can chatgpt help with assignments

Outsmart ChatGPT: 8 Tips for Creating Assignments It Can’t Do

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Since the latest version of ChatGPT emerged late last year, educators have been puzzling over how to reconcile traditional writing instruction with tech that can churn out everything from essays to haikus with uncanny sophistication.

Some educators contend ChatGPT can be a learning tool, while others say it’s more likely to be used as a cheating tool. In fact, more than a quarter of teachers say they’ve caught students using ChatGPT to cheat, according to a survey from Study.com, an online learning platform .

That raises the question: Can educators remove students’ temptation to use ChatGPT and other so-called “large language models” to plagiarize by coming up with assignments that the ChatGPT won’t be able to handle? If yes, what might those assignments look like?

We asked educators and experts on all sides of the broader debates about ChatGPT to give us some strategies for AI-proofing assignments. Here’s what they told us:

1. Ask students to write about something deeply personal

Consider having students delve into their scariest moment, the biggest challenge they ever overcame, or even answer a quirky personal question: Would you rather be the bucket or the sand?

It’s difficult at this point for AI to fake highly personal writing, said Joshua Rosenberg, an assistant professor of STEM education at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. (For the record, Rosenberg thinks it’s valuable for teachers to incorporate AI writing tools into some assignments.)

To be sure, even with these personal essays, students “could make it up,” acknowledged Kristin Daley Conti, a 7th grade science teacher at Tantasqua Junior High School in Massachusetts. But most of her middle schoolers are too eager to share their stories to outsource the job to AI, she explained. “They like to center things around themselves,” she said.

One wrinkle: Writing only about personal heroes or big life challenges isn’t as effective as other types of assignments for teaching students the reasoning and critical thinking skills that good writers must master, said Michelle Brown, the founder and CEO of CommonLit, an online reading program.

“I cringe a little bit at the idea that we will overcorrect and make a lot of writing personal,” she said. “What makes writing instruction good is that you’re synthesizing complex information from a complex text or complex sources. So, if we’re trying to make our assignments ChatGPT-proof that could be one way, but I worry about the consequences on student learning.”

2. Center a writing assignment around an issue specific to the local community

ChatGPT doesn’t have a strong background in hyperlocal issues, though that is likely to change as the tool becomes more sophisticated, experts say. But for now, educators may be able to minimize how much help ChatGPT can be on a particular assignment by grounding it in the school community—maybe even by asking students to write about a new school rule or the student council election.

Teachers could also ask their students to connect information about the water quality in a nearby pond the class studied to global patterns in environmental conservation. “There probably just isn’t a lot of data” available online about such a small body of water, Rosenberg said.

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3. Direct students to write about a very recent news event

At this point, ChatGPT can’t capture much information about things that happened just days earlier, Rosenberg said. Teachers could ask students to compare a very recent news event to a historical one, say the balloon that was reportedly sent by the Chinese government to spy on the United States with the Cuban missile crisis.

While ChatGPT may be able to spit out some sort of answer, it is likely to be muddled, Rosenberg said. “The model might generate just factually wrong things about time-sensitive events,” he said. “That can be a good cue to teachers that something’s fishy.”

4. Have students show or explain their work

In math class, students usually show how they arrived at a particular answer to get credit for solving a problem. That concept could apply to writing, Rosenberg said. For instance, teachers could prompt students to detail their brainstorming process, explaining why they choose to write about a particular topic.

Teachers could also ask questions such as: “How did you decide to structure your paper this way? Did you just start writing or did you think ‘my first paragraph is going to be on this and then my second paragraph on this?’” Rosenberg said. “That could just hold students a little bit more accountable for their process of writing.”

On a similar note, two literacy focused technology nonprofits, CommonLit and Quill, would love to see developers come up with new technology that analyzes keystrokes or various versions of a draft to decide whether a particular piece of writing was produced by a human or a robot, a more sophisticated process-based approach to discouraging cheating.

5. Ask students to give an oral presentation, along with the written work

One way to make this work: Ask students to record themselves on a video platform such as FlipGrid, talking about their essay, story, report, or other assignment, Daley Conti, the middle school science teacher, suggested.

That could deter cheaters. And it would provide students who did get help from AI in completing their assignment with an incentive to at least learn the content. “Even if they did get it from ChatGPT, they would have had to read it, digest it, and then talk about it,” Daley Conti said.

6. Return to a pre-digital age and ask students to handwrite their essays in class

This low-tech solution seems obvious. And it might be the most surefire way to make certain that students aren’t getting help from AI or even their parents or other students in the class.

Sal Khan, founder of one of the most prominent education technology tools, Khan Academy, sees value in having students do their writing the old-fashioned way , even as he thinks K-12 schools should help students learn to write using ChatGPT as well.

“One mitigation, which isn’t a bad idea, is to have students do more writing in class periods, in front of you,” Khan said in an interview. “I think it’s a good idea to do more of your actual writing and workshopping in class. The best writing classes are the ones where it’s like a real writers’ workshop, and kids are writing all the time. And the teacher and peers are giving each other feedback.”

7. Put project-based learning to work

Teachers could lean towards big, multi-disciplinary projects that an AI essay “isn’t going to be an appropriate measure of,” said Joseph South, the chief learning officer for the International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit.

For instance, he said, several school districts explored water quality in different parts of the country for a social studies course, looking at different policies in different states and cities. They tested the water in their own communities, looking for contaminates. Then they created graphs and charts showing the impact of local policies on local water supplies, and presented their findings.

“ChatGPT was never going to do that project for them,” South said. “It’d be impossible to cheat on that project with it. And the kids didn’t want to cheat because they were doing something really cool and interesting and relevant to their lives.”

If students are “taking pride in their work, they don’t want a robot to write it,” he said.

8. Run the assignment through ChatGPT before giving it to students

Maybe asking students for their take on a local issue—the school board election, perhaps—is one way to get around the power of ChatGPT. One hiccup: If users point ChatGPT to specific sources, it will use them in crafting a response to a prompt. So, if students put in links to a few articles in the local newspaper about the election, the tech may produce a surprisingly sophisticated take.

Teachers hoping to come up with assignments the tool can’t handle should keep that in mind, said Peter Gault, the founder and executive director of Quill, a literacy-focused technology nonprofit. “The trick is if you could say read this article, and then give a link and then do it and then see how it performs,” he said.

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How you should—and shouldn’t—use ChatGPT as a student

February 16, 2023

It’s the new artificial intelligence tool everyone’s talking about—a chatbot designed to change how we write. But if you ask it for help on your uni assessments, is that considered cheating? Let’s see what the universities are saying.

As a uni student, you’ve probably heard all the debates about ChatGPT . This ground-breaking conversational chatbot can answer any question, write whole paragraphs in seconds, and analyse problems in a remarkably human-like way. 

It’s an exciting invention, because it will revolutionise the way we interact with computers. But there’s a lot of controversy around the tool too. For a start, some students have realised ChatGPT could write their assessments for them.  

Obviously, this isn’t great. Universities all agree this is a form of cheating, and students giving this a go are opening themselves up to serious academic penalties. They’re also not forming any original opinions in their future area of expertise and turning in some pretty poorly written assignments. 

But there’s no denying AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper and Grammarly are here to stay. And they can be genuinely helpful in your school and working life, if you use them correctly.  

So how can you lean on artificial intelligence during your studies, without crossing any ethical lines? Here are some helpful dos and don’ts to guide you, based on what we see different universities doing. We even asked ChatGPT for help with this article, just to show you how it can be done.

ChatGPT dos

Do ask for research guidance before writing an essay.

Getting started is often the hardest part when you’re writing an essay or prepping for an exam. Some universities suggest using ChatGPT as a remedy for your procrastination. You can ask the tool where you should kick off your research on a particular topic, and it will point you to relevant resources. 

As an example, when we asked: “ What academic resources could I use to research the ethics of artificial intelligence for university students? ” it came back with a list of industry journals, books and websites that should be accessible through a university library login. Talk about a time saver!

Do use it when brainstorming

Universities like Flinders University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of South Australia will allow students to use ChatGPT as a writing prompter for assignments , if they disclose it. The benefit to this approach is that you get a jumping off point, but you still need to build your own argument and do the critical thinking.

To give you an idea of this in action, we asked the tool: &ldquo\I have to write an essay about the ethics of artificial intelligence tools in the academic world. Can you give me some thought starters to help direct my writing?”

It gave us 6 possible directions to take things. One answer was: “ Definition of AI in the academic context: Start by defining AI and its different forms and applications in the academic world. Discuss how AI tools are increasingly being used in various academic fields and the potential benefits they offer .” 

Do ask questions about study material you don’t understand

Some universities recognise the value of ChatGPT as a student support service. It can instantly explain topics you’re unsure about, which could save you from needing to email your tutor every time you have a question. If there’s an academic term or piece of jargon you don’t recognise in an assessment, you can ask ChatGPT to summarise it for you in plain speak. 

Do use it to proofread your work

The tool can also proofread your final draft for grammatical errors, issues with your sentence structure and readability, and provide suggestions for improvement. This is similar to what AI-powered writing assistant Grammarly does. This is an ethical approach some unis prefer because it encourages you to make your work better, but you have to take the next steps. 

Do cite any AI assistance in your reference list

If you do use an AI tool for idea or text generation, it's almost guaranteed your uni will want you to cite it as a source in your final references. While most referencing styles don’t have a format for ChatGPT usage yet, your tutors will have a recommendation around how to handle it. The University of Queensland  suggests using the reference style you would use for personal correspondence . 

Rules around this will change as the technology evolves, so be sure to keep up to date with your university’s academic integrity policy (more on this below). 

ChatGPT don’ts

Don’t ask ai software to write essays for you.

The fact is, if you ask ChatGPT to write an assessment for you, that’s a form of plagiarism. And your teachers will figure out what you’re doing. 

Universities are already coming up with new measures to identify AI-generated text. Plagiarism detection software like Turnitin is being upgraded to tackle this issue, while a new tool called AICheatCheck has been developed specifically in response to AI cheating in Australia. 

While AI-generated text might sound passable to the untrained eye, it lacks personality, insight and, sometimes, logic. ChatGPT itself says that, “ As an AI language model, I'm not designed to replace human writers. My language capabilities are limited to what I have been trained on and I do not have the ability to generate new ideas or insights that come from human experiences and perspectives .” 

Qualified university tutors grade hundreds of assessments every year. They’ll be able to tell that your language patterns are robotic. And the consequences you face when getting caught aren’t worth the risk.

Don’t blindly trust AI-generated information

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has been upfront about the fact that ChatGPT’s answers aren’t always accurate. Sometimes, the chatbot straight up lies. When Marcel Salathe, a digital epidemiologist, asked the tool to give him a list of epidemiology references, the bot invented some . After he challenged this, ChatGPT responded, “ I can only provide information based on the text I have been trained on... I am not able to detect when my responses are incorrect or out-of-date .” 

In other words, don’t rely on ChatGPT as a primary source of information. Check multiple sources to verify what it tells you. 

Don’t do anything that violates your university’s academic integrity policy

Finally, it’s crucial to remember that different universities have different stances on AI tools. Some will encourage you to use ChatGPT as a resource, while others may ban it altogether. You should familiarise yourself with your uni’s academic integrity policy to see what side of the fence it sits on. This policy outlines what counts as academic misconduct and plagiarism. You’ll generally find it on your university’s website or learning management system if you’re an online student. 

It’s important not to violate this policy when writing an assessment, because you could face serious academic penalties if caught, like a failing grade or termination of your enrolment. And no one wants that! 

Consider how ChatGPT will be used in the real world

Controversial or not, we have to face the truth: AI tools like ChatGPT will have their place in the future of work. Some fields like marketing, justice and healthcare are already testing how this innovation could make certain tasks easier. 

Provided you're following the rules set out by your university, it can’t hurt to experiment with the tool now, so you’re familiar with its ethical applications. ChatGPT could support and even boost your career in unexpected ways. It’s all about how you use it. 

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3 ways to use ChatGPT to help students learn – and not cheat

Professor of Educational Psychology and Learning Technologies, The Ohio State University

Professor of Educational Psychology and Quantitative Research, Evaluation, and Measurement, The Ohio State University

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Since ChatGPT can engage in conversation and generate essays, computer codes, charts and graphs that closely resemble those created by humans, educators worry students may use it to cheat . A growing number of school districts across the country have decided to block access to ChatGPT on computers and networks.

As professors of educational psychology and educational technology , we’ve found that the main reason students cheat is their academic motivation. For example, sometimes students are just motivated to get a high grade, whereas other times they are motivated to learn all that they can about a topic.

The decision to cheat or not, therefore, often relates to how academic assignments and tests are constructed and assessed, not on the availability of technological shortcuts. When they have the opportunity to rewrite an essay or retake a test if they don’t do well initially, students are less likely to cheat .

We believe teachers can use ChatGPT to increase their students’ motivation for learning and actually prevent cheating. Here are three strategies for doing that.

1. Treat ChatGPT as a learning partner

Our research demonstrates that students are more likely to cheat when assignments are designed in ways that encourage them to outperform their classmates. In contrast, students are less likely to cheat when teachers assign academic tasks that prompt them to work collaboratively and to focus on mastering content instead of getting a good grade.

Treating ChatGPT as a learning partner can help teachers shift the focus among their students from competition and performance to collaboration and mastery.

For example, a science teacher can assign students to work with ChatGPT to design a hydroponic vegetable garden. In this scenario, students could engage with ChatGPT to discuss the growing requirements for vegetables, brainstorm design ideas for a hydroponic system and analyze pros and cons of the design.

These activities are designed to promote mastery of content as they focus on the processes of learning rather than just the final grade.

2. Use ChatGPT to boost confidence

Research shows that when students feel confident that they can successfully do the work assigned to them, they are less likely to cheat . And an important way to boost students’ confidence is to provide them with opportunities to experience success .

ChatGPT can facilitate such experiences by offering students individualized support and breaking down complex problems into smaller challenges or tasks.

For example, suppose students are asked to attempt to design a hypothetical vehicle that can use gasoline more efficiently than a traditional car. Students who struggle with the project – and might be inclined to cheat – can use ChatGPT to break down the larger problem into smaller tasks. ChatGPT might suggest they first develop an overall concept for the vehicle before determining the size and weight of the vehicle and deciding what type of fuel will be used. Teachers could also ask students to compare the steps suggested by ChatGPT with steps that are recommended by other sources.

3. Prompt ChatGPT to give supportive feedback

It is well documented that personalized feedback supports students’ positive emotions, including self-confidence.

ChatGPT can be directed to deliver feedback using positive, empathetic and encouraging language. For example, if a student completes a math problem incorrectly, instead of merely telling the student “You are wrong and the correct answer is …,” ChatGPT may initiate a conversation with the student. Here’s a real response generated by ChatGPT: “Your answer is not correct, but it’s completely normal to encounter occasional errors or misconceptions along the way. Don’t be discouraged by this small setback; you’re on the right track! I’m here to support you and answer any questions you may have. You’re doing great!”

This will help students feel supported and understood while receiving feedback for improvement. Teachers can easily show students how to direct ChatGPT to provide them such feedback.

We believe that when teachers use ChatGPT and other AI chatbots thoughtfully – and also encourage students to use these tools responsibly in their schoolwork – students have an incentive to learn more and cheat less.

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Should I Use ChatGPT to Write My Essays?

Everything high school and college students need to know about using — and not using — ChatGPT for writing essays.

Jessica A. Kent

ChatGPT is one of the most buzzworthy technologies today.

In addition to other generative artificial intelligence (AI) models, it is expected to change the world. In academia, students and professors are preparing for the ways that ChatGPT will shape education, and especially how it will impact a fundamental element of any course: the academic essay.

Students can use ChatGPT to generate full essays based on a few simple prompts. But can AI actually produce high quality work, or is the technology just not there yet to deliver on its promise? Students may also be asking themselves if they should use AI to write their essays for them and what they might be losing out on if they did.

AI is here to stay, and it can either be a help or a hindrance depending on how you use it. Read on to become better informed about what ChatGPT can and can’t do, how to use it responsibly to support your academic assignments, and the benefits of writing your own essays.

What is Generative AI?

