malviya, founder of edtech firm Zamit, said the tech would disincentivise learning through original thinking and children may become “lazy thinkers” and not use their cognitive faculties to the best of their ability.

Regardless of its potential, he would refrain from calling it a game-changer for the education system because it is still early days.

“We don't know whether the positives would outweigh the negatives for students and the education system in the long run,” he said.

Different approach

In an experiment, ChatGPT just barely passed all three parts of the US Medical Licensing Examination, a standardised test for medical students and graduates seeking licensure to practise medicine.

“The buzz about ChatGPT being used by students to cheat or solve assignments is a cause of concern but at the same time, if used effectively, it could also prove to be a teaching aid,” said Sami Anand, deputy dean at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar.

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It can act as a teaching tool in certain ways. Students can use ChatGPT for assignments or tasks. For example, Anand explained that students can get an AI-recommended solution for a problem and then either negate the solution or try comparing two different solutions – one generated through AI and the other one by a human.

Experts said one can’t stop technology from advancing.

“There will always be pros and cons to technology. Its impact depends on how we use it. We must adapt and evolve with technology,” said Avinash S Vaidya, a professor at Hyderabad-based KL Deemed to be University.

He said tech can be used in the grading of assignments, personalised feedback or tutoring of students and providing supplementary study materials.