In early March, The League for Innovation in the Community College co-hosted a webinar with Packback to provide League members with information on the rise of ChatGPT and explore how generative AI impacts student learning and writing. 222 webinar attendees responded to an optional survey which asked them to indicate their excitement or nervousness about the way ChatGPT may impact education.
Explore the results, select responses, and key takeaways from the survey below.
Survey Results
Sample of Somewhat Nervous/Nervous Responses
What are some responses to the rise of ChatGPT in higher ed that you have admired? What are some responses that you think were misguided?
- “I admire those who are using it as a teaching/learning tool with the acknowledgment that it can be a useful tool in the classroom. I think the response that it needs to be banned from the classroom and use of it should be punished without addressing it as a tool is misguided.” – Brooke Archila, Associate Professor of English
- “I like the idea of “authentic assignments”. That sounds like a good way to engage students. The attitude of embracing new tech is admirable. However, I am not reassured that AI will not cause devaluing of the field of composition and the skill and art of writing. Pragmatically, why would students want to bother to learn something that they can just get AI to do for them for free? Why would any company hire a professional writer if text can be AI generated? Ignoring this issue would be misguided.” – Anonymous
- “I am very worried about term paper plagiarism. I already have students who copy/paste from sources. I’m worried about detecting this type of plagiarism. I am also angry. Why spend so much time/energy grading if it’s not them writing. I suppose using ChatGPT may be good for coding/programming students, but I think they need to learn first how to build those codes.” – Anonymous
When it comes to preparing students to live in a future world alongside A.I. (such as ChatGPT), what are some things you hope to see community colleges do?
- “[I hope to see community colleges] understand the difference between assistive AI (like Grammarly) and generative AI (like ChatGPT). Students can’t represent both products as their own work.” – Anonymous
- “Adapt. Use it to grow different skills (fact-checking is interesting), and don’t focus too heavily on ways to defeat it. We will never outrun technology, so we just have to try to keep up. About the time we start to get it, the students who are learning under us will have already mastered it and will be moving on to something new.” – Steve Dowell, Dean for Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness, Neosho County Community College
- “Instill the love of learning, motivate students to do the hard work and practice it takes to learn and succeed, not to take short cuts, and be proud of their own work. Teach students to be proud of their integrity and hard work.” – Anonymous
Sample of Somewhat Excited/Excited Responses
What are some responses to the rise of ChatGPT in higher ed that you have admired? What are some responses that you think were misguided?
- “Finding ways to use it as a tool are things we have discussed with our faculty. The fear of cheating with Chat GPT is misguided and we have demonstrated to faculty some of the errors.” – Laura Lane-Worley, Director at Lee College
- “Viewing the tool as something we “adapt” to instead of react to is a good mindset. Thinking of it as a cheating website was actually my first thought too until I learned more.” – Anonymous
- “I think this technology is not going away, so I admire faculty and other leaders who are embracing it, or actually using it as motivation to create better, more meaningful and authentic assessments. I read an article yesterday where the author suggested eliminating all technology in the classroom as a solution, which I think is extremely misguided – we have to meet students where they are, which is on their phones.” – Anonymous
- “I think the responses that I have admired most are the ones that look to ChatGPT as a tool that could help people who struggle with the formal elements of writing and a tool that can even out some disadvantages. I think the most misguided are responses that assume we can control the student use of AI in any meaningful way.” – Anonymous
- “I love the positive attitude moving forward. The horse is out of the barn, so we better learn how to harness it quickly and make it useful.” – Cynthia Gower
When it comes to preparing students to live in a future world alongside A.I. (such as ChatGPT), what are some things you hope to see community colleges do?
- “I hope educators can create ways to connect critical thinking and creative thinking with the products that come from AI.” – Liza Schellpfeffer, Professor of Speech Communication at Valencia College
- “It seems community colleges ought to be on the forefront of experimentation with AI – seeing as how they are closer to workforce development and shorter programs that produce job-ready grads.” – Anonymous
- “Let’s teach students to question the sources – just like we do in teaching them to determine credibility. They need to determine the credibility of all sources – not just ChatGPT.” – Anonymous
- “I’m hoping that community colleges treat this tool similarly to the idea of using a computer. The move from handwriting and typewriter to computers was huge. The same will happen with AI. We need to help everyone have access and instruction, so no one is left out.” – Cynthia Gower, Adjunct faculty
Key Takeaways
- Very few instructors surveyed believe that ChatGPT should be banned in schools. Instead, instructors would like to see community colleges act as innovators in the higher education space to develop thoughtful practices for utilizing ChatGPT as a tool for classroom learning.
- Instructors are interested in creating engaging “authentic assignments” that are less prone to plagiarism and build students’ fact-checking and research skills.
- Overall, instructors believe that ChatGPT is here to stay, but they want to ensure that their students know how to analyze source credibility and don’t lose the art of writing composition.
On-Demand Webinar: “ChatGPT and AI’s Effect on Community Colleges”