Artificial intelligence isn’t a twenty-first century invention. Beginning in the 1950s, data scientists started programming computers to solve problems and understand spoken language. AI’s capabilities grew as computer speeds increased and today we use AI for data analysis, finding patterns, and providing insights on the data it collects.

But why the sudden popularity in recent applications like ChatGPT? This new generation of AI goes further than just data analysis. Instead, generative AI creates new content. It does this by analyzing large amounts of data — GPT-3 was trained on 45 terabytes of data, or a quarter of the Library of Congress — and then generating new content based on the patterns it sees in the original data.

It’s like the predictive text feature on your phone; as you start typing a new message, predictive text makes suggestions of what should come next based on data from past conversations. Similarly, ChatGPT creates new text based on past data. With the right prompts, ChatGPT can write marketing content, code, business forecasts, and even entire academic essays on any subject within seconds.

But is generative AI as revolutionary as people think it is, or is it lacking in real intelligence?

The Drawbacks of Generative AI

It seems simple. You’ve been assigned an essay to write for class. You go to ChatGPT and ask it to write a five-paragraph academic essay on the topic you’ve been assigned. You wait a few seconds and it generates the essay for you!

But ChatGPT is still in its early stages of development, and that essay is likely not as accurate or well-written as you’d expect it to be. Be aware of the drawbacks of having ChatGPT complete your assignments.

It’s not intelligence, it’s statistics

One of the misconceptions about AI is that it has a degree of human intelligence. However, its intelligence is actually statistical analysis, as it can only generate “original” content based on the patterns it sees in already existing data and work.

It “hallucinates”

Generative AI models often provide false information — so much so that there’s a term for it: “AI hallucination.” OpenAI even has a warning on its home screen , saying that “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.” This may be due to gaps in its data, or because it lacks the ability to verify what it’s generating. 

It doesn’t do research  

If you ask ChatGPT to find and cite sources for you, it will do so, but they could be inaccurate or even made up.

This is because AI doesn’t know how to look for relevant research that can be applied to your thesis. Instead, it generates content based on past content, so if a number of papers cite certain sources, it will generate new content that sounds like it’s a credible source — except it likely may not be.

There are data privacy concerns

When you input your data into a public generative AI model like ChatGPT, where does that data go and who has access to it? 

Prompting ChatGPT with original research should be a cause for concern — especially if you’re inputting study participants’ personal information into the third-party, public application. 

JPMorgan has restricted use of ChatGPT due to privacy concerns, Italy temporarily blocked ChatGPT in March 2023 after a data breach, and Security Intelligence advises that “if [a user’s] notes include sensitive data … it enters the chatbot library. The user no longer has control over the information.”

It is important to be aware of these issues and take steps to ensure that you’re using the technology responsibly and ethically. 

It skirts the plagiarism issue

AI creates content by drawing on a large library of information that’s already been created, but is it plagiarizing? Could there be instances where ChatGPT “borrows” from previous work and places it into your work without citing it? Schools and universities today are wrestling with this question of what’s plagiarism and what’s not when it comes to AI-generated work.

To demonstrate this, one Elon University professor gave his class an assignment: Ask ChatGPT to write an essay for you, and then grade it yourself. 

“Many students expressed shock and dismay upon learning the AI could fabricate bogus information,” he writes, adding that he expected some essays to contain errors, but all of them did. 

His students were disappointed that “major tech companies had pushed out AI technology without ensuring that the general population understands its drawbacks” and were concerned about how many embraced such a flawed tool.

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How to Use AI as a Tool to Support Your Work

As more students are discovering, generative AI models like ChatGPT just aren’t as advanced or intelligent as they may believe. While AI may be a poor option for writing your essay, it can be a great tool to support your work.

Generate ideas for essays

Have ChatGPT help you come up with ideas for essays. For example, input specific prompts, such as, “Please give me five ideas for essays I can write on topics related to WWII,” or “Please give me five ideas for essays I can write comparing characters in twentieth century novels.” Then, use what it provides as a starting point for your original research.

Generate outlines

You can also use ChatGPT to help you create an outline for an essay. Ask it, “Can you create an outline for a five paragraph essay based on the following topic” and it will create an outline with an introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion, and a suggested thesis statement. Then, you can expand upon the outline with your own research and original thought.

Generate titles for your essays

Titles should draw a reader into your essay, yet they’re often hard to get right. Have ChatGPT help you by prompting it with, “Can you suggest five titles that would be good for a college essay about [topic]?”

The Benefits of Writing Your Essays Yourself

Asking a robot to write your essays for you may seem like an easy way to get ahead in your studies or save some time on assignments. But, outsourcing your work to ChatGPT can negatively impact not just your grades, but your ability to communicate and think critically as well. It’s always the best approach to write your essays yourself.

Create your own ideas

Writing an essay yourself means that you’re developing your own thoughts, opinions, and questions about the subject matter, then testing, proving, and defending those thoughts. 

When you complete school and start your career, projects aren’t simply about getting a good grade or checking a box, but can instead affect the company you’re working for — or even impact society. Being able to think for yourself is necessary to create change and not just cross work off your to-do list.

Building a foundation of original thinking and ideas now will help you carve your unique career path in the future.

Develop your critical thinking and analysis skills

In order to test or examine your opinions or questions about a subject matter, you need to analyze a problem or text, and then use your critical thinking skills to determine the argument you want to make to support your thesis. Critical thinking and analysis skills aren’t just necessary in school — they’re skills you’ll apply throughout your career and your life.

Improve your research skills

Writing your own essays will train you in how to conduct research, including where to find sources, how to determine if they’re credible, and their relevance in supporting or refuting your argument. Knowing how to do research is another key skill required throughout a wide variety of professional fields.

Learn to be a great communicator

Writing an essay involves communicating an idea clearly to your audience, structuring an argument that a reader can follow, and making a conclusion that challenges them to think differently about a subject. Effective and clear communication is necessary in every industry.

Be impacted by what you’re learning about : 

Engaging with the topic, conducting your own research, and developing original arguments allows you to really learn about a subject you may not have encountered before. Maybe a simple essay assignment around a work of literature, historical time period, or scientific study will spark a passion that can lead you to a new major or career.

Resources to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills

While there are many rewards to writing your essays yourself, the act of writing an essay can still be challenging, and the process may come easier for some students than others. But essay writing is a skill that you can hone, and students at Harvard Summer School have access to a number of on-campus and online resources to assist them.

Students can start with the Harvard Summer School Writing Center , where writing tutors can offer you help and guidance on any writing assignment in one-on-one meetings. Tutors can help you strengthen your argument, clarify your ideas, improve the essay’s structure, and lead you through revisions. 

The Harvard libraries are a great place to conduct your research, and its librarians can help you define your essay topic, plan and execute a research strategy, and locate sources. 

Finally, review the “ The Harvard Guide to Using Sources ,” which can guide you on what to cite in your essay and how to do it. Be sure to review the “Tips For Avoiding Plagiarism” on the “ Resources to Support Academic Integrity ” webpage as well to help ensure your success.

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The Future of AI in the Classroom

ChatGPT and other generative AI models are here to stay, so it’s worthwhile to learn how you can leverage the technology responsibly and wisely so that it can be a tool to support your academic pursuits. However, nothing can replace the experience and achievement gained from communicating your own ideas and research in your own academic essays.

About the Author

Jessica A. Kent is a freelance writer based in Boston, Mass. and a Harvard Extension School alum. Her digital marketing content has been featured on Fast Company, Forbes, Nasdaq, and other industry websites; her essays and short stories have been featured in North American Review, Emerson Review, Writer’s Bone, and others.

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February 10, 2023

How ChatGPT Can Improve Education, Not Threaten It

A professor explains why he is allowing students to incorporate ChatGPT into their writing process instead of banning the new technology

By John Villasenor

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To read the news, the sanctity of everything from college application essays to graduate school tests to medical licensing exams is imperiled by easy access to advanced artificial intelligence like ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that can produce remarkably clear, long-form answers to complex questions. Educators in particular worry about students turning to ChatGPT to help them complete assignments. One proposed solution is to roll back the clock to the 20th century, making students write exam essays using pen and paper, without the use of any Internet-connected electronic devices. The University of California, Los Angeles, where I teach, is considering making it an honor code violation to use ChatGPT for taking an exam or writing a paper.

That’s the wrong approach. This semester, I am telling the students in my class at the UCLA School of Law that they are free to use ChatGPT in their writing assignments. The time when a person had to be a good writer to produce good writing ended in late 2022, and we need to adapt. Rather than banning students from using labor-saving and time-saving AI writing tools, we should teach students to use them ethically and productively.

To remain competitive throughout their careers, students need to learn how to prompt an AI writing tool to elicit worthwhile output and know how to evaluate its quality, accuracy and originality. They need to learn to compose well-organized, coherent essays involving a mix of AI-generated text and traditional writing. As professionals working into the 2060s and beyond, they will need to learn how to engage productively with AI systems, using them to both complement and enhance human creativity with the extraordinary power promised by mid-21st-century AI.

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In addition to the sound pedagogical reasons for treating ChatGPT as an opportunity and not a threat, there are practical ones as well. It simply isn’t feasible to effectively ban access to this technology. Honor code or not, many students will be unable to resist the temptation to seek AI assistance with their writing. And how would an educational institution enforce a ChatGPT ban? While there are tools aimed at detecting text produced by AI, future versions of AI will get better at emulating human writing—including to the point of emulating the style of the particular person who is using it. In the resulting arms race, the AI writing tools will always be one step ahead of the tools to detect AI text.

Enforcement of a ChatGPT ban would also inevitably produce the injustice of false positives and false negatives. Some students who use ChatGPT despite a ban would, through luck or thanks to careful-enough editing of AI-generated text, avoid having their writing flagged as AI-assisted. Worse, some students would be falsely accused of using ChatGPT, triggering enormous stress and potentially leading to punishment for a wrong they did not commit.

And what of the argument that learning to write well provides benefits that go well beyond writing? Writing a good essay from scratch requires careful, often painstaking, thought about organization, flow and communication. Learning to write without AI does indeed promote focused, disciplined thinking. But learning to successfully combine unassisted and AI-assisted writing to create truly good essays also requires these qualities.

Writing is a craft worthy of enormous respect, one which few of us ever master. But most students don’t aspire to become professional writers. Instead, they are preparing for careers where they will write to further goals beyond the production of writing. As we do today, they will write to communicate, explain, convince, memorialize, request and persuade. AI writing tools, when properly used, will help them do those things better.

When I was a middle and high school student in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was told that professional success required good “penmanship” and the ability to perform long division by hand. By the time I entered the professional workforce in the late 1980s, technology advances had rendered those skills obsolete. Education culture can be very slow to change, as evidenced by the fact that many schools today still force children to learn long division—a task they will never have to perform anywhere outside of school. With AI writing, educators should stay ahead of the technology curve, as opposed to lagging decades behind it.

The upshot: I am helping my students to prepare for a future in which AI is simply another technology tool as opposed to a novelty. I am also telling them that they are solely and fully responsible for the writing they turn in bearing their name. If it’s factually inaccurate, that’s on them. If it’s badly organized, that’s on them. If it’s stylistically or logically inconsistent, that’s on them. If it’s partially plagiarized, that means that they have committed plagiarism.

In short, I’m encouraging my students to become responsible, aware users of the AI technologies that will play a profoundly important role over the course of their careers. The AI writing, so to speak, is on the wall.

This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of  Scientific American.

How to use ChatGPT to support teachers: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Tracy wilichowski, cristóbal cobo.

ChatGPT 3.5 – an artificial-intelligence (AI) chatbot – has been around since November 2022. To say it has the potential to revolutionize education systems is an understatement. Currently, it’s unclear exactly how the chatbot will affect the sector, but it’s clear it is both a threat and a gamechanger. There are the skeptics, who have tried to ban ChatGPT in schools , and the advocates, who think it is the “silver bullet” solution to a host of education challenges around the world.

To the skeptics’ point that the chatbot is detrimental to the learning process, it's fair to say it has and will continue to disrupt the most traditional learning tools teachers have used for decades (e.g., writing and revising essays). What follows is an uncomfortable question: With a shortage of 69 million primary and secondary teachers around the world , could ChatGPT supplement teachers, or even replace them?

The launch of ChatGPT has demonstrated the potential for the technology to enhance, and in some cases replace, some of the activities and tasks done within jobs by humans . Will teachers – considered a major determinant for student learning, wellbeing , and long-term success – be an exception? Could the chatbot independently complete tasks currently done by teachers? If so, what are the associated risks? How can teachers use ChatGPT to enhance their practice and/or improve the efficiency of certain tasks?

The opportunity: using ChatGPT as a tool

Here are some examples of how policymakers could encourage teachers to use ChatGPT.

• Enhance lessons . A major challenge for teachers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is transforming a dense curriculum into an engaging lesson. Teachers can use ChatGPT to translate learning objectives into engaging lesson plans , get ideas for preparing classes, or draft new assignments or assessments. ChatGPT can help with lesson preparation and proficiency, but not delivery. As such, teachers will need pedagogical proficiency to teach the lesson with high quality.
• Create assessment questions. Teachers could use ChatGPT to improve assessment questions and generate multiple-choice items. They could also use it as an input to encourage higher-order thinking skills by providing prompts for the essay questions and practical tasks . Teachers can use different types of assessment that could help students to develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaborative skills .
• Support with language barriers. Although it would be ideal for countries to ensure teachers instruct in their native language, the reality is that some systems – despite evidence to the contrary – are moving away from teaching in the local language and shifting toward a second language (i.e., English). In these contexts, teachers also do not know English and have difficulty teaching in a language they don’t understand. Here, the chatbot could serve as a tool for improving the teachers’ language proficiency , helping them to instruct more effectively in their native language or in a foreign language. For example, Duolingo and GPT claim to offer affordable and accessible highly personalized language lessons .
• Provide additional support to students. Teachers could use ChatGPT to cultivate student curiosity and create ideas for their homework assignments. AI tools are particularly useful when they identify the source information used in the chats. The risk is that instead of asking for help, the students ask the chat to complete the homework on their behalf. In addition to teaching about integrity, teachers can address this risk by discussing the limitations of these tools (see Privacy Risks , Bias , or Hallucination ). Finally, teachers should direct their attention towards questions that cannot be answered by ChatGPT. Namely, questions that require specific knowledge that is outside of the chatbot’s training data, such as, human emotions or subjective perspectives.
• Grading assessments and papers. ChatGPT can be used to automatically grade multiple-choice/one-answer tests; it can also help teachers with standards-based grading. It could create a robust dataset for teachers to analyze and better differentiate student learning levels. This has potential unintended consequences for low accuracy, poor grading or false positive proctoring (mistakenly red flagging students for cheating). When considering systems for proctoring or grading, it is critical to take measures to secure fairness, accountability, confidentiality, and transparency of their algorithms whenever needed.
• Tutor students. Teachers can use ChatGPT to provide online tutoring services to students. This could give students an adaptive learning assistant "for free” by adjusting to the learning needs of the students, especially in contexts where teachers are responsible for many students and don’t have the bandwidth to tailor their instruction to each student's needs. According to Khan Academy, GPT could guide students as they progress through courses . This is still an early technology, and it's important to gather more evidence and require proactive supervision at scale. Non-supervised tutoring runs the risk of unintentionally harming students, as ChatGPT can not only "make stuff up" but can also lead to disturbing conversations .

The bottom line: 5 takeaways for policymakers

The education sector needs to prepare students for a changing landscape. It is unlikely that banning ChatGPT will be a productive solution as this technology is becoming increasingly prevalent.  Similarly, prohibiting students from using the Internet is impractical, as it is an integral part of our daily lives. The focus for policymakers should be on utilizing ChatGPT in the most effective way possible.

ChatGPT could present an opportunity in LMICs, though policymakers will need to ensure all users have access to critical infrastructure and advanced digital skills. At a minimum, policymakers should adhere to these ground rules if they plan to incorporate ChatGPT in their education system.

• Collect information: Policymakers should first understand if and how teachers and students are currently using ChatGPT before deciding on any policy that would impact its use. Teachers should also be a part of the decision-making process to determine how ChatGPT will be utilized;
• Revisit digital skills: At a minimum, policymakers must ensure all users develop some level of " algorithmic awareness " to understand the challenges of misinformation and other ethical ramifications. For instance, teachers will need explicit training on how to understand and use this technology;
• Raise awareness: Relatedly, as part of these trainings, policymakers should disseminate information to all users on the limitations of this technology , including inherent biases, underrepresented countries, and languages, etc., emphasizing the lack of evidence available as to its usefulness for learning;
• Hold technology providers accountable: This technology is quickly changing, and it will be difficult to regulate. Even so, policymakers should hold the providers of this technology accountable and promptly assess how to prevent the misuse of it . Regulation is key, as ChatGPT currently has unknown implications on the teaching and learning process and could thus be both advantageous and/or detrimental to learning;
• Ensure teachers continue to supervise students: Last, and arguably most importantly, when using ChatGPT, particularly when it involves children, teachers need to be actively engaged in the teaching and learning process to ensure students use the technology responsibly and safely.

Keeping in mind the current and potential future shortages of teachers, it is likely that more than one policymaker will be tempted to replace teachers or tutors with this technology. Like preexisting technology, these chatbots have the potential to be used as a tool to support teachers but policymakers should proceed with caution . To better understand how this technology could be used to improve teaching and, ultimately, student learning, there needs to be an improved evidence base.

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Tackling ChatGPT Head On: A Student Assignment

It is hard to not see a reference to ChatGPT in musings and reflections on higher education today. The A.I. software that can write essays, responding to most prompts with ease, is worrying many faculty who fear students will use this technology to cheat.  Students can, and probably will, use this software.  What they use it for is the question. Faculty can play a big role in what students use ChatGPT for and how students use ChatGPT.

Here at Oregon State University the Office of Academic Affairs has pulled together a group of key members of the faculty who with staff from the Center for Teaching and Learning, Academic Technologies and UIT, and Ecampus, will provide pedagogical guidance in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, two recent posts provide a quick story so far. OSU’s Dr. Inara Scott (College of Business) wrote a blog with some initial recommendations for faculty and compliments a recent Chronicle of Higher Education piece which provides some key sources for further information including webinars.

Hi everyone. I’ve developed a ChatGPT assignment that meets my pedagogical goals, and I thought I’d share my assignment with others if they’d like to use it. As with all my assignments, all the materials are open-access, so feel free to use whatever you’d like!

My goals for the assignment were the following:

1) Require students to become familiar with ChatGPT.

2) Require students to experience that ChatGPT can be erratically accurate.

3) Require students to become familiar with a ChatGPT detector.

4) Require students to commit to informing me if they use ChatGPT for their work in my course.

I required students to become familiar with ChatGPT, my first goal, for both equity (I don’t want some students to be aware of it but not others) and because my course is upper-division and titled “Psychological Effects of the Internet” (although I plan to use a version of this assignment in all my courses, including Basic Stats and Research Methods).

I achieved this first goal by excerpting two recent popular press articles and a collection of recent Tweets about ChatGPT showing both its power and its pitfalls. For the Tweets, I tried to spotlight at least one celebrity (Flavor Flav!).

Also, because my ChatGPT assignment occurs in my course’s first unit, during which students have been learning about previous technological moral panics (some centuries old, e.g., printed novels, recorded music in movie theaters, hand calculators, even ballpoint pens), students in my course were assigned two additional brief articles about moral panics over technology.

Students were then assigned two recent Tweets (well, one Tweet and one Mastodon post) written by educators recommending that the best way to avoid a moral panic about ChatGPT is to teach students how to use it critically (aka: apply critical thinking), which is what I aspired to do.  Therefore, for my second goal, that of requiring students to experience that ChatGPT can be erratically accurate, I constructed six questions about my university (University of Wisconsin-Madison). I had pre-tested these questions to feel confident that ChatGPT’s answers would be somewhat correct but also incorrect.  I required students to use their critical thinking to evaluate the responses ChatGPT provided, and so far, that is working out well. Not every ChatGPT response is 100% inaccurate, and even if some would be 100% accurate, students need to use critical thinking to distinguish the accuracies from the inaccuracies.

For my second goal, that of requiring students to become familiar with a ChatGPT detector, I again did that for equity (I again didn’t want some students to be aware of it but not others). Students were required to copy/paste the text of one of their own previous assignments into the ChatGPT detector and to copy/paste the text of a ChatGPT-generated assignment into the detector.

So far, the ChatGPT detector activity is working well, with the detector typically considering the students’ assignments as “99.9% Real” and the ChatGPT-generated assignment as “99.9% Fake.” However, along the way I learned an interesting quirk about the detector.   What I found was if I copied/pasted into the ChatGPT detector the exact same text from a PDF versus a Word document, the ChatGPT detector treated it differently!  The content was verbatim the same. Literally, every single word was the same. But copying from the PDF caused funky line breaks (as I think we’ve all experienced when copying/pasting from a PDF). And those funky line breaks somehow caused the detector to think the content was “Real” rather than “Fake” (aka: ChatGPT created).

Copying/pasting from a Word doc (or I’d guess a Google doc, Pages file, or anything without hard line breaks) seemed to do the trick; the detector identified the ChatGPT-created text as “Fake.”

I tested this multiple times and even asked someone else to test it. Every time, the funky line breaks caused the detector to claim the text was Real; the normal line breaks caused the detector to accurately claim the text was Fake.

I was stumped by this and consulted a colleague who does a lot of machine learning (like the ChatGPT AI bot is — and who has *almost* been as obsessed about ChatGPT as I have) was equally stumped about this.  I think the bottom line is that the detector isn’t 100% foolproof, and that’s good for instructors to know if they’re planning to use it for grading purposes.

Lastly, I required students to commit to the following statement: “I know that in this course I can use ChatGPT, but I must always apply critical thinking to anything ChatGPT tells me AND I must always make a Gradebook Comment (not a Discussion Board post, but a Gradebook Comment) telling the instructor and TAs whenever I have used ChatGPT and how I have used it.”

The entire assignment is attached in a PDF with links . As I mentioned before, please feel free to use whatever parts you’d like to use.

Over the past two weeks, I have learned a lot about ChatGPT. If anyone would like to engage with me more about this topic, please feel free to email me at [email protected] . Thank you so much!

Thank YOU, Dr. Gernsbacher.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, can you use chatgpt for your college essay.

College Admissions , College Essays

ChatGPT has become a popular topic of conversation since its official launch in November 2022. The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot can be used for all sorts of things, like having conversations, answering questions, and even crafting complete pieces of writing.

If you’re applying for college, you might be wondering about ChatGPT college admissions’ potential.  Should you use a ChatGPT college essay in your application ? 

By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll know much more about ChatGPT, including how students can use it responsibly and if it’s a good idea to use ChatGPT on college essays . We’ll answer all your questions, like:

• What is ChatGPT and why are schools talking about it?
• What are the good and bad aspects of ChatGPT?
• Should you use ChatGPT for college essays and applications?
• Can colleges detect ChatGPT?
• Are there other tools and strategies that students can use, instead?

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

Schools and colleges are worried about how new AI technology affects how students learn. (Don't worry. Robots aren't replacing your teachers...yet.)

What Is ChatGPT and Why Are Schools Talking About It?

ChatGPT (short for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer”) is a chatbot created by OpenAI , an artificial intelligence research company. ChatGPT can be used for various tasks, like having human-like conversations, answering questions, giving recommendations, translating words and phrases—and writing things like essays. 

In order to do this, ChatGPT uses a neural network that’s been trained on thousands of resources to predict relationships between words. When you give ChatGPT a task, it uses that knowledge base to interpret your input or query. It then analyzes its data banks to predict the combinations of words that will best answer your question. 

So while ChatGPT might seem like it’s thinking, it’s actually pulling information from hundreds of thousands of resources , then answering your questions by looking for patterns in that data and predicting which words come next.  

Why Schools Are Concerned About ChatGPT

Unsurprisingly, schools are worried about ChatGPT and its misuse, especially in terms of academic dishonesty and plagiarism . Most schools, including colleges, require students’ work to be 100% their own. That’s because taking someone else’s ideas and passing them off as your own is stealing someone else’s intellectual property and misrepresenting your skills. 

The problem with ChatGPT from schools’ perspective is that it does the writing and research for you, then gives you the final product. In other words, you’re not doing the work it takes to complete an assignment when you’re using ChatGPT , which falls under schools’ plagiarism and dishonesty policies.  

Colleges are also concerned with how ChatGPT will negatively affect students’ critical thinking, research, and writing skills . Essays and other writing assignments are used to measure students’ mastery of the material, and if students submit ChatGPT college essays, teachers will just be giving feedback on an AI’s writing…which doesn’t help the student learn and grow. 

Beyond that, knowing how to write well is an important skill people need to be successful throughout life. Schools believe that if students rely on ChatGPT to write their essays, they’re doing more than just plagiarizing—they’re impacting their ability to succeed in their future careers. 

Many Schools Have Already Banned ChatGPT

Schools have responded surprisingly quickly to AI use, including ChatGPT. Worries about academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and mis/disinformation have led many high schools and colleges to ban the use of ChatGPT . Some schools have begun using AI-detection software for assignment submissions, and some have gone so far as to block students from using ChatGPT on their internet networks. 

It’s likely that schools will begin revising their academic honesty and plagiarism policies to address the use of AI tools like ChatGPT. You’ll want to stay up-to-date with your schools’ policies. 

ChatGPT is pretty amazing...but it's not a great tool for writing college essays. Here's why.

ChatGPT: College Admissions and Entrance Essays

College admissions essays—also called personal statements—ask students to explore important events, experiences, and ideas from their lives. A great entrance essay will explain what makes you you !  

ChatGPT is a machine that doesn’t know and can’t understand your experiences. That means using ChatGPT to write your admissions essays isn’t just unethical. It actually puts you at a disadvantage because ChatGPT can’t adequately showcase what it means to be you. 

Let’s take a look at four ways ChatGPT negatively impacts college admissions essays.

#1: ChatGPT Lacks Insight

We recommend students use u nexpected or slightly unusual topics because they help admissions committees learn more about you and what makes you unique. The chat bot doesn’t know any of that, so nothing ChatGPT writes can’t accurately reflect your experience, passions, or goals for the future. 

Because ChatGPT will make guesses about who you are, it won’t be able to share what makes you unique in a way that resonates with readers. And since that’s what admissions counselors care about, a ChatGPT college essay could negatively impact an otherwise strong application.  

#2: ChatGPT Might Plagiarize 

Writing about experiences that many other people have had isn’t a very strong approach to take for entrance essays . After all, you don’t want to blend in—you want to stand out! 

If you write your essay yourself and include key details about your past experiences and future goals, there’s little risk that you’ll write the same essay as someone else. But if you use ChatGPT—who’s to say someone else won’t, too? Since ChatGPT uses predictive guesses to write essays, there’s a good chance the text it uses in your essay already appeared in someone else’s.  

Additionally, ChatGPT learns from every single interaction it has. So even if your essay isn’t plagiarized, it’s now in the system. That means the next person who uses ChatGPT to write their essay may end up with yours. You’ll still be on the hook for submitting a ChatGPT college essay, and someone else will be in trouble, too.

#3: ChatGPT Doesn’t Understand Emotion 

Keep in mind that ChatGPT can’t experience or imitate emotions, and so its writing samples lack, well, a human touch ! 

A great entrance essay will explore experiences or topics you’re genuinely excited about or proud of . This is your chance to show your chosen schools what you’ve accomplished and how you’ll continue growing and learning, and an essay without emotion would be odd considering that these should be real, lived experiences and passions you have!

#4: ChatGPT Produced Mediocre Results

If you’re still curious what would happen if you submitted a ChatGPT college essay with your application, you’re in luck. Both Business Insider and Forbes asked ChatGPT to write a couple of college entrance essays, and then they sent them to college admissions readers to get their thoughts. 

The readers agreed that the essays would probably pass as being written by real students—assuming admissions committees didn’t use AI detection software—but that they both were about what a “very mediocre, perhaps even a middle school, student would produce.” The admissions professionals agreed that the essays probably wouldn’t perform very well with entrance committees, especially at more selective schools.  

That’s not exactly the reaction you want when an admission committee reads your application materials! So, when it comes to ChatGPT college admissions, it’s best to steer clear and write your admission materials by yourself. 

Can Colleges Detect ChatGPT?

We’ve already explained why it’s not a great idea to use ChatGPT to write your college essays and applications , but you may still be wondering: can colleges detect ChatGPT? 

In short, yes, they can! 

Software Can Detect ChatGPT

As technology improves and increases the risk of academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and mis/disinformation, software that can detect such technology is improving, too. For instance, OpenAI, the same company that built ChatGPT, is working on a text classifier that can tell the difference between AI-written text and human-written text .  

Turnitin, one of the most popular plagiarism detectors used by high schools and universities, also recently developed the AI Innovation Lab —a detection software designed to flag submissions that have used AI tools like ChatGPT. Turnitin says that this tool works with 98% confidence in detecting AI writing. 

Plagiarism and AI companies aren’t the only ones interested in AI-detection software. A 22-year old computer science student at Princeton created an app to detect ChatGPT writing, called Zero GPT. This software works by measuring the complexity of ideas and variety of sentence structures.  

Human Readers Can Detect ChatGPT 

It’s also worth keeping in mind that teachers can spot the use of ChatGPT themselves , even if it isn’t confirmed by a software detector. For example, if you’ve turned in one or two essays to your teacher already, they’re probably familiar with your unique writing style. If you submit a college essay draft essay that uses totally different vocabulary, sentence structures, and figures of speech, your teacher will likely take note.

Additionally , admissions committees and readers may be able to spot ChatGPT writing, too. ChatGPT (and AI writing, in general) uses more simplistic sentence structures with less variation, so that could make it easier to tell if you’ve submitted a ChatGPT college essay. These professionals also read thousands of essays every year, which means they know what a typical essay reads like. You want your college essay to catch their attention…but not because you used AI software! 

If you use ChatGPT responsibly, you can be as happy as these kids.

Pros and Cons of ChatGPT: College Admissions Edition

ChatGPT is a brand new technology, which means we’re still learning about the ways it can benefit us. It’s important to think about the pros and the cons to any new tool …and that includes artificial intelligence!

Let’s look at some of the good—and not-so-good—aspects of ChatGPT below. 

ChatGPT: The Good

It may seem like we’re focused on just the negatives of using ChatGPT in this article, but we’re willing to admit that the chatbot isn’t all bad. In fact, it can be a very useful tool for learning if used responsibly !

Like we already mentioned, students shouldn’t use ChatGPT to write entire essays or assignments. They can use it, though, as a learning tool alongside their own critical thinking and writing skills.

Students can use ChatGPT responsibly to:

• Learn more about a topic . It’s a great place to get started for general knowledge and ideas about most subjects.
• Find reputable and relevant sources on a topic. Students can ask ChatGPT for names and information about leading scholars, relevant websites and databases, and more. 
• Brainstorm ideas for assignments. Students can share the ideas they already have with ChatGPT, and in return, the chatbot can suggest ideas for further exploration and even organization of their points.
• Check work (that they’ve written themselves!) for errors or cla rity. This is similar to how spell- and grammar-checking software is used. ChatGPT may be even better than some competitors for this, because students can actually ask ChatGPT to explain the errors and their solutions—not just to fix them. 

Before you use ChatGPT—even for the tasks mentioned above—you should talk to your teacher or school about their AI and academic dishonesty policies. It’s also a good idea to include an acknowledgement that you used ChatGPT with an explanation of its use. 

This guy made some bad decisions using ChatGPT. Don't be this guy.

ChatGPT: The Bad

The first model of ChatGPT (GPT-3.5) was formally introduced to the public in November 2022, and the newer model (GPT-4) in March 2023. So, it’s still very new and there’s a lot of room for improvement .  

There are many misconceptions about ChatGPT. One of the most extreme is that the AI is all-knowing and can make its own decisions. Another is that ChatGPT is a search engine that, when asked a question, can just surf the web for timely, relevant resources and give you all of that information. Both of these beliefs are incorrect because ChatGPT is limited to the information it’s been given by OpenAI . 

Remember how the ‘PT’ in ChatGPT stands for “Pre-trained”? That means that every time OpenAI gives ChatGPT an update, it’s given more information to work with (and so it has more information to share with you). In other words, it’s “trained” on information so it can give you the most accurate and relevant responses possible—but that information can be limited and biased . Ultimately, humans at OpenAI decide what pieces of information to share with ChatGPT, so it’s only as accurate and reliable as the sources it has access to.

For example, if you were to ask ChatGPT-3.5 what notable headlines made the news last week, it would respond that it doesn’t have access to that information because its most recent update was in September 2021!

You’re probably already familiar with how easy it can be to come across misinformation, misleading and untrue information on the internet. Since ChatGPT can’t tell the difference between what is true and what isn’t, it’s up to the humans at OpenAI to make sure only accurate and true information is given to the chatbot . This leaves room for human error , and users of ChatGPT have to keep that in mind when using and learning from the chatbot.

These are just the most obvious problems with ChatGPT. Some other problems with the chatbot include:

• A lack of common sense. ChatGPT can create seemingly sensical responses to many questions and topics, but it doesn’t have common sense or complete background knowledge.
• A lack of empathy. ChatGPT doesn’t have emotions, so it can’t understand them, either. 
• An inability to make decisions or problem solve . While the chatbot can complete basic tasks like answering questions or giving recommendations, it can’t solve complex tasks. 

While there are some great uses for ChatGPT, it’s certainly not without its flaws.

Our bootcamp can help you put together amazing college essays that help you get into your dream schools—no AI necessary.

What Other Tools and Strategies Can Help Students Besides ChatGPT?

While it’s not a good idea to use ChatGPT for college admissions materials, it’s not the only tool available to help students with college essays and assignments. 

One of the best strategies students can use to write good essays is to make sure they give themselves plenty of time for the assignment. The writing process includes much more than just drafting! Having time to brainstorm ideas, write out a draft, revise it for clarity and completeness, and polish it makes for a much stronger essay. 

Teachers are another great resource students can use, especially for college application essays. Asking a teacher (or two!) for feedback can really help students improve the focus, clarity, and correctness of an essay. It’s also a more interactive way to learn—being able to sit down with a teacher to talk about their feedback can be much more engaging than using other tools. 

Using expert resources during the essay writing process can make a big difference, too. Our article outlines a complete list of strategies for students writing college admission essays. It breaks down what the Common Application essay is, gives tips for choosing the best essay topic, offers strategies for staying focused and being specific, and more.  

You can also get help from people who know the college admissions process best, like former admissions counselors. PrepScholar’s Admissions Bootcamp guides you through the entire application process , and you’ll get insider tips and tricks from real-life admissions counselors that’ll make your applications stand out. Even better, our bootcamp includes step-by-step essay writing guidance , so you can get the help you need to make sure your essay is perfect.  

If you’re hoping for more technological help, Grammarly is another AI tool that can check writing for correctness. It can correct things like misused and misspelled words and grammar mistakes, and it can improve your tone and style. 

It’s also widely available across multiple platforms through a Windows desktop app, an Android and iOS app, and a Google Chrome extension. And since Grammarly just checks your writing without doing any of the work for you, it’s totally safe to use on your college essays. 

The Bottom Line: ChatGPT College Admissions and Essays

ChatGPT will continue to be a popular discussion topic as it continues evolving. You can expect your chosen schools to address ChatGPT and other AI tools in their academic honesty and plagiarism policies in the near future—and maybe even to restrict or ban the use of the chatbot for school admissions and assignments.

As AI continues transforming, so will AI-detection. The goal is to make sure that AI is used responsibly by students so that they’re avoiding plagiarism and building their research, writing, and critical thinking skills. There are some great uses for ChatGPT when used responsibly, but you should always check with your teachers and schools beforehand.

ChatGPT’s “bad” aspects still need improving, and that’s going to take some time.Be aware that the chatbot isn’t even close to perfect, and it needs to be fact-checked just like other sources of information.

Similarly to other school assignments, don’t submit a ChatGPT college essay for college applications, either. College entrance essays should outline unique and interesting personal experiences and ideas, and those can only come from you.  

Just because ChatGPT isn’t a good idea doesn’t mean there aren’t resources to help you put together a great college essay. There are many other tools and strategies you can use instead of ChatGPT , many of which have been around for longer and offer better feedback. 

What’s Next?

Ready to write your college essays the old-fashioned way? Start here with our comprehensive guide to the admissions essays. 

Most students have to submit essays as part of their Common Application . Here's a complete breakdown of the Common App prompts —and how to answer them. 

The most common type of essay answers the "why this college?" prompt. We've got an expert breakdown that shows you how to write a killer response , step by step. 

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• How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples

How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples

Published on June 22, 2023 by Koen Driessen . Revised on November 16, 2023.

Passing off AI-generated text as your own work is widely considered plagiarism. However, when used correctly, AI tools like ChatGPT can legitimately help guide your writing process.

These tools are especially helpful in the preparation and revision stages of your essay writing.

You can use ChatGPT to:

• Write a research question
• Develop an outline
• Find relevant source information
• Summarize or paraphrase text
• Get feedback

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Table of contents

Writing a research question, developing an outline, finding source recommendations, summarizing/paraphrasing text, getting feedback, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.

You can use ChatGPT to brainstorm potential research questions or to narrow down your thesis statement . Begin by inputting a description of the research topic or assigned question. Then include a prompt like “Write 3 possible research questions on this topic.”

You can make the prompt as specific as you like. For example, you can include the writing level (e.g., high school essay, college essay), perspective (e.g., first person) and the type of essay you intend to write (e.g., argumentative , descriptive , expository , or narrative ).

You can also mention any facts or viewpoints you’ve gathered that should be incorporated into the output.

If the output doesn’t suit your topic, you can click “Regenerate response” to have the tool generate a new response. You can do this as many times as you like, and you can try making your prompt more specific if you struggle to get the results you want.

Example: Using ChatGPT to write a research question

• Generate three possible research questions for an argumentative high school essay on the following topic: “The long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
• To what extent has the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated existing social inequalities and what measures can be taken to address these disparities in the long term?
• How has the Covid-19 pandemic transformed education systems, and what are the potential long-term implications for students’ learning outcomes and educational equity?
• What lessons can be learned from the Covid-19 pandemic to enhance global preparedness and response to future public health crises, and how can these lessons be effectively implemented in the long term?
• Based on the second question, develop three further research questions with a specific focus on distance learning.
• What are the long-term effects of widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on students’ academic performance, motivation, and overall educational outcomes?
• How has the shift to distance learning impacted the social and emotional well-being of students, and what strategies can be implemented to address any negative consequences in the long term?
• What are the key factors that contribute to the success of distance learning programs, and how can educational institutions and policymakers ensure equitable access to quality education in the long term, especially for marginalized and underserved student populations?

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Once you’ve decided on a research question, you can use ChatGPT to develop an essay outline . This can help keep you on track by giving you a clear idea of what topics you want to discuss and in what order.

Do this by prompting ChatGPT to create an outline for a specific research question, mentioning any topics or points you want to discuss. You can also mention the writing level and the intended length of your essay so that the tool generates an appropriate outline.

You can then refine this by further prompting ChatGPT or editing the outline manually until it meets your requirements.

Examples: Using ChatGPT to generate an essay outline

• Develop an outline for an argumentative high school essay with the following research question: “What are the long-term effects of widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes?”The essay will be about 4 pages long.
• Background information on the Covid-19 pandemic and the shift to distance learning
• Thesis statement: The widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has had both positive and negative long-term effects on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes.
• Increased flexibility and personalized learning opportunities
• Access to a wider range of resources and educational materials
• Development of self-directed learning skills
• Critiques and limitations of previous studies
• Lack of face-to-face interaction and reduced social engagement
• Increased potential for distractions and lack of structure
• Technological barriers and unequal access to resources
• Examination of studies and data on academic achievement during distance learning
• Analysis of long-term effects on educational attainment and future opportunities
• Discussion of potential implications for college admissions and career readiness
• Strategies for promoting student engagement and motivation in distance learning
• Importance of teacher-student communication and support
• Addressing technological disparities and ensuring equitable access to resources
• Recap of the main points discussed
• Emphasize the need for further research and long-term planning to optimize distance learning experiences
• Restate the thesis and provide a final thought on the potential long-term effects of distance learning on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes

Once you know the scope of your essay, you can find relevant primary and secondary sources to support your argument.

However, we don’t recommend prompting ChatGPT to generate a list of sources as it occasionally makes mistakes (like listing nonexistent sources). Instead, it’s a good idea to use ChatGPT to get suggestions for the types of sources relevant to your essay and track them down using a credible research database or your institution’s library.

When you have found relevant sources, use a specialized tool like the Scribbr Citation Generator to cite them in your essay.

Example: Using ChatGPT to find sources

• What types of sources can I use to write an essay on the following research question?”What are the long-term effects of widespread adoption of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic on students’ academic performance and overall educational outcomes?”
• Academic Journals and Research Articles: Look for scholarly articles and research studies published in peer-reviewed academic journals. These sources often provide in-depth analysis, empirical evidence, and statistical data on the long-term effects of distance learning.
• Educational and Government Reports: Reports published by educational institutions, government agencies, or educational organizations can offer valuable insights into the impact of distance learning on academic performance and educational outcomes. These reports may include surveys, case studies, and data analysis specific to the Covid-19 pandemic and distance learning.
• Official Websites and Publications: Explore the official websites of educational institutions, education ministries, or educational technology companies. They often publish articles, white papers, or research findings related to distance learning and its effects on students’ academic performance.
• Expert Interviews or Opinion Pieces: Seek out interviews or opinion pieces from experts in the field of education, distance learning, or pedagogy. These sources can provide valuable perspectives and insights on the long-term effects of distance learning on students’ educational outcomes.
• Online Databases and Digital Libraries: Utilize online databases and digital libraries such as JSTOR, Google Scholar, or academic databases provided by your educational institution. These platforms offer a wide range of scholarly articles, research papers, and publications that can support your arguments.
• Surveys and Studies Conducted by Educational Institutions: Some schools or universities may have conducted their own surveys or studies to evaluate the impact of distance learning on students. Check if your educational institution has published any research findings or survey results that are relevant to your topic.

During your writing process, you can use ChatGPT as a summarizing tool to condense text to its essential ideas or as a paraphraser to rephrase text in clear, accessible language. Using ChatGPT in these ways can help you to understand complex material, express your own ideas more clearly, and avoid repetition.

Simply input the relevant text and prompt the tool to summarize or paraphrase it. Alternatively, you can use Scribbr’s free text summarizer and Scribbr’s free paraphrasing tool , which are specifically designed for these purposes.

Example: Using ChatGPT to summarize/paraphrase

• Paraphrase the following text using clear language:”Engaging in an extensive examination of the intricate interplay between remote instructional methods and academic achievement necessitates consideration of diverse factors, including the pedagogical efficacy of virtual platforms, the socioemotional ramifications of reduced face-to-face interactions, the equitable accessibility of technological resources, and the potential long-lasting implications for students’ educational trajectories and future opportunities.”
• To thoroughly explore the connection between remote teaching methods and academic success, it is crucial to take into account various factors. These factors include evaluating how well virtual platforms support effective teaching, understanding the impact of limited in-person interactions on students’ emotional well-being, ensuring fair access to technology resources, and recognizing the potential long-term effects on students’ educational paths and future prospects.

Once you’ve written your essay, you can prompt ChatGPT to provide feedback and recommend improvements.

You can indicate how the tool should provide feedback (e.g., “Act like a university professor examining papers”) and include the specific points you want to receive feedback on (e.g., consistency of tone, clarity of argument, appropriateness of evidence).

While this is not an adequate substitute for an experienced academic supervisor, it can help you with quick preliminary feedback.

You can also use ChatGPT to check grammar mistakes. However, ChatGPT sometimes misses errors and on rare occasions may even introduce new grammatical mistakes. We suggest using a tool like Scribbr’s free grammar checker , which is designed specifically for this purpose. Or, for more in-depth feedback, try Scribbr’s proofreading and editing service .

Example: Using ChatGPT for feedback

• Feedback the above text with regard to consistency of tone, clarity of argument, appropriateness of evidence, and coherence of structure.
• Clarity of Argument: The argument could be further clarified by explicitly connecting the discussed factors to their impact on academic performance. For example, explicitly stating how the proficiency of virtual platforms and equitable access to technology affect academic performance would strengthen the clarity of the argument.
• Appropriateness of Evidence: The evidence provided is generally appropriate and relevant. To enhance the strength of the evidence, consider incorporating specific examples, research studies, or statistics that directly support the discussed factors and their impact on academic performance. This would provide stronger evidence for the claims made.
• Coherence of Structure: The structure of the text is coherent, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing different factors, and a conclusion. To improve coherence, consider adding transitional phrases or sentences at the beginning or end of paragraphs to facilitate the smooth flow of ideas between paragraphs. This would enhance the overall structure and make it easier for the reader to follow the argument.

Overall, the text demonstrates a consistent tone, a clear argument, appropriate evidence, and a coherent structure. Clarifying the argument by explicitly connecting the factors to their impact, incorporating stronger evidence, and adding transitional phrases for better coherence would further enhance the text’s effectiveness. Note Passing off AI-generated text as your own work is generally considered plagiarism (or at least academic dishonesty ) and may result in an automatic fail and other negative consequences . An AI detector may be used to detect this offense.

If you want more tips on using AI tools , understanding plagiarism , and citing sources , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations, examples, and formats.

• Citing ChatGPT
• Best grammar checker
• Best paraphrasing tool
• ChatGPT in your studies
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Best plagiarism checker

Citing sources

• Citation styles
• In-text citation
• Citation examples
• Annotated bibliography

Yes, you can use ChatGPT to summarize text . This can help you understand complex information more easily, summarize the central argument of your own paper, or clarify your research question.

You can also use Scribbr’s free text summarizer , which is designed specifically for this purpose.

Yes, you can use ChatGPT to paraphrase text to help you express your ideas more clearly, explore different ways of phrasing your arguments, and avoid repetition.

However, it’s not specifically designed for this purpose. We recommend using a specialized tool like Scribbr’s free paraphrasing tool , which will provide a smoother user experience.

No, it’s not a good idea to do so in general—first, because it’s normally considered plagiarism or academic dishonesty to represent someone else’s work as your own (even if that “someone” is an AI language model). Even if you cite ChatGPT , you’ll still be penalized unless this is specifically allowed by your university . Institutions may use AI detectors to enforce these rules.

Second, ChatGPT can recombine existing texts, but it cannot really generate new knowledge. And it lacks specialist knowledge of academic topics. Therefore, it is not possible to obtain original research results, and the text produced may contain factual errors.

However, you can usually still use ChatGPT for assignments in other ways, as a source of inspiration and feedback.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Driessen, K. (2023, November 16). How to Write an Essay with ChatGPT | Tips & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved March 20, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/ai-tools/chatgpt-essay/

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How ChatGPT (and other AI chatbots) can help you write an essay

ChatGPT  is capable of doing many different things very well, with one of the biggest standout features being its ability to compose all sorts of text within seconds, including songs, poems, bedtime stories, and essays . 

The chatbot's writing abilities are not only fun to experiment with, but can help provide assistance with everyday tasks. Whether you are a student, a working professional, or just getting stuff done, we constantly take time out of our day to compose emails, texts, posts, and more. ChatGPT can help you claim some of that time back by helping you brainstorm and then compose any text you need. 

How to use ChatGPT to write: Code | Excel formulas | Resumes  | Cover letters  

Contrary to popular belief, ChatGPT can do much more than just write an essay for you from scratch (which would be considered plagiarism). A more useful way to use the chatbot is to have it guide your writing process. 

Below, we show you how to use ChatGPT to do both the writing and assisting, as well as some other helpful writing tips. 

How ChatGPT can help you write an essay

If you are looking to use ChatGPT to support or replace your writing, here are five different techniques to explore. 

It is also worth noting before you get started that other AI chatbots can output the same results as ChatGPT or are even better, depending on your needs.

Also: The best AI chatbots of 2024: ChatGPT and alternatives

For example,  Copilot  has access to the internet, and as a result, it can source its answers from recent information and current events. Copilot also includes footnotes linking back to the original source for all of its responses, making the chatbot a more valuable tool if you're writing a paper on a more recent event, or if you want to verify your sources.

Regardless of which AI chatbot you pick, you can use the tips below to get the most out of your prompts and from AI assistance.

1. Use ChatGPT to generate essay ideas

Before you can even get started writing an essay, you need to flesh out the idea. When professors assign essays, they generally give students a prompt that gives them leeway for their own self-expression and analysis. 

As a result, students have the task of finding the angle to approach the essay on their own. If you have written an essay recently, you know that finding the angle is often the trickiest part -- and this is where ChatGPT can help. 

Also: ChatGPT vs. Copilot: Which AI chatbot is better for you?

All you need to do is input the assignment topic, include as much detail as you'd like -- such as what you're thinking about covering -- and let ChatGPT do the rest. For example, based on a paper prompt I had in college, I asked:

Can you help me come up with a topic idea for this assignment, "You will write a research paper or case study on a leadership topic of your choice." I would like it to include Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid, and possibly a historical figure. 

Also: I'm a ChatGPT pro but this quick course taught me new tricks, and you can take it for free

Within seconds, the chatbot produced a response that provided me with the title of the essay, options of historical figures I could focus my article on, and insight on what information I could include in my paper, with specific examples of a case study I could use. 

2. Use the chatbot to create an outline

Once you have a solid topic, it's time to start brainstorming what you actually want to include in the essay. To facilitate the writing process, I always create an outline, including all the different points I want to touch upon in my essay. However, the outline-writing process is usually tedious. 

With ChatGPT, all you have to do is ask it to write the outline for you. 

Also: Thanks to my 5 favorite AI tools, I'm working smarter now

Using the topic that ChatGPT helped me generate in step one, I asked the chatbot to write me an outline by saying: 

Can you create an outline for a paper, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

After a couple of seconds, the chatbot produced a holistic outline divided into seven different sections, with three different points under each section. 

This outline is thorough and can be condensed for a shorter essay or elaborated on for a longer paper. If you don't like something or want to tweak the outline further, you can do so either manually or with more instructions to ChatGPT. 

As mentioned before, since Copilot is connected to the internet, if you use Copilot to produce the outline, it will even include links and sources throughout, further expediting your essay-writing process. 

3. Use ChatGPT to find sources

Now that you know exactly what you want to write, it's time to find reputable sources to get your information. If you don't know where to start, you can just ask ChatGPT. 

Also: How to make ChatGPT provide sources and citations

All you need to do is ask the AI to find sources for your essay topic. For example, I asked the following: 

Can you help me find sources for a paper, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

The chatbot output seven sources, with a bullet point for each that explained what the source was and why it could be useful. 

Also:   How to use ChatGPT to make charts and tables

The one caveat you will want to be aware of when using ChatGPT for sources is that it does not have access to information after 2021, so it will not be able to suggest the freshest sources. If you want up-to-date information, you can always use Copilot. 

Another perk of using Copilot is that it automatically links to sources in its answers. 

4. Use ChatGPT to write an essay

It is worth noting that if you take the text directly from the chatbot and submit it, your work could be considered a form of plagiarism since it is not your original work. As with any information taken from another source, text generated by an AI should be clearly identified and credited in your work.

Also: ChatGPT will now remember its past conversations with you (if you want it to)

In most educational institutions, the penalties for plagiarism are severe, ranging from a failing grade to expulsion from the school. A better use of ChatGPT's writing features would be to use it to create a sample essay to guide your writing. 

If you still want ChatGPT to create an essay from scratch, enter the topic and the desired length, and then watch what it generates. For example, I input the following text: 

Can you write a five-paragraph essay on the topic, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

Within seconds, the chatbot gave the exact output I required: a coherent, five-paragraph essay on the topic. You could then use that text to guide your own writing. 

Also: ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini: Which is the best AI chatbot?

At this point, it's worth remembering how tools like ChatGPT work : they put words together in a form that they think is statistically valid, but they don't know if what they are saying is true or accurate. 

As a result, the output you receive might include invented facts, details, or other oddities. The output might be a useful starting point for your own work, but don't expect it to be entirely accurate, and always double-check the content. 

5. Use ChatGPT to co-edit your essay

Once you've written your own essay, you can use ChatGPT's advanced writing capabilities to edit the piece for you. 

You can simply tell the chatbot what you want it to edit. For example, I asked ChatGPT to edit our five-paragraph essay for structure and grammar, but other options could have included flow, tone, and more. 

Also: AI meets AR as ChatGPT is now available on the Apple Vision Pro

Once you ask the tool to edit your essay, it will prompt you to paste your text into the chatbot. ChatGPT will then output your essay with corrections made. This feature is particularly useful because ChatGPT edits your essay more thoroughly than a basic proofreading tool, as it goes beyond simply checking spelling. 

You can also co-edit with the chatbot, asking it to take a look at a specific paragraph or sentence, and asking it to rewrite or fix the text for clarity. Personally, I find this feature very helpful. 

The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT isn't the only one worth trying

This free tool from anthropic helps you create better prompts for your ai chatbot, figure's humanoid robot can have a full conversation with you. watch for yourself.

How ChatGPT Can Help with Grading

I enjoy teaching, but I don’t enjoy grading. Using rubrics makes grading easier, but it can still be a chore to review each assignment with fresh eyes so that the student you are grading now gets the same attention as the first few. This is where ChatGPT can come in handy. It doesn’t get tired of grading. And if you have a tight rubric (well-designed with little or no loopholes), you can expect consistent results from ChatGPT, but there are a few important things to consider.

Guiding Thoughts for Grading with ChatGPT

Before we get into the details, let’s cover a few main points that should set our framework for using ChatGPT to help us grade.

1. ChatGPT does not know your students. It is unaware of IEPs or extenuating circumstances that would give reason to adapt a standard, expectation, or grade. 2. ChatGPT isn’t perfect. It’s true regardless of the task that you are asking it to help with. Using ChatGPT to help grade is no different. You will need to review what it generates, edit, revise, and tweak. 3. You can’t rely solely on ChatGPT for grading. Can it be a tremendous help? Yes. But you should not take its assessments as final. 4. You are ultimately responsible. You are responsible for the accuracy of the grading and the feedback. You will need to be able to defend grades and feedback you give students.

For the purpose of this article, I’m going to be taking the viewpoint of grading student essays. Feel free to adapt the information to accommodate the assignment you want to grade, but be aware that ChatGPT may not be good at grading some types of assignments! 

Using a Rubric with ChatGPT

First, you’ll want to begin by reviewing your rubric. Most folks, me included, write a rubric from their own point of view. This makes sense, but there is a better way. When you are developing your rubric, write it not for the student. Write it for the parent who believes their child should already be in Harvard, even if they are physically just in 7th grade. The goal of your rubric is to be so airtight and refined that if said parent came up to school wanting to argue a grade, you could give them the rubric and their child’s paper, and they would come up with the exact same grade as you.

If you are new to developing rubrics, consider using an online tool to jumpstart the process, such as Rubistar , iRubric , or Kathy Schrock’s assessments and rubrics based on Common Core standards . After developing your rubric, have another teacher look over it for loopholes, places where the wording could be more precise, or any criteria that may be missing.

And, while it might go without saying, you can ask ChatGPT to help you develop your rubric. Clearly state what you are looking to assess (be as detailed as possible), the number of levels of quality (what each level is called and the points for each level), and anything else you can think of. Ask if there are any criteria you did not include that ChatGPT might recommend. When done, ask ChatGPT to create a rubric using the above information and put the rubric in a table format.

Here is a ChatGPT-generated rubric (that has not yet been edited or adapted) based on the prompt I submitted.

PROMPT: Create a rubric for a 5-paragraph opinion essay based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for grade 10. The rubric should include 3 categories: 1. organization, 2. development of ideas, and 3. use of language/conventions. Each category is worth a maximum of 4 points for Exemplary, 3 points for Meeting, 2 points for Approaching, and 1 point for Beginning.

Using ChatGPT to Help with Grading

Here is the prompt I used when having ChatGPT assist with grading some college essays:

ChatGPT will respond with something like: “Yes, I understand. As an expert educator, I will evaluate the student’s work based on the rubric you provide and provide specific, constructive, and meaningful feedback in a first-person, supportive voice. If the student does not earn full credit based on the rubric, I will provide a brief paragraph on specific steps to improve their work and earn full credit.”

Once ChatGPT says it’s ready, I copy/paste the rubric to ChatGPT. The rubric I was using had detailed criteria with four levels of quality (Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor), with each quality assigned a certain number of points. 

ChatGPT will respond with something like: “Thank you for providing the rubric. I understand how to evaluate the student’s work based on the quality of the post, and I will provide specific feedback to the student to help them improve their work and earn full credit if necessary. Please send me the student work to evaluate.”

At this point, I was able to copy/paste student work and receive focused feedback. Much of the feedback was very insightful and had valuable comments. Some statements needed to be toned down because they sounded ‘over the top’ complimentary and not how I talked. I found that none of the feedback could be used solely ‘as is.’ But it definitely sped up the process and identified some things that helped me be more aware of how my students were doing. 

Tips for Using ChatGPT as a Grading Assistant

Be transparent with your students. If you’re using ChatGPT as a grading assistant, share your process and prompts with them. Encourage them to do the same and ask for feedback prior to turning in work. They need to learn how ChatGPT can assist them in becoming better writers, but I will save that blog article for another day.

Prompts are meant to be tweaked. Keep adjusting your prompts, making them more detailed, to get better results. And incorporate the language you want ChatGPT to use! Have a conversation with ChatGPT to share your expectations but stop every so often and ask if it understands you. Ask ChatGPT if anything is missing in your request that would help it can provide more meaningful feedback.

Give ChatGPT examples of feedback. If you already have feedback that you would like ChatGPT to model, be sure to add that as part of the initial ‘conversation.’ Ideally, give it a few feedback samples so that it can better understand how to meet your expectations and speak to your students.

Consider moving to ChatGPT Plus. If you are using the free/public version of ChatGPT and you have more interaction than it can assist with (you are using more than your allotted tokens) or it’s giving you issues, think about an upgrade. Since doing so, I’ve not had one instance of waiting for it to respond, cutting me off in mid-sentence, or being sluggish.

You are the teacher of record, not ChatGPT. You are responsible for providing instruction, assessment, and accurate, meaningful, and constructive feedback. The buck stops with you, so that means reviewing what ChatGPT generates and making appropriate adjustments, edits, revisions, etc., to ensure you can stand by your grading and feedback.

Using Your New Superpower

Hopefully, you see ChatGPT as your new superpower. How will you use it to benefit your students, improve your teaching skills, or enhance your current work? Jump in the comments below and let us know. If you have a prompt that works well with grading a particular type of assignment, share that in the comments as well. Who knows, you might develop some superfans!

If you find ChatGPT or other AI tools fascinating and want to learn more, join us at TCEA’s virtual AI for Educators Conference on July 27 from 8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. Central. All sessions will be recorded and available for attendees through August, so you can enjoy every session at your convenience!

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Dr. Bruce Ellis

Bruce specializes in leadership development and working with districts to tailor onsite professional development workshops. Bruce earned his Ed.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and Supervision in Secondary and Higher Education and his M.S. in Learning Technology/Information Systems at Texas A&M University-Commerce. He earned his B.S. in Elementary Education at Dallas Baptist University.

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I wish GPT had a better name to allow us to generate better workshop/blog titles when discussing Bard and ChatGPT. That doesn’t have pizzaz! (I did ask Chat what I could call it as a nickname, and it replied, “Alternatively, you could come up with a nickname that you like based on my capabilities, such as “Brainy” or “Genie.” Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what you’d like to call me!” I told it I would call it Harold. 🙂 “The Ultimate Battle Royale 214–Bard vs. Harold: The AI Cage Match of the Century!”

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Using ChatGPT for your Assignments

Published by Owen Ingram at April 14th, 2023 , Revised On August 25, 2023

Completing assignments can be daunting for many students, especially if they are short on time or struggling with a particular subject. Fortunately, technological advancements have made it easier for students to access helpful resources to assist them in their studies. One such resource is ChatGPT, a powerful language model that can create texts on any topic. Let us explore the different ways you can use ChatGPT for your assignments.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a comprehensive language model that uses advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to generate human-like text. The basis of the model is on the GPT 3.5 architecture and is trained on a large text dataset from various sources. This includes books, articles and online content, making it a valuable tool for creating high-quality text on any topic.

How to Use ChatGPT for your Assignments?

A few ways in which you can effectively use ChatGPT for your assignments are listed below. 

Generate Assignment Titles or Research Questions

ChatGPT can help you develop various research questions which are clear and concise and can help you in designing impeccable research. Just put in an idea, and you will be able to generate better research questions. You can ask as many questions as you want. 

Generate four possible research questions on “The impact of using ChatGPT on assignment quality”. 

• Does using ChatGPT improve the quality of student assignments compared to traditional writing methods?
• What is the correlation between the use of ChatGPT and assignment quality among students?
• How do students perceive the use of ChatGPT in improving the quality of their assignments?
• What factors contribute to the effectiveness of ChatGPT in enhancing the quality of student assignments, and how can these factors be optimised?

Create An Essay Outline

This is one of the most amazing features to help students academically. You can now create an entire essay outline using ChatGPT to design your assignment. You can also use it to create a research paper outline or a dissertation outline. 

Generate a dissertation outline on “How do students perceive the use of ChatGPT in improving the quality of their assignments?”

• Introduction
• Background and Context of the Study
• Problem statement
• Research questions
• Significance of the study
• Scope and limitations
• Literature Review
• Overview of artificial intelligence and natural language processing
• Previous studies on the use of chatbots in education
• Theoretical framework
• Conceptual framework

III. Methodology

• Research design
• Participants and sampling techniques
• Data collection methods
• Data analysis procedures
• Description of the participants
• Presentation of the data collected
• Analysis of the data
• Discussion of the findings
• Interpretation of the results
• Comparison with previous studies
• Implications of the findings
• Limitations of the study
• Suggestions for future research
• Summary of the Study
• Contributions of the study
• Final remarks

VII. References

• List of sources cited in the study

VIII. Appendices

• Supporting materials such as consent forms, surveys, transcripts, and other documents

On the hunt of grade A? Then let’s help you get it!

• Expert Writers for Every Subject
• Affordable Rates and Packages
• A Plagiarism Checker

Generate Relevant Quotes 

Quotes and facts can have an optimistic impact on your assignments. Instead of searching for relevant quotes, you can just ask ChatGpt to generate them for you and add them to your essay. If you want, you can also specify the number of quotes you want.

Provide quotes for my essay on “The impact of social media on mental health.”

• “Social media is a powerful tool, but it can also be a double-edged sword. While it has the power to connect people and facilitate communication, it can also have negative impacts on mental health.” – Dr Jessamy Hibberd, Clinical Psychologist .
• “Social media has the ability to make us feel more connected and less lonely, but it can also leave us feeling isolated and anxious.” – Amy Morin, Psychotherapist .
• “Social media is an incredible platform for socialising and sharing experiences, but it can also be a breeding ground for comparison and unrealistic expectations.” – Dr Jessamy Hibberd, Clinical Psychologist .
• “Social media has given us the ability to present our lives as perfectly curated highlight reels, which can be detrimental to our mental health when we compare ourselves to others.” – Amy Morin, Psychotherapist .
• “Social media is a place where people seek validation and approval, which can lead to a vicious cycle of comparing ourselves to others and feeling inadequate.” – Dr Jessamy Hibberd, Clinical Psychologist .
• “The constant scrolling and bombardment of information on social media can be overwhelming and lead to feelings of anxiety and stress.” – Dr Jessamy Hibberd, Clinical Psychologist .
• “Social media is a breeding ground for cyberbullying, which can have a serious impact on mental health.” – Amy Morin, Psychotherapist .
• “Social media can also be a source of misinformation, which can contribute to anxiety and confusion about certain issues.” – Dr Jessamy Hibberd, Clinical Psychologist .
• “While social media has its benefits, it is still important to recognise the potential negative impact it can have on mental health and take steps to mitigate those effects.” – Amy Morin, Psychotherapist .

“It’s important to remember that what we see on social media is often a distorted and filtered version of reality and that comparison is the thief of joy.” – Dr Jessamy Hibberd, Clinical Psychologist .

Proofreading

After you have completed your assignment, you can use ChatGPT for proofreading. By copying and pasting your text into ChatGPT, you can receive suggestions for corrections and improvements to your writing. This can be particularly helpful for identifying spelling and grammar errors that you may have missed.

Writing Assistance

In case you are struggling to find the right words to express your ideas, ChatGPT can help. By providing a prompt or topic, ChatGPT can produce a response that you can use as a starting point for your writing. This can be particularly helpful when you are stuck on a particular section of your assignment and need some inspiration to get started.

Can I Use ChatGPT for Assignments?

As an AI language model, ChatGPT is designed to help users create human-like text based on input. While it can provide information and help with assignments on a variety of topics, ultimately, users must ensure that any work or assignments they create with my help meet the requirements and standards set by their teachers, professors or institutions.

It is important to note that plagiarism is unethical and can have serious consequences. Therefore, if you use answers from ChatGPT to help with an assignment, it is necessary to properly cite all sources used and use my answers as a starting point for your own original work.

Tips for Using Chatgpt Effectively

• Be clear and specific in your questions or prompts.
• Use correct grammar and spelling to achieve accurate results.
• Be patient and wait for ChatGPT to generate a response.
• If you don’t understand a response, try rephrasing your question or asking for clarification.
• Provide context for your questions to help ChatGPT understand the topic better.
• Use the provided options and suggestions to refine your prompts.
• Use ChatGPT to generate ideas, but always fact-check and verify the information.
• Experiment with different prompts and questions to get the most out of ChatGPT.
• ChatGPT is a machine and may not always provide the desired answer or response.
• Keep in mind that ChatGPT’s responses may be biased.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does chatgpt get its data.

ChatGPT gets its data through a two-step process: pre-training and fine-tuning. Pre-training involves exposure to a wide range of internet text, while fine-tuning narrows it down using human-reviewed prompts. The model doesn’t know specifics about which documents were in its training set.

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We live in the age of artificial intelligence, where we find many AI writing tools at our fingertips, enabling us to improve and streamline our content production. One of the most notable advancements is ChatGPT by OpenAI.

ChatGPT is a version of the OpenAI GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) model designed specifically for conversational tasks.

Language learning plays a pivotal role in personal and professional development. Mastering a new language opens doors to diverse cultures, fosters effective communication, and boosts confidence.

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ChatGPT is an effective tool for planning field work, school trips and even holidays, say scientists

by University of Plymouth

Researchers exploring ways to utilize ChatGPT for work, say it could save organizations and individuals a lot of time and money when it comes to planning trips.

A new study, published in Innovations in Education and Teaching International , has tested whether ChatGPT can be used to design University field studies. It found that the free-to-use AI model is an effective tool for not only planning educational trips around the world, but also could be used by other industries.

The research, led by scientists from the University of Portsmouth and University of Plymouth, specifically focused on marine biology courses. It involved the creation of a brand new field course using ChatGPT, and the integration of the AI-planned activities into an existing university module.

The team developed a comprehensive guide for using the chatbot, and successfully organized a single-day trip in the UK using the AI's suggestion of a beach clean-up activity to raise awareness about marine pollution and its impact on marine ecosystems.

They say the established workflow could also be easily adapted to support other projects and professions outside of education, including environmental impact studies, travel itineraries, and business trips.

Dr. Mark Tupper, from the University of Portsmouth's School of Biological Sciences, said, "It's well known that universities and schools across the UK are stretched thin when it comes to resources. We set out to find a way to utilize ChatGPT for planning field work , because of the considerable amount of effort that goes into organizing these trips.

"There's a lot to consider, including safety procedures, risks, and design logistics. This process can take several days, but we found ChatGPT effectively does most of the leg work in just a few hours. The simple framework we've created can be used across the whole education sector, not just by universities. With many facing budget constraints and staffing limitations, this could save a lot of time and money."

Chatbots like ChatGPT are powered by large amounts of data and computing techniques to make predictions to string words together in a meaningful way. They not only tap into a vast amount of vocabulary and information, but also understand words in context.

Since OpenAI launched the 3.0 model in November 2022, millions of users have used the technology to improve their personal lives and boost productivity. Some workers have used it to write papers, make music, develop code, and create lesson plans.

"If you're a school teacher and want to plan a class with 40 kids, our ChatGPT roadmap will be a game changer," said Dr. Reuben Shipway, Lecturer in Marine Biology at the University of Plymouth.

"All a person needs to do is input some basic data, and the AI model will be able to design a course or trip based on their needs and requirements. It can competently handle various tasks, from setting learning objectives to outlining assessment criteria. For businesses, ChatGPT is like having a personal planning assistant at your fingertips. Imagine trips with itineraries that unfold effortlessly, or fieldwork logistics handled with the ease of conversation."

The paper says while the AI model is adaptable and user-friendly, there are limitations when it comes to field course planning, including risk assessments.

Dr. Ian Hendy, from the University of Portsmouth, explained, "We asked ChatGPT to identify the potential hazards of this course and assess the overall risk of this activity from low to high, and the results were mixed. In some instances, ChatGPT was able to identify hazards specific to the activity—like the increased risk of slipping on seaweed-covered rocks exposed at low tide—but in other instances, ChatGPT exaggerated threats.

"For example, we find the risk of students suffering from physical strain and fatigue from carrying bags of collected litter to be low. That's why there still needs to be a human element in the planning stages, to iron out any issues. It's also important that the individual sifting through the results understands the nuances of successful field courses so they can recognize these discrepancies."

The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for best practices in using ChatGPT for field course design, underscoring the need for thoughtful human input, logical prompt sequencing, critical evaluation, and adaptive management to refine course designs.

Top tips to help potential users get the most out of ChatGPT:

• Get the ball rolling with ChatGPT: Ask what details it thrives on for crafting the perfect assignment plan. By understanding the key information it needs, you'll be well-equipped to structure your prompts effectively and ensure ChatGPT provides tailored and insightful assistance;
• Time management made easy: Share your preferred schedule, and let ChatGPT handle the logistics. Whether you're a back-to-back meetings person or prefer a more relaxed pace, ChatGPT creates an itinerary that suits your working style;
• Flexible contingency plans: Anticipate the unexpected. ChatGPT can help you create contingency plans in case of unforeseen events, ensuring that the trip remains adaptable to changing circumstances without compromising the educational goals;
• Cultural etiquette guidance: Familiarize yourself with local cultural norms and business etiquette. ChatGPT can provide tips on appropriate greetings, gift-giving customs, and other cultural considerations, ensuring smooth interactions with local business partners;
• Become a proficient prompt engineer: There are many quality, low-cost courses in the field of ChatGPT prompt engineering. These are available from online learning platforms such as Udemy, Coursera, and LinkedIn Learning. Poor input leads to poor ChatGPT output, so improving your prompt engineering will always lead to better results;
• Use your unique experiences to improve ChatGPT output: Remember that AI knowledge cannot replace personal experience, but AI can learn from your experiences and use them to improve its recommendations;
• Remember, planning is a two-way street! Engage in feedback with ChatGPT. Don't hesitate to tweak and refine the itinerary until it feels just right. It's your trip, after all.

Provided by University of Plymouth

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• How to Use ChatGPT - A Beginner's Guide to ChatGPT-3.5

Getting Started with Chat GPT Tutorial

• What is ChatGPT: Everything That You Need to Know
• Getting Started With ChatGPT: A Complete Guide With Examples
• Chat GPT-4 - All You Need To Know in 2024
• GPT 4 vs GPT 3: Top Differences That You Should Know in 2024

Prompt Engineering and ChatGPT

• What is Prompt Engineering - The AI Revolution
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ChatGPT for Developers

• Roadmap of Becoming a Prompt Engineer
• Top 20 ChatGPT Prompts For Software Developers
• 15 ChatGPT Prompts For Web Developers
• 15 Must Try ChatGPT Prompts For Data Scientists
• Top 20 ChatGPT Prompts For Machine Learning
• 10 ChatGPT Prompts For UI/UX Designers
• ChatGPT Prompt to get Datasets for Machine Learning
• 10 Best Ways Developers Can Use ChatGPT-4
• How ChatGPT is Transforming the Software Development Process?

How to Use ChatGPT

• How to Use ChatGPT 4 For Free?
• How to Login into ChatGPT: Step-By-Step Guide
• How to Use ChatGPT API in Python?
• How To Implement ChatGPT In Django
• How to use ChatGPT to Prepare for Technical Interviews?
• How to use Chat-GPT to solve Coding Problems?

How to Use ChatGPT to Complete Your Coding Assignments?

• How to Build a To Do App With ChatGPT?
• How to Create Your Own ChatGPT Plugin?
• How to build a chatbot using ChatGPT?
• How to Use chatgpt on Linux
• How to Use ChatGPT For Making PPT?
• How to Use ChatGPT to Write Excel Formulas
• How to Use ChatGPT to Make Your Resume?
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ChatGPT Tips and Tricks

• 10 Ways to Make Money with ChatGPT
• 10 Best Ways Youtubers Can Use ChatGPT
• 10 Best ChatGPT Plugins You Should Use
• 10 Best ChatGPT Alternatives in 2024 (Free and Paid)
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• ChatGPT For Business: Tips and Tricks For Success
• Creating ChatGPT Clone in Python
• Generate Images With OpenAI in Python

ChatGPT Competitors

• ChatGPT vs Google BARD - Top Differences That You Should Know
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How to Earn with Chatgpt

• How to Earn Money with ChatGPT (Student Edition)
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ChatGPT blogs

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In the fast-paced landscape of the digital era, characterized by the sweeping wave of automation and the transformative power of artificial intelligence , individuals from all walks of life, be they students or seasoned professionals, find themselves on a constant quest for ingenious methods to streamline their workflows and amplify their productivity. In the realm of coding assignments, a groundbreaking solution has captured the spotlight: ChatGPT —an exceptional language model crafted with ingenuity by the brilliant minds at OpenAI .

In this article, we will explore how ChatGPT can change the way engineering and even school students do their coding assignments.

Leveraging ChatGPT for Coding Assignments

Just like all the other NLP tasks like content writing and text generation , ChatGPT also has exceptional capabilities to generate code of all kinds. Be it Android development , web development , machine learning , or general logic building codes, ChatGPT can help in all categories of code generation, be it coding html, coding for Python , or coding Java .

ChatGPT can serve as an invaluable tool for tackling coding assignments effectively. By leveraging its capabilities, one can easily complete their coding assignments or check their solutions from it.

Following are some of the ways in which Coding Assignments can be done with ChatGPT:

• ChatGPT can serve as an all-time assistant that can help you in coding assignments from all programming languages and tech stacks.
• It can generate custom code with all the input as per the user or the question in the assignment.
• It is also not necessary to generate the complete coding assignment from ChatGPT, one can generate a specific snippet of the part where there is a doubt.
• Also one can use ChatGPT to learn about a particular problem and then try writing its code on its own.
• A complex problem has multiple components and if any doubts, one can generate a single component and combine it with the rest of the self-written code.
• A lot of times while solving an assignment all we need is a confirmation of our answers and whether the logic code is correct or not.
• ChatGPT can help in checking and debugging code and its logic.
• A lot of times a small error can be easily ignored by the human eye, one can check and solve such issues with ChatGPT too!

Step-by-Step Guide on Using ChatGPT for Coding Assignments

Step 1: search for chatgpt and log in or sign up.

• Open your preferred search engine and search for ChatGPT. Look for the official ChatGPT page on the OpenAI website and click on the provided link.
• On the ChatGPT page, locate and click on the “ Try ChatGPT ” link. This will take you to the main Chat page where you can start working with the model and generate content.
• If you already have an account, log in using your registered email ID. If not, sign up for a new account by following the necessary steps, such as confirming your phone number and signing in through your Gmail ID.

Step 2: Generating Initial Code

• Start with an initial clear prompt.
• The prompt should have instructions on the inputs, required function(if any) as well as the needed output.
• One should check the answer by ChatGPT and then proceed to the next step only if the answer is unsatisfactory. 

Generating the initial code

Step 3: Improving Prompts for Better Results

• If the code generated by the initial prompt is not appropriate or is giving some incorrect answers, a more specific prompt needs to be provided.
• This updated prompt should clearly explain the problem with the code or the corner case for which the code should be optimized.

Improving the Prompts for Better Results

Step 4: Iterating and Refining the Code

• The refining of the code is a continuous process.
• One can keep doing any number of updations in the prompts until the generated code is satisfactory.

Refining the code

Step 5: Testing and Integrating the Generated Code

• The final code that satisfies all situations can finally be copied.
• It is a good thing to test the AI-generated code manually with some test cases as well as review it once overall too.

By meticulously and patiently updating the prompts as explained above one can easily work around the coding assignments and solve them with ChatGPT. The above step-by-step guidelines provide a template for how this can be done in an easy way, but, there can be other ways to do the same at your convenience and as per the requirements of the task as well.

It is also extremely important to review everything generated by ChatGPT as it is an AI model and there could be a chance that it generates seriously wrong code as well at times.

Advantages of using ChatGPT for coding assignments

• Time-saving and efficiency : ChatGPT is fast, responsive at all times , and makes the work easier than ever saving precious time. At times one spends hours debugging the code and still realizes that the errors are intact, in such a situation, ChatGPT can serve as an extremely helpful tool for solving complex code errors in very less time. 
• Learning opportunities and skill development : ChatGPT can be a very helpful resource for anyone learning a new tech stack or programming language. It’s easy to use and can help in coding faster and hence learning new things also becomes quicker and simpler. One doesn’t have to go through millions of youtube videos, and courses to understand a concept, when all they need to do is ask it from ChatGPT.
• Overcoming coding roadblocks : At times even after coding the solution correctly, there are possible solutions with better complexities or alternates with other logic. As students, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of a problem from all directions and hence, ChatGPT can help here.

Limitations and Precautions when Using ChatGPT for Coding Assignments

As is well known, every coin has 2 sides. Although ChatGPT can surely help in solving your coding problems there are some things you should keep in mind before you decide to use it:

• Being an AI model, there is not a 100% guarantee of the accuracy of its responses , hence it is important to always take precautions and not send their responses directly as a solution.
• ChatGPT can give ambiguous responses when its codebase does not contain enough information on the requested topic. In such a situation, you can easily generate the code yourself, instead of wasting more time on ChatGPT prompts refining.
• One should be careful when putting a piece of code in the ChatGPT prompt for debugging, error resolution, or checking. The code could be the company’s proprietary or copyright code. 

Best practices for Utilizing ChatGPT effectively in Coding Assignments

While working with an AI model, there are always a few tips that can come in handy, especially in case you are passing a lot of information to the model via the prompts., Keep in mind the following points:

• Information in the Prompts : Make sure all the information related to the code is provided clearly in the prompt. The prompt still should be balanced and not exactly specific or generic.
• Specific code Instruction: The code snippets provided for debugging, should be organized and the prompt should clearly explain what is the code doing in a larger code base and the expectation from the updated code.
• Verifying Solution: Remember to check the codes properly and even verify them manually with relevant test cases.

ChatGPT is an extremely useful tool that can help in increasing the efficiency of your coding journey significantly. It can not only help in completing specific assignments but also help in learning new stacks and coding new projects. One can easily make sure the coded projects and files are correct and debug them in case of errors too. To summarize it is a useful resource, relevant tool, and helpful partner in anyone’s coding journey.

FAQs on How to Use ChatGPT to Complete Your Coding Assignments

Q1: does chatgpt generate complete solutions for the assignment if needed.

Although, not recommended for an enhanced and effective learning experience, but, if required ChatGPT can easily generate complete solutions for coding assignments if you provide an appropriate prompt to it.

Q2: How reliable are the coding suggestions from ChatGPT?

Although ChatGPT has an extensive code base and can generate accurate solutions for most problems still, it is important to exercise caution and thoroughly evaluate the suggestions provided. Before incorporating any generated code into your assignments, it is recommended to verify and test it to ensure its correctness and suitability for your specific needs.

Q3: Can ChatGPT help with advanced coding concepts?

ChatGPT is proficient in assisting with a wide range of coding concepts, including advanced topics. 

Q4: Is it ethical to use ChatGPT for coding assignments?

Using ChatGPT for coding assignments is generally considered ethical; however, it is essential to uphold academic integrity. When utilizing ChatGPT or any other AI tool for assistance, it is important to cite the help you receive appropriately. 

Q5: How does ChatGPT compare to traditional coding resources?

ChatGPT brings a unique and interactive approach to coding assistance , distinguishing it from traditional coding resources. Unlike static resources such as textbooks or online documentation, ChatGPT engages in dynamic conversations, providing personalized responses tailored to your specific queries and needs. 

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Organization > How ChatGPT can be used for creating detailed project plans and timelines

How ChatGPT can be used for creating detailed project plans and timelines

ChatGPT is an exciting new AI tool. If you’re planning projects or timelines at work or for your personal life, weigh the pros and cons of using ChatGPT to help you.

Are you interested in using an AI project management tool? There are many AI project management tools out there, but ChatGPT stands out since it’s free. Explore the ways that ChatGPT can streamline your projects.

All your ideas in one place

Keep your thoughts, content, and lists handy with OneNote

How can ChatGPT help with project management?

You can use ChatGPT to create project plans and timelines by providing it with information on your assignment. The clearer you are with your project and needs, the better ChatGPT’s suggestions will be.

The benefit of using ChatGPT for project management is that it can provide you with a project plan or timeline in seconds, allowing you to start at finish your assignments even faster. It can help you save valuable time by doing all of the heavy lifting for you. For instance, if you were to ask ChatGPT to provide a timeline for writing a book , it would give you the steps needed to write the book, along with an estimate on how long each step will take. You can then add ChatGPT’s suggestions to your calendar to help keep you on track. You can also use ChatGPT to get suggestions or feedback on a timeline. Since ChatGPT uses machine learning, it can provide in-depth responses. Simply copy and paste your proposed timeline into ChatGPT and ask if it’s realistic. For example, you could ask it, “What is the best way to complete this project?” or “What should I do to optimize my resources to achieve these goals on time?”

ChatGPT can also help with delegating tasks. You can provide ChatGPT with the scope of a project plus the members of your team and their strengths and weaknesses, then ask it who should take on which task.

The downsides of using ChatGPT for project management

Before you use ChatGPT for project planning, it’s important to consider its disadvantages. One thing to be mindful of before using ChatGPT is that its lack of context on a project or industry can lead you astray. ChatGPT might not have all of the important information about your project, like specific details about available resources or constraints that might impact it. Without this crucial information, ChatGPT may provide weak recommendations.

Another disadvantage to ChatGPT is that since it’s a general language model, it might have a lack of expertise in certain areas or industries. For this reason, its recommendations may not be as informed or accurate as they would be if they were coming from someone with specific expertise in your field.

ChatGPT has a limited ability to handle uncertainty. Since project planning often involves dealing with uncertainty and risk, ChatGPT may provide recommendations that don’t fully account for the risks involved with a project. Additionally, since ChatGPT is a machine learning model, it may have biases or errors in its project planning recommendations based on the data it was trained on. ChatGPT also doesn’t have the social or emotional intelligence needed for project planning, which can make it difficult to address issues like team dynamics or communication breakdowns. For this reason, it may be better to use ChatGPT as a tool for general project outlines.

Understanding the pros and cons of using machine learning for project management will help you and your team be better prepared for future assignments. Up next, learn how you can use OneNote to help with project management .

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How can we teach and assess with ChatGPT?

A guide to designing teaching and assessments that encourage students to learn with and about ChatGPT

Soumyadeb Chowdhury

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ChatGPT, like all artificial intelligence (AI), will evolve and become more sophisticated, so we need teachers to promote responsible and cautious use of such AI writers – in other words, to guide students to learn with the tool and better understand its limitations.

ChatGPT provides human-like responses to questions by combing and analysing the data resources used to train it – currently 45 terabytes of data. The timeliness (trained on data until 2021), authenticity and accuracy of the responses is questionable and how and why these responses are generated is not explained. We can therefore see the limitations of the tool in its current form.

The potential negative impact of ChatGPT on higher education and assessment has been highly publicised. The problem is that students can simply copy and paste ChatGPT responses without critically analysing the accuracy, authenticity and source of the information being provided. While software firms are pushing products that they claim can spot AI-generated text (like plagiarism detectors), these products are in their infancy and their accuracy is not fully proven. It is inevitable that students will use ChatGPT and similar tools because, unlike Google searches or Wikipedia, ChatGPT provides exact responses to each question asked, which saves time.

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Rather than debating the negative implications of ChatGPT, teachers should evolve, innovate, and redesign teaching to focus on how students can learn with ChatGPT. Teachers should stoke students’ curiosity and help them move deeper into interpretation, analysis, synthesis, evaluation of authenticity, usefulness and application of the ChatGPT responses.

1. Design activities that require reflection : Students should use ChatGPT so that they understand its capabilities and limitations in different contexts, and can critically analyse the relevance, accuracy and authenticity of its responses. For example, design activities in line with think-pair-share pedagogy, where students get a problem that could have multiple solutions. First, divide the class into two sections – one half uses ChatGPT to create solutions, the other half doesn’t. Next, in pairs or groups made up of students who have and have not used ChatGPT, all students discuss their solutions, reflect on each one, ask ChatGPT the best solution from the ones discussed and finally come up with a single response. This response can be a revised version of an existing solution, a completely new one integrating existing solutions, one that ChatGPT has selected, or the one agreed within the team. Each pair or group should present their final solution, explain the process of arriving at the solution, how they have and haven’t relied on ChatGPT, and what they have learnt from working individually, as a team and with ChatGPT. 

2. Link essay-type assignments to novel case studies: Instead of giving a ready-made familiar case-study from the web, teachers should formulate one that integrates details from several case studies. In doing so they create a novel scenario and increase the difficulty level. The questions that students are required to answer in case study-based assessments should require critical analysis, application and evaluation of taught concepts, construction and support of arguments, and generation, communication and articulation of new ideas. ChatGPT is not fully capable of doing that at the moment.

3. Ask for more in essay assessments: Teachers should impose a few house rules that might make it time-consuming and require more work if students use ChatGPT. We should make students explain what they have learnt and how they have satisfied the learning objectives.

a. Rule 1: Highlight everything in the essay where you have used ChatGPT responses. 

b. Rule 2: Write a reflection for each such instance, explaining how you have analysed the accuracy and authenticity of the information provided by ChatGPT. Say which sources have been consulted to critically analyse the information.

c. Rule 3: Explain briefly how using ChatGPT was either useful or not useful in your assignment.

d. Rule 4: If none of the above applies (ie, you have not used ChatGPT), please explain why you have not used it.

Imposing these rules will help students to better understand how to work with ChatGPT and promote responsible use of AI writers in their work. This will equip students with skills to support their professional development for future job roles, where human and AI tools will co-exist.

4. Discuss openly the importance of human skills in their future careers: Help students understand how ChatGPT and similar AI tools have and will continue to disrupt the graduate job market, human roles, responsibilities and tasks related to the course(s) you are teaching or their programme. Class activities and assessments should encourage students to harness and value their higher-order thinking skills.

ChatGPT and similar AI tools will disrupt organisations, careers and society in ways we cannot yet imagine. Teachers should therefore focus on engaging students to develop their critical-thinking, problem-solving and intuitive skills, and creative and emotional intelligence to construct and analyse knowledge. This will help students to value what, why and how they have learnt rather than the final outcome or solution, and to appreciate their own creativity and contributions to the learning process. 

Soumyadeb Chowdhury is associate professor and head of the TBS Research Center of Excellence, Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility; Samuel Fosso-Wamba is dean of research, both at TBS Education in France.

If you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,  sign up for the THE Campus newsletter .

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Artificial intelligence: How are technology advances being used in Brevard classrooms?

While students aren't allowed to use ai, it can be hard to detect if they've used programs like chatgpt..

In an era characterized by rapid technological advancements, students are increasingly finding themselves at the forefront of innovation, particularly in harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance their learning experiences. As educational paradigms continue to evolve, AI has emerged as a transformative tool, offering students an array of benefits that extend far beyond traditional classroom boundaries. From personalized learning pathways to real-time feedback mechanisms, the integration of AI technologies holds the promise of revolutionizing how students engage with educational content and cultivate essential skills for the future.

Or that's what ChatGPT says, anyway.

The chatbot, developed by OpenAI and launched in late 2022, is just one AI program that students around the world have taken advantage of. With a simple prompt, the bot will write paragraphs of text. But it's not always accurate, it can be overly flowery and pedantic to the point of tedium, and generally, it doesn't count as original work.

At this point, Brevard Public Schools doesn't have any policies related to the use of AI. But that doesn't mean students are allowed to use it — ChatGPT is blocked from students on district networks, and teachers are allowed to use AI only in some instances. It's a topic the district plans to address in the 2024-2025 student code of conduct and is continuously monitoring as AI continues to evolve.

While ChatGPT's popularity has thrust AI into the spotlight, artificial intelligence isn't new -- and for some students, it can make a huge impact in their learning.

Bethany Kulig's daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2010. Her son received the same diagnosis soon after.

Kulig, who has a background in communication disorders and runs a tutoring company for children with language-related disabilities in Brevard, said AI programs have provided immense support for the kids she tutors.

Various programs can read text out loud, highlight text or manipulate it in other ways to make it easier to read, answer questions and more.

"This allows them to have access to text that they might not be able to decode yet, but (is) at their interest level," she said.

How prevalent is AI in Brevard classrooms?

Among a list of states, Florida ranked at No. 4 for how likely students are to use ChatGPT to cheat, according to a study from EssayPro. The study analyzed Google search volume over the past year related to AI tools for writing essays and ranked states according to the number of searches each month per one million residents. Florida had an average of 241.7 searches every month per one million people.

At Brevard Public Schools, the “intermittent access” to AI is allowed by staff, according to Robert Klassen, a technology integrator at BPS. They can use programs like Microsoft CoPilot assistant, which is powered by ChatGPT.

“Teachers and staff are allowed to use it but should not be entering any personally identifiable information for students or employees,” he said.

BPS currently does not have any policies related to the use of AI. However, they're set to adopt an updated student code of conduct for the 2024-2025 school year that includes the use of AI in the definition of plagiarism.

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How are Brevard students using AI?

According to a 2023 survey of 1,023 high school students conducted by the Center for Democracy and Technology, about 58% of students have used generative AI. 72% of students “with an IEP or 504 plan have used generative AI,” according to the survey.

Teachers perceived a higher rate of the use of AI, according to the survey, with 90% of 1,005 middle and high school teachers surveyed reporting that they believed students had used generative AI for school.

While ChatGPT is blocked for student use, its ever-evolving nature makes it difficult to stay on top of, said Russell Bruhn, spokesperson for BPS.

“One of the aspects that makes this technology different from others is that it is designed to continuously learn and change,” he said. “This capability makes it difficult to ensure the protection and safety of the material presented to our students.”

How AI can help disabled students

While AI is typically viewed as a way for students to cheat, it could also be used to tutor or provide therapy to students with dyslexia, a learning disability that impacts approximately one in five Americans, according to Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

When Kulig's daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2010, most AI programs didn't exist, she said.

"There was nothing," she said. "It took me forever to search and find even what reading program helps these kids, and technology just wasn't as advanced then."

But in the years since, AI has developed in a way that can help students with dyslexia and dysgraphia, a learning disability that impacts writing. These programs range from Amazon Alexa, which can read books aloud, to Google Read&Write, which can have a conversation with a user who may be struggling with what they are learning.

Using AI can help "level the playing field" for kids, she said.

"You've got a teacher who has 30 kids in the class, they can't spend all their time on remediation, especially if you've got 8th graders reading on the second grade level," Kulig said. "Let's give them access to speech-to-text or text-to-speech or all of these other things. Let them look up stuff, ask questions."

With a background in linguistics, Coral Hoh founded EduNational LLC in 2007, a company that served children with language difficulties and disorders. The company evolved into an AI firm with the launch of Dysolve in 2017, a program for dyslexia. The program identifies the source of students' difficulties and corrects them so a tutor isn't needed, Hoh said. It's a technique Hoh refers to as "AI-as-therapist."

"AI-as-tutor is compensatory, to help students cope with the difficulty," Hoh said, referring to programs that provide additional support to help students complete schoolwork. "AI-as-therapist is corrective, to get students out of that difficulty."

Kulig pointed out that AI can also address disabilities outside of dyslexia and dysgraphia, saying there's assistive technology that removed distracting items from pages, as well as AI that can provide image descriptions for people who are blind.

AI as a tool for Brevard teachers

One benefit of AI is that it can be helpful for teachers.

“The positive possibilities that AI presents for teachers in the classroom is vast,” Bruhn said. “Simple document creation to complex sample questions for students are some of the many possible uses of AI in the classroom.”

Klassen said AI can help teachers in many ways, from brainstorming new ideas to summarizing work. 

“In our professional development sessions, we give examples of using it to help plan lessons, generate problem sets and create sample responses at different levels on a rubric,” he said.

“You can feed it an article and have it summarize the main points, or reduce the text complexity to make it more appropriate for the reading level of your students. It's also really fun to ask it to take on the persona of historical or literary figures and ‘interview’ them.”

He’s tried other scenarios, like creating “breakout room” style lessons. The technology isn’t perfect, but it provides a great jumping off point, he said. And it’s getting harder to avoid using.

“More and more web apps are also adding their own flavor of AI tools as well. I like to think of AI as an always-available collaborator," he said.

"You won’t always agree with it or use everything it suggests, but it can give you some great ideas and help you build on your own thoughts faster than you could by yourself.”

An imperfect system

Despite the ever-evolving things AI can do, it still has its limits. Klassen said the "No. 1 requested tool" from teachers is an AI detector to help prevent students from cheating. But those systems aren't perfect.

“There isn’t a viable option available," he said. "Most of the ones that claim to do this well still have issues."

At a March 5 board work session, changes to the student code of conduct were presented, including the added language related to plagiarism and AI. Chris Reed, director of student services, brought up the difficulties of trying to enforce a rule related to AI.

"We just really struggle with 'How are we going to know that that happened?'" he said. "We're just not sure how to enforce that, unless someone's bragging and posts that."

Board member Katye Campbell argued that having the language in the code of conduct was still important as the district works to navigates the evolving technology.

"To have the tool in the toolbox for as things move along, because the detection software is also growing … we already have it in place," she said.

Klassen said he hopes one day there's a way to allow students to use AI while keeping teachers in the know.

"My dream would be to have a product that enables us to unblock the sites for students, but alert and keep a history for teachers of how students are using them," he said.

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at   321-290-4744  or   [email protected] . X:  @_ finchwalker .

ChatGPT is an effective tool for planning field work, school trips and even holidays

Researchers exploring ways to utilise ChatGPT for work, say it could save organisations and individuals a lot of time and money when it comes to planning trips.

A new study, published in Innovations in Education and Teaching International (IETI), has tested whether ChatGPT can be used to design University field studies. It found that the free-to-use AI model is an effective tool for not only planning educational trips around the world, but also could be used by other industries.

The research, led by scientists from the University of Portsmouth and University of Plymouth, specifically focused on marine biology courses. It involved the creation of a brand new field course using ChatGPT, and the integration of the AI-planned activities into an existing university module.

The team developed a comprehensive guide for using the chatbot, and successfully organised a single-day trip in the UK using the AI's suggestion of a beach clean-up activity to raise awareness about marine pollution and its impact on marine ecosystems.

They say the established workflow could also be easily adapted to support other projects and professions outside of education, including environmental impact studies, travel itineraries, and business trips.

Dr Mark Tupper, from the University of Portsmouth's School of Biological Sciences, said: "It's well known that universities and schools across the UK are stretched thin when it comes to resources. We set out to find a way to utilise ChatGPT for planning field work, because of the considerable amount of effort that goes into organising these trips. There's a lot to consider, including safety procedures, risks, and design logistics. This process can take several days, but we found ChatGPT effectively does most of the leg work in just a few hours. The simple framework we've created can be used across the whole education sector, not just by universities. With many facing budget constraints and staffing limitations, this could save a lot of time and money."

Chatbots like ChatGPT are powered by large amounts of data and computing techniques to make predictions to string words together in a meaningful way. They not only tap into a vast amount of vocabulary and information, but also understand words in context.

Since OpenAI launched the 3.0 model in November 2022, millions of users have used the technology to improve their personal lives and boost productivity. Some workers have used it to write papers, make music, develop code, and create lesson plans.

"If you're a school teacher and want to plan a class with 40 kids, our ChatGPT roadmap will be a game changer," said Dr Reuben Shipway, Lecturer in Marine Biology at the University of Plymouth. "All a person needs to do is input some basic data, and the AI model will be able to design a course or trip based on their needs and requirements. It can competently handle various tasks, from setting learning objectives to outlining assessment criteria. For businesses, ChatGPT is like having a personal planning assistant at your fingertips. Imagine trips with itineraries that unfold effortlessly, or fieldwork logistics handled with the ease of conversation."

The paper says while the AI model is adaptable and user-friendly, there are limitations when it comes to field course planning, including risk assessments.

Dr Ian Hendy, from the University of Portsmouth, explained: "We asked ChatGPT to identify the potential hazards of this course and assess the overall risk of this activity from low to high, and the results were mixed. In some instances, ChatGPT was able to identify hazards specific to the activity -- like the increased risk of slipping on seaweed-covered rocks exposed at low tide -- but in other instances, ChatGPT exaggerated threats. For example, we find the risk of students suffering from physical strain and fatigue from carrying bags of collected litter to be low. That's why there still needs to be a human element in the planning stages, to iron out any issues. It's also important that the individual sifting through the results understands the nuances of successful field courses so they can recognise these discrepancies."

The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for best practices in using ChatGPT for field course design, underscoring the need for thoughtful human input, logical prompt sequencing, critical evaluation, and adaptive management to refine course designs.

Top tips to help potential users get the most out of ChatGPT:

• Get the ball rolling with ChatGPT: Ask what details it thrives on for crafting the perfect assignment plan. By understanding the key information it needs, you'll be well-equipped to structure your prompts effectively and ensure ChatGPT provides tailored and insightful assistance;
• Time Management Made Easy: Share your preferred schedule, and let ChatGPT handle the logistics. Whether you're a back-to-back meetings person or prefer a more relaxed pace, ChatGPT creates an itinerary that suits your working style;
• Flexible Contingency Plans: Anticipate the unexpected. ChatGPT can help you create contingency plans in case of unforeseen events, ensuring that the trip remains adaptable to changing circumstances without compromising the educational goals;
• Cultural Etiquette Guidance: Familiarise yourself with local cultural norms and business etiquette. ChatGPT can provide tips on appropriate greetings, gift-giving customs, and other cultural considerations, ensuring smooth interactions with local business partners;
• Become a proficient Prompt Engineer: There are many quality, low-cost courses in the field of ChatGPT prompt engineering. These are available from online learning platforms such as Udemy, Coursera, and LinkedIn Learning. Poor input leads to poor ChatGPT output, so improving your prompt engineering will always lead to better results;
• Use your unique experiences to improve ChatGPT output: Remember that AI knowledge cannot replace personal experience, but AI can learn from your experiences and use them to improve its recommendations;
• Remember, planning is a two-way street! Engage in feedback with ChatGPT. Don't hesitate to tweak and refine the itinerary until it feels just right. It's your trip, after all.
• Civil Engineering
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• Environmental Awareness
• Sustainability
• Educational Technology
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Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Plymouth . Original written by Alan Williams. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Mark Tupper, Ian W. Hendy, J. Reuben Shipway. Field courses for dummies: To what extent can ChatGPT design a higher education field course? Innovations in Education and Teaching International , 2024; 1 DOI: 10.1080/14703297.2024.2316716

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Here's How to Get Started With ChatGPT

Want to use ChatGPT but not quite sure where to start? Check out these tips.

Learning to use AI chatbots effectively is more important than ever. 

If 2023 was the year of AI, then it's looking like  2024 will carry on the trend . You may not have tried out one of the many AI chatbots that hit the scene over the last year, but you've probably heard a thing or two about them. How could you not?  OpenAI's ChatGPT gained 100 million users in just two months . It took Instagram and TikTok two and a half years and nine months, respectively, to hit that same mark. 

The field of AI chatbots and other generative AI tools is expansive and growing. A short list includes Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Claude.ai, Perplexity, Dall-E and Midjourney, and collectively they're poised to transform how you work, how you get information and how companies do business. But it all got started with ChatGPT.

Learning to use and navigate using AI chatbots will be increasingly important this year, and if one of your goals is to get more comfortable with AI, you're in the right place. Here's what you need to know about getting started with ChatGPT. 

For more, here's an in-depth look at ChatGPT and how AI is changing the way we answer our health questions . 

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence service that simulates human conversation to attempt to understand your text-based questions and requests and then respond to them. To accomplish this task, the chatbot is pretrained on large data sets (including public webpages) to look for patterns and create understandable and appropriate responses based on your requests or prompts. (The "GPT" part of the name reflects that and is short for "generative pretraining transformer.")

If you really want to dig into what ChatGPT is, we have a handy ChatGPT glossary that can help you make sense of it all.

Before your first ChatGPT prompt…

You can't start asking ChatGPT for help until you make an account with OpenAI. 

Navigate to ChatGPT's login page , and you'll be met with the options to Log In or Sign Up. Tap the Sign Up button and provide your name, email address and a valid phone number to verify your account. Note you'll have to accept a couple of disclaimers from OpenAI before you can start prompting ChatGPT. 

Tweak some ChatGPT settings

After creating your account and accepting OpenAI's disclaimers, you should do a few more things before asking all of your questions. First, I recommend tinkering with a few ChatGPT settings. There aren't too many settings, but the more familiar you are with the options, the better. 

Custom instructions let you give ChatGPT some parameters to work with when answering your prompts -- at least it's supposed to. 

The settings that I suggest adjusting are the Custom instructions , where you can give ChatGPT instructions and parameters for how to answer your prompts. These instructions can include information about you, how long or short responses should be, what your hobbies and interests are, and other specifying information. For instance, I told ChatGPT that I was a big fan of Taylor Swift and Formula 1. But when I would ask what music I should try listening to, or what sports I should try watching, this information did not seem to impact the responses I got. 

Before your first prompt, define your 'why' 

Now that you're set up, you're ready to ask your first question. Before you start typing your prompt, however, stop and think about what you really want out of your query. 

You can ask ChatGPT to do all sorts of things for you, but the more focused you are when you're drafting your prompt, the more focused your answer will be. This practice, commonly referred to as prompt engineering , is important if you want useful answers from ChatGPT. 

Ready, set, prompt

Prompting ChatGPT itself is simple. On ChatGPT's homepage, you will see a bar labeled "Message ChatGPT…" at the bottom of the page. When you have a prompt in mind, simply type it into that bar. 

After you've submitted your prompt, ChatGPT will "think" for a moment, and then return a response to your question. At the bottom of ChatGPT's response, you will see four symbols. A small clipboard, a thumbs up, a thumbs down and a circular arrow. 

The small clipboard allows you to copy ChatGPT's response, the thumbs up and thumbs down allow you to tell ChatGPT if its response is good or bad, and the circular arrow will tell ChatGPT to regenerate its response. Note: Regenerating the response will yield a different response than you got the first time. 

After you prompt…

Even after ChatGPT yields its response, your job isn't quite done. There are still a couple of best practices to consider before putting ChatGPT's response into action. 

Be aware of hallucination : Even if you have crafted a near-perfect prompt, ChatGPT may "hallucinate" in its answer. In the context of AI, hallucination refers to the chatbot returning incorrect and nonfactual information. This is not unique to ChatGPT and can affect other chatbots as well. 

It's wise to double-check any advice you receive, and that's especially true when it's coming from a chatbot such as ChatGPT. 

And that goes for questions around health and self-diagnosis . If you ask ChatGPT if women can use Rogaine (a hair-loss medication with the active ingredient minoxidil), for example, the chatbot may tell you that women can use Rogaine but only the women's formulations. But this isn't necessarily true. A 2017 study found that there is no chemical difference between men's and women's Rogaine . The only difference is the price, which can be 40% more for the women's version. When I was dealing with some hair loss, my dermatologist recommended me to opt for men's Rogaine to save a bit of money. 

Sometimes ChatGPT gets it right. Usually it's close. Once in a while, it's very wrong. Check ChatGPT's answers with a Google search at the very least and, if possible, confirm the answer with professionals. 

The answer is just… bad

I go into this much more in my guide on how to write prompts , but ChatGPT is by no means perfect. It will most likely give you an answer that you're not quite satisfied with. Luckily, it's easy to remedy this issue. 

First, make sure you're asking a detailed question: The more usable information you put in your prompt, the better chance that you get back a usable answer. (You should be willing to go back and refine your prompt if you're not getting the answers you expected.)

Second, ask clarifying follow-up questions. I've found that this produces mixed results. It can sometimes prompt ChatGPT to refine its answer, but it can also just return more garbage. 

Finally, if it feels like you're heading down the wrong path, start a new chat and ask your question again. Note that if you do start over or delete your chat history, your prompts are still on OpenAI's servers.

Does ChatGPT remember what I've asked it?

Your previous prompts will not affect the answers that ChatGPT gives you. I asked ChatGPT to help me brainstorm ideas for a birthday gift for my brother and gave information on his interests in my initial prompt. If I wanted to ask another question about my brother's birthday later, I would need to re-enter the information into ChatGPT. 

This won't be the case for long, though. On Feb. 13, OpenAI announced that it's testing ways for ChatGPT to remember details you've discussed in earlier chats when you create new prompts. OpenAI said it was rolling out the features to a "small portion of ChatGPT free and Plus users this week" and will share plans for a larger rollout soon. If you have access to this new feature and you don't want ChatGPT to remember your history, you can disable it by going to Settings , selecting the Personalization tab and then toggling Memory off. 

For more on AI, here's what to know about ChatGPT's new memory function and whether or not ChatGPT is helpful when it comes to wooing your loved one.

Editors' note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see  this post .

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Many BU Students Study with ChatGPT. A Few Admit Cheating with It

Student research project urges bu and other schools to adopt ai policies.

Despite widespread use by students, BU and many peers don’t have university-wide policies on AI, says Dima Ghalili (CAS’24). Photo via iStock/sorbetto

Rich Barlow

To fete her father, long-serving BU executive Joseph Mercurio (now retired), on his 75th birthday last year, Andrea Mercurio fed his bio into ChatGPT to generate some toasts. A senior lecturer in psychological and brain sciences at the College of Arts & Sciences, she recalls the results.

“One of them said something like, ‘Joe, with his infectious laugh and calm demeanor.’ The entire room is filled with BU people, who have known my dad for years, and they burst out laughing.” ChatGPT, artificial intelligence’s supposed wunderkind, also “talked about his ‘keen culinary talents in the kitchen.’ I mean, he does not cook and make anything. Ever.”

So nobody’s perfect. But ChatGPT “continues to i mprove itself ,” says Mercurio (CAS’00), such that three-quarters of 38 BU students sampled in recently completed research by her student Dima Ghalili (CAS’24) used the tool for schoolwork—and, in a handful of cases, to cheat. 

Ghalili conducted the project under the auspices of BU’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), which sponsors faculty-mentored student inquiry. The sampled students used other AI platforms, from Grammarly to translation software. But ChatGPT was the most popular, with 75 percent of respondents saying they used it for academics, most commonly “to understand articles/passages (35 percent), to check grammar/sentence structure (32 percent), to debug code (29 percent), and to generate ideas for academic work (29 percent),” Ghalili wrote in his UROP report.

Yet he found that BU academic units haven’t finalized AI policies, save for the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences . Among its requirements, CDS says students must “give credit to AI tools whenever used, even if only to generate ideas rather than usable text or illustrations.” (Admissions also has a policy governing applicants’ college essays.) Meanwhile, a University AI task force is expected to report soon on suggested best practices and guardrails for the technology in education and research. 

Moreover, Mercurio, who sits on the CAS academic misconduct committee, says professors’ syllabi typically warn students that classwork must be their own, independent work—neither someone else’s nor AI’s. 

Most students Ghalili surveyed crave guidance as to responsible ChatGPT use, he wrote, adding that educators must “confront the challenges posed by emerging, sophisticated technologies that present new avenues for academic misconduct to occur.” 

Kenneth Lutchen, interim provost and chief academic officer, says once the task force report is submitted, “we will take a thorough look at the findings and recommendations before deciding if a high-level, University-wide policy makes sense. Without getting too far ahead of the work the task force has done, I do suspect we are moving in a coordinated direction on a number of practices—for example, requiring attribution if output is derived from ChatGPT, among other issues. 

“The University community, their feedback, and their ideas have been vital to this process and we look forward to reporting back shortly on what we believe will be sensible pathways for the use of this technology at BU.”

Summarizing his UROP survey of students, Ghalili wrote that “8 percent admitted to generating text via ChatGPT that was incorporated verbatim into academic work without proper source credit.” Meanwhile, “36 percent reported unsanctioned collaboration on an exam or assignment through peer interaction and/or online sources.” 

Among all forms of cheating Ghalili examined, “A small portion of the sample indicated that either they did not see these behaviors as forms of academic misconduct (between 8 and 17 percent, depending on the specified behavior) or were unsure (between 8 and 21 percent).”

Other investigators have corroborated the platform’s popularity. Last year, an anonymous BU student told WBZ , Boston’s CBS affiliate, “I’ve been using ChatGPT for most of my assignments and it works really well.” 

“You’re given all this new technology [as a student], but not necessarily the guidance to go with it,” Ghalili said in an interview. “A new tool can be used for something great, but it can also be misused.” 

A new tool can be used for something great, but it can also be misused. Dima Ghalili

Mercurio knows that misuse from her misconduct committee work. Her last four or five cases “have all been ChatGPT-related,” she notes. Those cases involved professors discovering that “students used ChatGPT to write code for their homework or to write a paper,” she says. One BU professor discovered cheating only because students had to write drafts in a Google document, which shows earlier versions of a piece of writing. The professor saw that the student’s earlier version had been erased and replaced with a copied-and-pasted, completed response, “and it wasn’t consistent with any of the work he had done previously.”

Such detective work by faculty is necessary, Mercurio and Ghalili say, because software for detecting AI use often is unreliable. ChatGPT’s work can give itself away as AI-generated—for example, by writing inappropriately flowery prose, Mercurio says, but that such language might pass muster in writing classes, she says.

“I think we have to rethink [student] assessments,” she adds. “The way in which we grade people or evaluate them is going to have to shift.” She and Ghalili say options include more oral examinations and in-class proctored tests.

ChatGPT’s speed-of-light evolution has amazed others in the academy: the Washington Post reports that a University of Mississippi AI expert starts faculty meetings on the topic by saying, “Remember what I told you last week? Forget it.” 

The UROP research project grew out of Mercurio’s interest in possible bias in academic misconduct and whether international students were more likely to be suspected and found guilty of it. She discussed the topic with Ghalili, a student in one of her classes, who grew up in China. “When ChatGPT gained traction,” she says “we saw it as an opportunity to learn more about the potential ways new technology might be misused in academic work.”

Given the technology’s accelerating development and the UROP project’s small sample size, Mercurio says, she plans a larger study, hoping for up to 400 respondents from BU and other colleges and universities.

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Senior Writer

Rich Barlow is a senior writer at BU Today and  Bostonia  magazine. Perhaps the only native of Trenton, N.J., who will volunteer his birthplace without police interrogation, he graduated from Dartmouth College, spent 20 years as a small-town newspaper reporter, and is a former  Boston Globe  religion columnist, book reviewer, and occasional op-ed contributor. Profile

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There are 2 comments on Many BU Students Study with ChatGPT. A Few Admit Cheating with It

I was thrilled to read about this research. As an instructor currently piloting an AI-intensive version of a first-year writing and research course, I agree that that students want and need more guidance about GAI use and misuse. But as the director of the Writing Program, I was dismayed by the perception that “flowery prose…might pass muster in a writing class.” In the Writing Program, we value writing that suits the writer’s purpose in the context in which they are writing.

Having received an email from a friends at BU stating that I was mentioned in a BU Today article, I thought I was being spammed. After all, it’s been a very long time. But I found the article very interesting, even though the reference to me was somewhat transitory given the context of the article. Last year, when I was preparing a presentation on the high cost of college tuition I queried ChatGPT for some information on the topic. This is a subject which I happen to know a lot about. No mater how I posed questions I found that the vast majority of what came out was mostly wrong or irrelevant. I suspect that the more generalized questions will yield the most unrelated information. But the ChatGPT output about me was half right. While I don’t have an infectious laugh I do laugh. And while it’s alleged that I can’t cook, I’m pretty good at holiday breakfasts. To my BU friends….I miss you! –

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